Énergie Davidson project awaits approval
The Énergie Davidson project was introduced early in 2021 and was in the hands of provincial authorities. At the time MRC Warden Jane Toller provided an update on the conditions surrounding the potential reopening of the Davidson Sawmill. So far an independent consultant was paid by the province to tour the sawmill last year. It also caught the attention of Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks Pierre Dufour and Minister of Economy and Innovation Pierre Fitzgibbon, Toller said, “I was speaking to someone with MEI yesterday just for an update and I was told in the next few weeks, they’ll see the results and they’ll analyze the results and [Pierre Fitzgibbon] will make his decision,” she explained in a Feb. 28 interview. “So basically I think they want to make sure that this will be profitable.” Since then there hasn’t been any new information on Énergie Davidson.
Rail bed use bylaw sparks competing views
In December, the MRC council tabled a draft bylaw regarding the use of the old CN rail bed that runs parallel to the Ottawa River from Bristol to Portage du Fort. Since then, public discussion around . . .
snowmobiles and ATVs using the trail has produced a variety of perspectives. The bylaw — which would allow the MRC to officially designate the railbed for snowmobile and ATV usage in the Municipalities of Bristol, Clarendon, Litchfield and Portage du Fort — is set to be tabled at a special meeting on Feb. 3. Though with that, residents of Bristol raised some concerns around traffic in their community. Sisters Colleen and Cheryle Breton’s house stands within footsteps of the rail bed on chemin de Bristol. Although the sisters understand that PSDA President Alain Goulet has been doing his best to police the area, there are riders that do not abide by the rules. “Before the curfew it was all hours of the night and day, it would start at eight in the morning and we’ve been awaken at [3 a.m.].”
Shawville Giant Tiger shoppers raise over $3,000
On Friday afternoon, staff at the Shawville Giant Tiger gave the food bank Bouffe Pontiac a sizable donation. A cheque for $3,500 was presented to Bouffe’s director general Kim Laroche. It was raised by customers during the week before Christmas. “We gave away Giant Tiger mugs and ornaments as kind of an incentive for customers to give, and they were handing out 20s and 40s every transaction, it was kind of nice,” said store manager Brandyn Gauthier. “Customers donated $3,200 and then we donated the rest to top it off.”Laroche added that Gauthier and the folks at Giant Tiger are great partners and also donate unsold clothing items for Bouffe’s thrift shop, which provides clothing to families in need.
Four-term Pontiac MNA passes away
On Feb 1, Charlotte L’Écuyer former four-term MNA passed away. In a statement by her daughter, Josey Bouchard, L’Écuyer died due to cancer at the age of 77. L’Écuyer was the first woman to be elected Pontiac’s MNA, she won a resounding victory for Jean Charest’s Liberals in 2003, trouncing her closest opponent by more than 14,000 votes. She held her seat for a total of four terms before retiring in 2014. L’Écuyer leaves behind two daughters, a son-in-law and two grandchildren, she was born in Smooth Rock Falls, Ont. Prior to entering provincial politics, she was a founding member of the MRC Pontiac’s development committee in the early 90s. Following her retirement, L’Écuyer did a segment as a commentator for community radio station CHIP 101.9 FM, covering municipal and provincial politics. In 2017, following an extensive tour of the region’s municipalities the previous summer, she ran for warden of MRC Pontiac, placing fourth. Due to public health guidelines, a private ceremony was held with immediate family according to the statement from Bouchard.
Hospital overtime tops $1 million
Overtime hours at the Pontiac Hospital have more than quadrupled since 2014, and topped a million dollars a year in 2020. After several access to information requests, The Equity was able to obtain the data of just how much chronic short-staffing is costing the regional health authority. Back in 2014, prior to the reorganization of the province’s health care administration in the so-called “Barrette reforms”, hospital staff logged 5,718 hours of overtime, amounting to $256,958.07. By 2020, those figures had risen sharply to 23,461 hours, costing a staggering $1,158,019.83. THE EQUITY spoke to a source at the hospital with extensive knowledge of the staffing situation, who asked to stay anonymous as they were not cleared to speak to media by the regional health authority CISSSO. “It’s not because of the COVID, it’s because [we] still have a lot of vacant positions for [registered nurses] on the floor,” they said. “Somebody has to pick up the overtime,” they said. Another aspect of the staff shortages the source highlighted is directly related to qualified people either retiring or leaving the region with no one to replace them. “It’s retirements but it’s mostly people that have left and went elsewhere,” they said. “That’s our big problem now.”
A colourful trip around the world in eight weeks
With all the closures and travel restrictions, one artist decided to take art lovers on an eight week trip to Australia. Artist Dale Taylor offered an online painting course over eight Wednesdays from Feb. 22 until April 14 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Participants will join Taylor via Zoom and paint various scenes and wildlife from the continent. Taylor has been teaching art classes online since the pandemic started last March, but has a teaching history far more expansive “I’ve been teaching workshops at the lakehouse here in Val-des-Monts, I do art retreats and painting retreats … I’m kind of combining that virtually so that we all do the same painting but it’ll be me giving them tips on how to put their own style in it and have a little fun with it.” With the course being online, participants are asked to get their own supplies, but Taylor provided them with a list of what they’ll need before they start. Taylor believed everyone can enjoy this class regardless of painting or art experience.
New restaurateurs open two Pontiac eateries
For residents looking to catch a bit, there’s a new spot to eat in both Luskville and Fort Coulonge. Café Resto Karim opened two different locations in February 2021 in these two communities. Co-owners Julie Dubois and Karim Sghir said they are new to the food service industry, but have received a lot of positive feedback thus far after completing their first full weekend. The locations differ in what they offer Sghir co-owner explains that the Fort Coulonge store is more of a café, serving up pastries, baked goods and plenty of hot coffee. In Luskville they offer traditional diner breakfasts as well as pizza, poutine and donairs for lunch and dinner. Due to health restrictions and opening up during a pandemic they had some setbacks, but he was hopeful things would get back to normal. Sghir pointed out the community’s response was positive, “We didn’t expect that we were going to be busy like this,” he said. “It’s crazy, we ran out of [some items], we didn’t expect that we were going to see a lot of people and they were excited to come here,” he said.
