The Pontiac council of mayors gathered for what was their last zoom meeting on Feb. 16, since the easing of COVID restrictions will allow for an in-person meeting next month.

Îsles Lafontaine National Park

One of the items on the agenda was presenting a resolution that was unanimously accepted to appoint members of council: Warden Toller, Mayors Jean-Louis Corriveau, Donald Gagnon, Alain Gagnon and Maurice Beauregard as well as MRC Civil Engineer Kim Lessage and Chantal Lair, Tourism Marketing Officer, to a committee that would oversee the development of the Îsles Lafontaine National Park.

This group of islands (including Lafontaine, Green, French and several smaller islands) is situated between LÎle-du Grand-Calumet and . . .

the Ontario banks of the Ottawa River.

The MRC was awarded a grant by the Minister of Municipal Affairs (Ministere des Affaires Municipal et de l’Habitation-MAMH) in 2019 for their Conservation and enhancement of natural environments within the MRC of Pontiac project to undergo two research projects relating to the creation of a park in the Lafontaine Islands, as follows:

A research study on the historical and cultural importance of the Lafontaine Islands and surrounding area.

Prefeasibility study on the creation of a national park on the site of the Lafontaine Islands.

The newly-formed committee will be doing an analysis of the reports that were prepared concerning the pre feasibility study that was conducted over the past year by a company called TouriScope. Once all of their reports have been reviewed and studied, the council of mayors will be working to create a strategic development plan for this national park, according to Lessage.

“Today I received a letter from the AANTC communications about the park on behalf of Savannah McGregor, she is the Grand Chief of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation Tribal Council. She was just reminding us that this is very important territory to them, and that they would like to be involved, so I suggest that we involve them,” Toller noted.

Cell Service

An e-question asking if cellular service was still non-existent on Allumettes Island brought a few guffaws from the mayors.

“I see a few members laughing. And it’s because we’re getting a lot of these requests. Everybody’s just about had it, especially with COVID, and then adding not being able to communicate,” said Toller.

“But as you remember, last fall, we had a representative from Bell who informed us that they’d be looking after the Isles-aux-Allumettes area, Sheenboro, Chichester, and that the rest was being looked after by Xplornet,” said Toller.

She went on to say that Director General, Bernard Roy, would be contacting the representatives from both of these organizations to ask questions. As soon as they receive an update the warden noted the MRC would be announcing it on their website, on the radio and in local newspapers.

“We will be launching another petition, because we find petitions are effective, and it will be on demanding cell service,” Toller announced, “We do know that our high speed internet is going to be available in 99% of houses and cottages, and that they will receive 50 megabytes by September.”

“And we’ve even been told August in the case of MRC Pontiac, because the premier in charge knows that we’re a vast and rugged territory. And he has made a promise to make sure that MRC Pontiac’s needs are served first. So help is on the way. But we definitely need to do more about cellular service,” the warden added.

The resolution to launch a petition for cellular phone access across the county was later accepted unanimously, and each of the mayors will be responsible for circulating them in their respective municipalities.

COVID update

The warden announced that workers had been brought in by CISSSO from Gatineau in the last month to help deal with the COVID outbreak at the Manoir Sacré-coeur in Mansfield, and that Red Cross workers were also arriving on Feb. 17 to help. “We’ve been very fortunate that no one was hospitalized,” she stated.

“Certainly, we know that the Omicron is highly contagious and that it has been spreading through families, through many different groups of people. But fortunately, compared to the first wave, it has not been hospitalizing people. We are all so tired of the masks, the distancing and all of the restrictions but I just encourage everybody to continue doing their best,” Toller said.

$100,000 in COVID relief funding for Pontiac nonprofit organizations

A $100,000 sum of money has been set aside for the registered nonprofit organizations of Pontiac (with a valid Quebec businesss registration number)who have been unable to do any fundraising in the same capacity that they have been used to in the past two years because of the pandemic.

Applications for these sums of money have to be made through the municipalities where they operate, who will refer them to the MRC. After a proper analysis of the referrals, they will be submitted to council for approval and the money will be allocated.

The maximum amount that can be requested is $10,000 according to MRC Economic Development Officer, Sabrina Ayres, “Because we have such a variety of levels of nonprofit organizations, some will require more, some will require less, but that’s the maximum amount they can ask for.”

“Because of everything they went through in the last two years, we don’t want these organizations to die out, that’s why we’re helping. These organizations do such great work out there, and we want to support them,” Ayres added.

Sports Management Software

A resolution was also accepted to use an online platform called Qidigo where organizations can each have their own registrations platform with a simple link to their website.

This platform will help sports organizations with registration forms, keep track of their players with profiles that parents can create to display any allergy or other medical information or conditions that are important.

It will provide parents with a user-friendly way to register and pay for their child or children’s organized sports activities. It will also automatically enable parents to download receipts sent to them via this platform. Because the information will be saved, it will also eliminate the need to fill out forms year after year, according to Ayres.

For parents with more than one child registering, a payment installment option will also be made available to them. “And it won’t require anyone to keep track of it because it will be taken care of on the software,” said Ayres.

“A lot of our sports activities are run through nonprofit organizations. This software will help them streamline their process at the same time, because they don’t have to sit there for two hours on specific days that hopefully people know that this is the day that they’re waiting for registrations. So it’s really a resource and a tool to help minimize the administration,” Ayres concluded.

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