The newly elected council of mayors held its first public meeting on Nov. 26, with eight fresh faces at the table joining the 10 mayors who were re-elected. Campbell’s Bay mayor Raymond Pilon was named pro-warden by warden Jane Toller, who kicked off her third term at the head of the table.
The meeting opened with Waltham mayor Jordan Evans attempting to add two items to the agenda. The first was a resolution requesting “equal access to institutional information”.
The request to add the item to the agenda was voted down, with Evans, Bristol mayor Valerie Twolan-Graham, Otter Lake mayor Jennifer Quaile and Alleyn-et-Cawood mayor Sidney Squitti voting in favour.
Contacted by THE EQUITY following the meeting, Evans declined to elaborate more on the resolution, stating she was a new mayor and wasn’t sure what she could say since the matter was voted down before it could be put on the agenda.
In a follow-up conversation with THE EQUITY, Otter Lake mayor Jennifer Quaile said that the mayors used to have access to documents from previous councils in their meeting management software, which would be helpful.
“A few of the new mayors that would like to have background information on decisions made in previous terms that they aren’t privy to,” she said. She added that the new mayors don’t know what they don’t know, and having more information freely available would be helpful.
MRC director general Kim Lesage confirmed that the documents were no longer available through the software for the mayors to browse at will, but said any necessary information could be provided upon request.
The second agenda item requested by Evans was to add a resolution to request a special meeting about the litigation between the MRC and the Municipality of Alleyn-et-Cawood, which the council discussed near the end of the meeting.
Alleyn-et-Cawood legal issue resurfaces at new council
The dispute over the municipality of Alleyn-et-Cawood’s 2024 shares was a subject that occupied the previous council for quite some time.
Following the sale of several lots in the municipality for over their assessed value, the municipality saw its projected property evaluations jump significantly, causing its shares, the money it pays into the MRC for services, jump by more than 150 per cent between 2023 and 2024, from $112,539 to $289,148.
Residents and elected officials from the municipality requested that the MRC remove the comparative factor from the calculation of shares. The comparative factor is a number determined by the difference between the year one property values and the standardized property values produced in the other two years of evaluations. This number is meant to give a general sense of the taxable value of properties in a given municipality, and it’s this number the MRC has historically used to calculate municipal shares. In Dec. 2024, council adjusted its share formula so that comparative factor was only considered for 50 per cent of the share calculation.
However, the revised share formula contained a clause that stated 2 per cent interest per month would be charged on any outstanding 2024 shares not paid by Dec. 31, 2024, as the municipality had not paid any of their portion. At last week’s meeting, Alleyn-et-Cawood mayor Sidney Squitti said that they had offered to pay a portion of the shares that they calculated, but didn’t receive a response from the MRC.
In Jan. 2025, the previous elected council voted to hire a lawyer to recover the roughly $289,000 in shares that Alleyn-et-Cawood hadn’t paid. The resolution was to hire the law firm Deveau Dufour Mottet Avocats for the purposes of recovering the shares from the municipality, along with interest and costs, at a price tag of roughly $200/hour.
Lesage confirmed that an initial hearing for the legal action against Alleyn-et-Cawood was scheduled for Dec. 11.
“I think it would be helpful if the new mayors had all the information that all the existing mayors have, all the documentation, sort of from the get-go,” Squitti said.
Chichester mayor Donnie Gagnon suggested it could be discussed at the council’s next plenary meeting (Dec. 10) instead of at a special meeting.
Mansfield-et-Pontefract mayor Sandra Armstrong, visibly irritated, interjected to question why this issue was being discussed once more.
“I am tired of this story. You did not pay your shares, you wanted to pay what you used to pay and that’s not how it works in real life,” she said.
There was a brief back-and-forth when Squitti tried to respond, before Warden Toller stepped in to regain order. She added that the issue had been discussed by the previous council at length and information could be brought to the next plenary.
“It will be on the plenary for any new mayors that need questions answered,” she said. “There are new members here at the table, but
[ . . . ] the majority of the people sitting at the table have been very involved with this issue for a year and a half and so most of us don’t have questions, we understand the issue clearly. So let’s leave it as it will be an item on our agenda at the plenary meeting, as it doesn’t warrant a special meeting.”