Search continues for Allumettes man after snowmobile pulled from river
A search conducted by the Sûreté du Québec was underway after a snowmobiler was reported missing on Feb. 12. A 30-year old snowmobiler from Isle aux Allumettes was last seen by family members around 8 p.m. Friday night, and was reported missing at 1 a.m. on Feb. 13. A snowmobile was discovered by police and removed from the Ottawa River on Monday morning, and they have enlisted ground units, divers and a helicopter to aid in the search. The SQ sent out a notice Tuesday morning that an article of clothing had been found on the river by a citizen. Divers were being deployed to check the area of St Jacques in Isle aux Allumettes.
Mansfield et Pontefract to house Aboriginal healing garden
A new hub for healing and cultural and community affairs opened to the public on Aboriginal Day in June 2021. The Pontiac Anishinaabe Healing Garden has been in the works since late November 2020 and is a way of honouring residential school survivors, their families and the community. According to Richer Lévesque, co-head of the Pontiac Native Community, this will be the second garden of its kind in Canada, with the only other one in Manitoba. It currently can be found in Mansfield et Pontefract, near chemin de la Chute and Rue Levesque. The group hopes that it will be a focal point for all kinds of activities, meetings and ceremonies. However, the main focus of the garden will be to commemorate those who endured the residential schools. “It’ll be good too for [tourists], they’ll come here and take a look at that, it’ll bring people from all around. It’s going to be good for the Pontiac for sure,” said Lévesque.
Online information session on nuclear waste disposal
The Ottawa Chapter of the Council of Canadians will be hosting an online town hall event to inform the public about the disposal of radioactive waste at Chalk River Laboratories, just across the river from the upper Pontiac. The list of speakers featured Barry Stemshorn, a Pontiac resident who formerly served as the Assistant Deputy Minister at Environment Canada and ecologist Dr. Ole Hendrickson of the Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area.
Debut album recorded in the Bay
Will Cardinal, a cottager in the Pontiac area has been visiting the town every summer since he was a child. He released his very first album, Creator, to Bandcamp in October. It was recorded completely in the Pontiac, which was a big inspiration for his work. “A lot of it actually came from being in the Ottawa Valley in the summer as a whitewater rafting guide and spending summers in the valley contrasted to living in the city in Toronto,” The album is composed of six tracks featuring Cardinal’s vocals and calming guitar accompaniment. While he has been writing his own tunes for the last eight years, this was his first venture into recording and mixing music.
“Like living a nightmare”: deadly equine virus grips Luskville farm
On Feb. 3 a horse farm in Luskville reported a deadly equine virus. Owners of the farm have been working non stop since their five-year-old quarter horse named Eddie, who began acting strangely was infected and later passed away due to the virus. Venturing Hills Farm has been battling this outbreak of equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV1), the neurological strain of a respiratory disease, which co-owner Rae Becke says is very similar to COVID-19. “I was working a night check and went to take one of our horses out to the paddock. And he walked out of the stall as if he was drunk,” Becke recalled. Becke believed the virus was transmitted through a new horse that was brought in from a farm in Toronto, where they are also experiencing an outbreak of the virus. If they had been informed sooner, Becke explained they could have saved their horse. Community members rallied together to support the farm and started a GoFundMe page with the initial goal of $100,000.
Sixteen month sentence for misleading police
After being found guilty of public mischief an Otter Lake man was sentenced to 16 months in jail in relation to a fatal vehicle crash in 2018. On April 10, a 26 year old Gatineau woman was killed in the crash. Christopher Bérubé of Otter Lake was the other occupant of the vehicle and was 27 years-old at the time. At the time, he led officers to believe that he was the passenger and the deceased was driving, but over the course of the investigation officers determined he was actually the driver. He was charged with public mischief on May 8, 2019, and turned himself in to authorities before he was released on $1,000 bail. A statement released by police on Feb. 18 said that Bérubé was sentenced the previous day and noted that since the investigators were unable to determine the cause of the crash, there would be no further charges against him.
4H members deliver 200 gift cards to frontline workers
2021 Frontline workers at the Pontiac Hospital and Pontiac Reception Centre (CAP) will be eating well thanks to the deeds of a small group of 4H members. On Feb. 17, four 4H members and two parents showed up to the Pontiac Hospital at 3 p.m. armed with a bag packed full of 200 envelopes. Inside each was a gift card to either Hursty’s Bar and Grill or Café 349 in Shawville.” They presented the gifts to Trevor Tanguay, the hospital’s technical service manager; Natalie Romain, the nursing manager and Annick Angrignon, the long-term care manager at the hospital. They then proceeded to meet CAP manager Sophie Bonin to hand off the rest of the gifts.
Council of Canadians talk nuclear waste in Ottawa River
Nearly 100 people gathered on Zoom to attend a virtual town hall meeting on Feb. 18 regarding nuclear waste in the Ottawa River. The presentation was hosted by the Council of Canadians’s Ottawa chapter and hosted three invited guest speakers. It featured Larissa Holman, the director of Science and Policy for the Ottawa Riverkeeper, Ole Hendrickson of the Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area and Barry Stemshorn of the Pontiac Environment Protection. The meeting was by registration only, and was open to all questions in either French or English. It was organized due to a motion being brought up to Ottawa Council on Mar. 30, delayed from Feb. 24.
