Helen Routliffe has long been an active member of her community.
She has been involved in several organizations, from various chapters of the local Women’s Institute to her church, but one place that’s near and dear to her heart is the Chutes Coulonge Park.
“It’s a beautiful spot to come to, the most beautiful spot in the Pontiac, really,” she said, noting the main lookout over the falls on the Coulonge River is one of her favourite locations in the area. Her son even got married at the park back in the early 2000s.
She stepped down from the board at the Chutes this past year, after several decades of volunteer work, even serving as the organization’s director for a time.
“Helen, she’s a community champion in every way. She cares so much about so many issues, not just the Chutes, but obviously that’s been a heart project for her,” said the Chutes current director Cameron Montgomery.
Originally from Stark’s Corners, Routliffe moved to the Fort-Coulonge area after getting married, as her husband worked for the Davidson Mill.
The Chutes park was officially founded in 1985, with modest trails, a reception centre and a footbridge over the falls, funded through several provincial and federal grants.
“Efforts to develop the Chutes were begun back in 1978, when Guy Ladouceur owner of the Pontefract Golf Club noticed its potential as a tourist attraction and began promoting it,” THE EQUITY’s article on the official opening in July 1985 reads.
Routliffe was one of many volunteers who contributed during the early years.
MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller said that Routliffe was one of the first people she became friends with after arriving in the Pontiac in 2012.
“She’s got a real zest for life [ . . . ] She’s just a salt of the earth person, in my opinion,” Toller said.
She added that Routliffe was instrumental in supporting the park over the years, and played a key role in advocating for the public interest when the site was being developed for hydro-electric production in the early ‘90s.
“One thing about Helen Routliffe is, she sees things in black and white, and when something is not right in her mind she stands up and says something [ . . . ] We really owe her all the credit for protecting what is considered our most popular tourist attraction.”
Routliffe and the Fort-Coulonge Women’s Institute were key players more than 30 years ago when Hydro Pontiac, a private energy company that operated in the area, announced plans to install a generating station at the site, using a pipe to bypass the falls.
Routliffe said that they were concerned about the project for a number of reasons, including how it would alter the volume of water that would be allowed to flow over the falls, as well as possible contamination of the drinking water of the town downstream.
According to THE EQUITY’s reporting at the time, Routliffe was one of the representatives from the Women’s Institute who gave a presentation at the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) hearing on the proposed development in March 1992.
“The main thing was tourism, we needed to have water going over here in the summertime,” Routliffe said, emphasizing that they weren’t against the project itself, just the way it had been proposed to be done.
The BAPE report, released in June 1992, recommended that the project contribute more to regional development and recommended that the generating station operate at natural water levels. The hydro development went forward, though with modifications from the original plan.
For a period of around seven years, Routliffe also worked as the director of the park, retiring from the position in August 2003.
“I was up here a lot of the time anyway and they asked me if I would take the job. I said sure,” she recalled. “You don’t get paid very much, but that was fine.”
When she retired as director, then-Warden Mike McCrank highlighted her dedication to the Chutes.
“The whole county owes her a debt of appreciation,” he said, according to reporting at the time. “She was the mother of the project.”
When asked why she had chosen to step away at this point, Routliffe said that the organization is in good hands with its current board and Montgomery as director.
“I think it’s time. I’m 85 years of age, it’s time for somebody else,” she said with a laugh. “I was trying to get away two years ago and they convinced me to stay.”
“She certainly can be very proud, she’s left a legacy,” Toller said.
