Louis Lair was born and raised on an Allumette Island farm. He married Ghislaine Paquette 49 years ago and together they raised one daughter. They are now proud grandparents of three grandchildren.

Lair studied Industrial Accounting for two years and Advanced Communication Skills at the University of Ottawa.

“I also took various courses throughout my banking career at the University of Western Ontario in London,” Lair said.

His first job was as a night auditor at Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, then as an Operations Manager.

He then worked at the Bank of Nova Scotia for 33 years, where he began as a loans officer, then commercial and agricultural loans manager and finally as a multi-branch account manager covering the area from Ottawa to Mattawa, according to Lair, who worked with various portfolios in manufacturing, retail and agriculture.

In 2009 Lair built a home and moved back to Allumette Island, where most of his family lives. However, he has been an active member on several non-profit organizations and committees since 2001; these include the Agricultural Society, Harrington Hall Board of Directors, and was an advisor for the Arena Committee as well as the West Pontiac Connects organization. Lair has also spent the last eight years as an Allumette Island municipal councillor but he said he felt he had more to offer his community, so he decided to run for mayor in the upcoming elections.

Water and sewer systems

The issue at the top of Lair’s list is Allumette Island’s water and sewer project.

“It had been estimated as a $13 million project, but after the Director General had another look at the project, we managed to cut it down to between $6 million to $7 million,” Lair said, “We are getting another $2.4 million grant, so that leaves approximately $3 million that we have to borrow,” he added.

“The cruncher behind this is that Pembroke road comes into the village, and that estimate does not count that section of road. That particular section of road (belonging to the Ministere des Transport du Quebec (MTQ)) has the French school, it has the arena, Harrington Hall, the R.A. and a number of residential buildings. The estimate to get that section done is an additional $2 million, so if you add all this together our municipality could be subject to a liability of $5 million to $6 million. This could potentially take the municipality up to 40 years to repay,” Lair said.

He said he would work toward getting additional funding because there is another municipality in the Pontiac MRC that has received funding from the MTQ for the cost of installation of water pipes, according to Lair.

Roads

For the past eight to 10 years, the municipality has been promised money from the Plan d’intervention et infrastructures routières locale (PIIRL), a grant through the MTQ which they never received, according to Lair who proposes to work toward re-applying for the funding.

“We were promised about $3 million, meanwhile our roads are deteriorating and nothing is happening,” Lair told The Equity.

“We have already invested close to $1 million in the roads and they want to continue that momentum,” he added.

Communication and resources

Communication has also been a concern for Lair in various aspects.

“I think the people on the island deserve a little more than what they have been getting, for example I think regular bulletins should be published, either by the mayor or from the administration,” said Lair.

Another thing Lair said he’d like to do is draw from the local resources and expertise of people in the municipality.

“I want to be able to use these people as consultants and advisors to our municipality, regardless of what field it is. If it’s agriculture, I want to go and get a few farmers together and say ‘come join our committee’ because the greatest asset of our municipality is its people,” Lair concluded.

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