Julien St-Jean
Litchfield August 15, 2021
The following is one in a series of articles tracking progress in the 19 municipalities of the Pontiac since the 2017 elections.
Over the last four years, the Municipality of Litchfield has tried to develop various leisure and roadwork projects, which can be a hassle without having to navigate a world-wide pandemic.
Throughout all of this, Mayor Colleen Larivière explained that they’ve tried to manage these tasks without increasing tax rates on the municipality’s residents.
Since 2017, Litchfield’s council has worked with the Litchfield Leisure Committee on the town’s municipal park. They’ve built a splash pad, play structure and wheelchair swing, which Mayor Larivière credits as being the first in the Pontiac. Security cameras were also installed at the park.
More recently, the town has received $25,000 from the federal government’s New Horizons for Seniors Program and another $10,000 from the Quebec government’s RénoVillage program to fund the construction of a gazebo in the park. Construction is expected to begin in October.
“The gazebo is meant to be used by everyone, but the idea behind it is that there will be a spot to bring up a group of seniors to go for a picnic,” said Larivière.
Roadwork
Since 2017, the municipality has carried out a few roadwork projects. In 2018, the municipality spent $140,000 to replace a major culvert on Mountain road. Larivière explained that the cost of the road work was covered completely by the Federal Gasoline Tax Transfer Program to Municipalities (TECQ) and from provincial funding.
The Municipality of Litchfield decided to relocate the Laforest exit of Hwy 148 due to safety concerns. This motivated them to build Keon road, which acts as a new highway exit with lower risk of an accident. The relocation cost $583,041, which Larivière said was also completely subsidized.
“It went extremely well. It’s a beautiful road,” said Larivière, referring to the newly-built Keon road. “I think it’s made our network much safer. That place was an accident waiting to happen.”
Larivière added that the municipality has also put work into the bridge on Crawford road.
“We had major issues with it in 2019. When the floods occurred, it washed part of the bridge away,” said Larivière.
Since the bridge was damaged, Larivière explained, they’ve made repairs, which are examined monthly and quarterly by Kim Lesage, the MRC Pontiac’s director of engineering and infrastructure, to make sure it is safe. The municipality, however, hopes to widen the bridge to two lanes.
The municipality recently completed a survey that estimates that just the cost of bridge construction will be $1.4 million. Larivière said that once they know the full cost of the project, they plan to apply for grant funding.
Municipal buildings
In 2019, a $17,000 grant allowed the municipality to purchase a telmatik emergency messaging system, which allows the municipality to message residents about emergencies or updates through text. The funding also allowed the municipality to purchase and install a generator and satellite phones at the municipal offfice.
The municipality used $120,000 from the TECQ to renovate the municipal garage, installing a new ventilation system and insulating the walls. “The ventilation was for the health of our employees, and the insulation, well we need to keep our hydro bills down,” said Larivière.
Relief funding
The municipality received $17,000 in COVID relief funding, which according to Director General Julie Bertrand was used in part for sanitation and cleaning, but mostly to donate to TransporAction Pontiac and to the Maison des Jeunes youth co-op.
“If there were any citizens in Litchfield that needed a drive to go get their vaccination, they would be able to do that at no cost to them,” said Larivière, referring to the donation to TransporAction Pontiac.
Bertrand added that the donation to Maison des Jeunes was to help provide local youth with an outdoors activity that was safe and active for local youth. The donation went towards the youth centre’s skatepark, which was built at the youth centre in Campbell’s Bay.
Larivière noted that during the pandemic, the municipality did not take on any new projects, but instead focused on finishing previous projects.
“I think that in the past four years, this council has accomplished what it set out to,” said Larivière. “There’s always more to do and there’s a few priorities on the top of the list. Whether it’s this council or another one, I hope they will proceed in getting things accomplished.”
