CALEB NICKERSON

CAMPBELL’S BAY

Oct. 16, 2019

The Elsie Gibbons room at MRC Pontiac’s office was crowded last Wednesday for the . . .

monthly council of mayors meeting. 

The evening began with a farewell to the MRC’s strategic communications advisor Jérémi Vaillaincourt, who will be taking on a job in technical communications at Transport Canada. As Oct. 17 was his last day, Warden Jane Toller bid him adieu on behalf of the council. 

“We really hate to see him go,” she said. “He’s been a great asset to the MRC Pontiac.”

Applications for the position close on Oct. 25, and Toller said after the meeting that she expects to have a replacement hired by late November. 

Two long-serving elected officials from the area, Dave Miljour of Bryson and Gerry Manwell of Portage du Fort were recognized for being honoured at the recent Federation of Quebec Municipalities (FQM) meeting, for 25 years and 45 years respectively.  Bryson Mayor Alain Gagnon and Portage Mayor Lynne Cameron gave brief speeches about the accomplishments of both men. 

After a brief TNO meeting, the main MRC agenda got underway. The majority of attendees in the public gallery were from Sand Bay, and were there to inquire about a specialized septic system that was recently installed at a waterfront property in their community. The system in question is called a Bionest and is approved for use in the province. 

The group, represented by spokesperson Randy Russell, presented a petition with more than 1,100 signatures and asked that the work be reversed, and a public consultation take place before any further work is completed. They expressed concern with the cleanliness of the system and said they were blindsided by the excavation of the public beach.  

Clarendon Mayor John Armstrong explained that the owner of the property went through all the appropriate channels and received permission from the Ministry of the Environment to install the system, which is approved for waterfront properties. He insisted that the entire process was up to code, and even had the municipality’s lawyer double check the procedure. The ministry of the environment has jurisdiction over waterfront, and the municipality is obliged to obey their rules. The water that is expelled from the unit is treated and within the guidelines set out by the ministry. 

“We discussed this all with you people, you found out now that everything is done legally,” he said, referring to the group’s attendance at Clarendon’s council meeting on Oct. 8. “We even told them to come up and they came up and they verified everything. Now it’s coming back to public consultation. We could have had public consultation for a month, the law is the law. You could have talked all you wanted to talk, you could have had meetings forever, but this is our law.”

Toller said they would take the group’s concerns under advisement, but typically deferred to municipal councils on issues like this. 

Several notices of motion were passed in preparation for the MRC’s budget meeting next month. 

MRC public safety coordinator Julien Gagnon presented a resolution that was part of the fire safety cover plan and would give municipalities the responsibility to address their fire department’s decontamination procedures. Gagnon said they had looked at ways of sharing decontamination equipment between all the departments in the region, but the large distances and patchwork of current equipment presented too much of a challenge. 

“Everybody had their own system and there was no way for the MRC, specifically, to come up with a solution that fit everybody,” he explained, adding that suits that aren’t decontaminated properly present an elevated cancer risk for firefighters. 

Only Mayors Maurice Beauregard of Campbell’s Bay and Serge Newberry of Calumet Island voted against the resolution. Beauregard, a firefighter himself, stated after the meeting that he thought the council could do more to implement a solution for the region. He stressed the importance of protecting local first responders from long-term health issues. 

“I believe we can work together as 18 municipalities,” he said. 

Territory director Régent Dugas presented a point of information about an illegal dumping zone on Schyan road in the TNO that cost more than $60,000 to clean up. He emphasized the burden that such recurring problems place on the MRC budget. 

Economic Development Director Danielle Newman presented a resolution to request that Quebec’s minister of health immediately address the short-staffing issue that has plagued local health care facilities. 

Chichester Mayor Donald Gagnon put forward a resolution to partner with Renfrew County and Pembroke to increase advertising for activities on the Ottawa River. He said that there had been a collaboration in previous years, but that it had fallen to the wayside. 

“We want our waterway to be promoted more and used more, we’d like to see them back in the picture,” he said. 

A resolution was passed to ask the ministry of the environment if garbage from Ontario could be accepted at the proposed energy from waste facility that Warden Toller has been touting in recent months.

Mayor Beauregard and MRC engineer Kim Lesage were officially removed from the national park committee, which was disbanded following the disclosure of a percieved conflict of interest by Mayor Newberry.

The committee was formed with the intent to develop an island group off the coast of Calumet Island. Toller said following the meeting that they hadn’t decided on the makeup of the new committee they would be forming, but emphasized that it would be an MRC committee rather than a public committee.