One year out from the next municipal election, scheduled for Nov. 2, 2025, THE EQUITY checked in with the 20 people who have been voted in to lead the communities from Luskville to Rapides des Joachims.
We published our interviews with these local leaders through November and December of last year, with the goal of offering readers a sense of what their elected officials feel they’ve accomplished since their term began, and what they hope to do with the last year before their seat is once again up for grabs.
To close out this series, we are publishing our interview with Jennifer Quaile, who was acclaimed to the position of mayor of Otter Lake last month (read our story on her acclamation here). As Quaile is new in the position, the questions we asked her are slightly different from those put to mayors who have already spent some time at the helm of their municipalities.
Jennifer Quaile — Otter Lake
Why did you run for councillor in 2021?
I ran because I felt I had the skills that are necessary to be a councillor. There were a lot of things I didn’t know, for instance roads and equipment, but I have learned a lot about roads and equipment since then. I do have a background in public policy and a keen interest in politics. My father was mayor and warden of the county back in the 1970s. So I kind of know what it takes to be a good mayor.
Why did you decide to step up from councillor to mayor?
For similar reasons. I think to be a good mayor you have to have strong leadership skills and good listening skills. Those are key from my perspective. And I believe that I have those skills and that I’m well equipped to lead council and lead this town for the next several months. [ . . . ] I also think that I’ll have a new role, and a very busy one, sitting at the table of mayors, at the MRC, so that’s another huge responsibility that I take quite seriously.
What do you assess to be the most pressing needs for Otter Lake at this moment?
Otter Lake needs to be an attractive place for people to live and work and enjoy. We’ve already got this beautiful area with our lakes and our forests. It’s no surprise that tourism is the main sector of our local economy [ . . . ]. What we need to ensure is that the municipality continues to support businesses in the tourism sector.
[ . . . ] Current members of council together, we [also] strongly believe that we need to encourage people to move here, and make Otter Lake their hometown. So we need to provide the kinds of services people require, and I’m thinking about the social supports, such as childcare, [ . . . ] seniors’ supports, [ . . . ] and also affordable housing. It’s critical.
What are the challenges to meeting these needs?
It’s funding. We wish we had more. Our tax base has grown, [ . . . ] but it’s not enough. Things that I’m talking about in terms of incentives for business to come, there are different ways a municipality can support that and entice business through taxation, supports for what they need, working together with them to make it easier for them to comply with what they require.
In terms of affordable housing, municipalities can implement bylaws that would require new homes that are built in particular areas to be affordable to the area. I would like to see us look into that and explore the possibility of doing that.
Out of all of that you’ve just layed out, what are some concrete goals you hope to accomplish before the next election?
One is to continue with our waste management program. [ . . . ] It’s really important to us that people separate their food waste from their garbage and keep their recyclables separate as well. We really want to see more of that because we pay by the ton to send garbage to landfill and food waste makes up a large portion of that tonnage. [ . . . ]
A second priority for us will be to deal with the invasive species in our lakes. We have five of the lakes where eurasian milfoil has been discovered. We have biologist reports on those lakes and we need to take steps to prevent against spread. Another priority, and this is my view point, is that we should open up our [council] plenaries. I’m a strong believer in openness and transparency, and allowing members of the public to come and voice their concerns.
From your seat at the council of mayors table, what do you believe the mayors and the county should be working together on to improve quality of life for people across the region?
One is definitely the issue of how the MRC’s shares are calculated. Right now the current method that is used is really quite inequitable and not fair. The most recent example is Alleyn and Cawood’s experience. I’ve been arguing consistently since I’ve been sitting at the table as pro-mayor since September that it’s wrong and it needs to be fixed. I think the mayors all need to understand the issue, first of all, and move forward to change it [ . . . ].
I’d like to see open plenaries [at the MRC] as well. I think it’s really important around that table. People are vocal, they’re concerned, they feel like things are done behind closed doors without proper information being shared with the public and they have a right to be heard. [ . . . ] The mayors at that table get issues presented to us for decision, and the MRC staff do their best to give us the background on what this is about. It would be helpful to me, and I think all mayors, to hear if there were other perspectives, or some key thing that we should be thinking of. I don’t think any mayor at the table could claim to know all there is to know about all those issues that we’re presented with. I want to make a well-informed decision.