Some of the new mayors agreed that more information, such as a chronology of events, would be helpful, though Toller stated that information had to be unbiased. This led to an exchange between her and Squitti over how much money the municipality had offered to pay and when.
Rapides-des-Joachims mayor Roger Lafond questioned why discussion of the issue was taking up so much time at this and their plenary meeting, requesting that information be sent along directly to the new mayors.
“Is it not possible that we can get information instead of all of this again, because I’ve been here twice and this has taken precedence over everything,” he said. “It’s over the budget, it’s over all the important things that we have to discuss here. We all have our own municipalities, we all have our own problems. So my question is, is there any way that we as new mayors can get our information sent to us, because I’m sure these people do not want to go through it again.”
Lesage agreed to send out information, including a chronology of events.
Thorne mayor Terrence Murdock agreed with the course of action.
“Put it on paper and spread it around, because this is a waste of time and a bunch of foolishness actually,” he said.
The resolution to have a special meeting on the issue was voted down by a majority.
PPJ signs and bridge inspections
Also at the Nov. 26 meeting, the MRC council signed off on two infrastructure projects related to the PPJ trail, including more than 100 new signs and structural inspections on three bridges over rivers along the path (one in Litchfield and two in the Mansfield/Fort-Coulonge area).
Council voted to award an $88,645.66 contract (pre tax) to Les Services EXP inc. for inspections on three bridges along the PPJ trail.
The only other offer was from the firm Artelia in the amount of $153,321.51.
When asked by Sheenboro mayor Doris Ranger about the disparity between the bids, Lesage, an engineer by training, said she wasn’t surprised by the numbers, given the time of year and the fact there was a deadline on the work being completed.
Assistant director general Terry Lafleur said at the meeting that maintaining bridges was quite costly due to the amount of regulations.
“Inspections of the bridges are not a whole whole bunch of money to be honest with you. I want to say it’s less than a third of the $88,000,” he said. “So we need an initial report on the safety of the bridges at this point in time, because we do have lease agreements with the snowmobile clubs, we want to make sure everyone’s safe using them this winter. The biggest expense of this $88,000 is the report and recommendations for what it is that we’re fixing. Bridges are notoriously, stupid expensive. You could do them privately for a tenth of the cost, but we cannot.”
Council also awarded a $9,983.37 contract to Enseignes Pontiac for new signs as well as their installation.
Lesage said during the meeting that they were installing 17 new gates along the trail, which all required new traffic signage. They had identified other signage that was needed along the path, including stop signs and kilometre markers, totalling well over 100 signs.
The cost for both signs and the inspections were taken from the PPJ budget, which is largely grant funding, through both the Véloce 3 program and FRR component 2.
Mayors approve $26K for “senior-friendly” policy development
At the meeting, council approved $26,186.96 to contract out the formation of a “senior-friendly” policy for participating municipalities to the non-profit organization CommunAgir.
Assistant DG Lafleur explained that each of the 12 participating municipalities had contributed $1,000 to the project, with the remainder coming from the FRR component two budget.
MRC economic development officer for culture Marie Gionet said that CommunAgir had helped the MRC with their immigration policy for the region. The policies aim to foster seniors’ inclusion in the community, as well as ensuring municipal priorities are aligned with their health and well-being. The group will be creating an overall “senior-friendly” policy for the MRC, as well as personalized action plans for implementing it in each of the participating municipalities, as different communities have different challenges for their senior population.
She added that they would be surveying the population in a variety of ways and the work is to be completed and presented to councils by Sept. 2026.
Council also approved the naming of Gionet to represent the MRC on the Culture Outaouais board of directors. Speaking after the meeting, she said that the organization supports arts and cultural organizations, which are in need of assistance in a relatively disadvantaged region like ours.
New mayors join committees, new rules to be looked at in January
On the agenda at the Nov. 26 council of mayors meeting was the assigning of new mayors to the MRC’s various committees, with a commitment from the warden, prompted by a request from Otter Lake mayor Jennifer Quaile, that the committee policy would be reviewed in the new year.
Quaile explained that she had questioned the way that the committees were formed at the plenary session, and said she had researched the rules after.
“We had been discussing at plenary last week, there were a total of eight committees that needed to meet sooner rather than later, i.e. December, those were budget, HR, a few others,” she said. “So it was decided to appoint members, to at a minimum replace the seats that were vacated by mayors who weren’t re-elected.”
One concern Quaile had about the formation of the committees was ensuring regional balance, pointing out that there are no representatives of Pontiac North (Alleyn-et-Cawood, Otter Lake and Thorne) on the public safety committee.
Another point she found was that the warden and pro-warden are ex officio, or automatically members of any committee they wish to join, and questioned whether they should count towards the seat limit on a committee.
At the public meeting, warden Jane Toller acknowledged the ex officio status and pledged to review the committee policy in January.
“We also decided, because mayor Quaile requested it, and we have a new council, a new term, that in January we’ll have time at our plenary meeting, we will look at policy for committees,” she said.
The new committees named at the meeting are as follows (some committees have non-elected officials, such as DGs or members of the business or non-profit sector):
Human Resources
Corey Spence (L’Isle-aux-Allumettes), Colleen Larivière (Litchfield), Sandra Armstrong (Mansfield-et-Pontefract), Edward Walsh (Clarendon), Jordan Evans (Waltham), Sidney Squitti (Alleyn-et-Cawood), and Bill McCleary (Shawville).
Budget
Corey Spence (L’Isle-aux-Allumettes), Donald Gagnon (Chichester), Doris Ranger (Sheenboro), Edward Walsh (Clarendon), Jordan Evans (Waltham), Pierre Cyr (Fort-Coulonge), Sidney Squitti (Alleyn-et-Cawood), and Sandra Armstrong (Mansfield-et-Pontefract).
Investment
Émile Vallée, Warden Jane Toller, Sandra Armstrong (Mansfield-et-Pontefract), Connie Gutoskie-LaSalle, Stéphane Labine, Nicole Thompson, and Karim El Kerch
Police/public security (CSP)
Sandra Armstrong (Mansfield-et-Pontefract), Donald Gagnon (Chichester), Edward Walsh (Clarendon), Raymond Pilon (Campbell’s Bay), Joanne Ralston (Bryson), Bill McCleary (Shawville) and Kevin Murphy (Portage-du-Fort).
Fire Safety (CSI)
Warden Jane Toller, Bill McCleary (Shawville), Edward Walsh (Clarendon), Sandra Armstrong (Mansfield-et-Pontefract), Kevin Murphy (Portage-du-Fort), Jordan Evans (Waltham), Joanne Ralston (Bryson), Éric Rochon, Glynn Fleury, Alicia Jones, Lee Laframboise, Kevin Kluke, Denis Chaussé, Sarah Bertrand, Kim Lesage, Richard Pleau, Julien Gagnon.
Multi-resource (TPI)
Doris Ranger (Sheenboro), Donald Gagnon (Chichester), Martin Boucher, Rhonda Perry, Debra Powell, Robin Leggett, Terry Lafleur
FRR component 4
Valerie Twolan-Graham (Bristol), Kevin Murphy (Portage-du-Fort), Jean-Louis Corriveau (Île-du-Grand-Calumet), Donald Gagnon (Chichester), Raymond Pilon (Campbell’s Bay), Pierre Cyr (Fort-Coulonge), Sidney Squitti (Alleyn-et-Cawood), Jordan Evans (Waltham), Roger Lafond (Rapides-des-Joachims), Jennifer Quaile (Otter Lake), la Direction générale et la direction du département de développement économique de la MRC, Sabrina Ayres (MRC), Ken Bernard (citizen), Karim El Kerch (CJEP) and representatives of the Ministry of Municipal affairs.
Environment
Corey Spence (L’Isle-aux-Allumettes), Pierre Cyr (Fort-Coulonge), Jordan Evans (Waltham), Sandra Armstrong (Mansfield-et-Pontefract), Kevin Murphy (Portage-du-Fort), Valerie Twolan-Graham (Bristol), Sidney Squitti (Alleyn-et-Cawood) and Jennifer Quaile (Otter Lake).
