CALEB NICKERSON

PONTIAC  Nov. 27, 2019

Budget talks, forestry and a renewed call for an inquiry into this spring’s flooding were all at the top of the . . .

agenda as the MRC Pontiac council met for their monthly meeting. 

Starting off the MRC meeting with her monthly report, Warden Jane Toller gave an extensive overview of her recent trip to the York Durham Energy Centre in Ontario, which is the template for the energy from waste facility she envisions for the Pontiac. 

Energy from waste

Operated by Covanta, the largest operator of such facilities worldwide, Toller said that their facility in Durham cost about $256 million to build, and processes 35 truckloads of household waste per day. She noted that she hopes to bring in waste from Ottawa, Gatineau and Renfrew County, an area with nearly double the population serviced by the York Durham facility. Later in the meeting it was resolved that the MRC would begin more detailed research into present tonnages, tipping fees, cost of transport, and current waste streams being collected in neighbouring regions. 

Communications advisor,

assessment department shake up

It was announced that former MRC communications advisor, Danielle Belec, would be returning temporarily to her former role, as the MRC is still reviewing candidates for the job following the departure of Jérémi Vaillancourt last month. Toller said that Belec would be working remotely on a part time basis and would be sharing helping train the new candidate once they are selected. 

“We approached her because we realized Jérémi has been gone for a while now, and when issues come up, [Director General] Bernard Roy felt that it was important to have someone here in that capacity,” she said after the meeting. “She’s very capable and she has a lot of experience, she’ll be helpful.”

In addition it was announced that the MRC would be contracting RelèvÉval Inc. to complete assessment work for this year and also provide training for MRC staff. 

“The assessment department has been challenged for quite some time because they have a lot of work and we had a few of our inspectors who were off work, sick leave etc,” Toller said. “We’re trying to build up our own department here but to do that we need training and we need some guidance. There are two women who used to be with Servitech, they now have their own company under that name.”

New committee structure, budget summary

It was announced that starting in the New Year, the structure of the monthly meetings will be changed, so that the plenary and administration committees will meet a week before the public meeting. 

“Some mayors from the previous terms felt that the administrative committee was important because it allowed certain issues and matters to be discussed and then it would come to the plenary committee,” Toller said after the meeting. “It’s just a way of… finding a smaller group of people to zero in on answers to do with administration.”

“This will help the staff because they will have time to prepare the documents and things for our council meetings, sometimes it’s scramble for them, especially if we finish one meeting at 5:30 and they have to go into the council meeting later,” she continued.  

MRC accountant Annie Vaillancourt gave the council an overview of the 2020 budget which has increased more than $1.5 million from 2019 (see front page for full summary). She explained that the increase was from grant funding through the new fiscal pact that was negotiated with the province. She added that it allowed them to hire new staff and update equipment, but a large portion of the funds weren’t yet earmarked. 

“There’s over a million dollars that was also tagged for other projects that we don’t have all the criteria for yet,” she said in a phone call. “It’s budgeted in revenues and expenses but we don’t know exactly what we’re going to do with it.”

 “There’s not much that’s changed from last year… we’re just getting more funding,” she added. “[The new funds are] huge. We’re looking forward to getting all that info and seeing what we can do.”

Forestry, economic development

A resolution was passed to request that local wood producers receive compensation due to the shutdown of the Fortress Mill in Thurso. 

“We are requesting to the Quebec government to reserve a portion of the loan granted to Fortress, to pay the amount due to the Pontiac wood producers,” said MRC Territory Director Régent Dugas.

Council also passed a resolution demanding a moratorium on wood allocation for mills outside of Pontiac in order to reserve a volume of wood for projects under development in the Pontiac.

Another resolution passed at the meeting addresses a speculation that the local office of the ministère des Forêts de la Faune et des Parcs (MFFP), currently located in Fort Coulonge, would be moved elsewhere in the county. Council requested that Minister Pierre Dufour keep the location in Fort Coulonge or Mansfield, as they are in close proximity to the local forestry industry. 

MRC Economic Development Director Danielle Newman announced that the MRC would be applying for both provincial and federal grant programs for funding to improve the PPJ trail. 

Mayor Newberry ousted from two committees

Mayor Serge Newberry of Calumet Island was replaced on two committees, the Multi-resource and the Chutes Coulonge, over statements he had made at a municipal council meeting back in October. As reported by CHIP 101.9 FM, Newberry accused members of the multi-resource committee of benefitting from their posts, and focusing too heavily on forestry projects. 

Speaking after the meeting, Newberry said that he had brought forward a plan to develop a recreational tourist area on part of the Lafontaine Islands back in 2015, prior to his election, an area administered by the committee. He said when he joined the committee as a mayor, he was outraged that the proposal hadn’t been addressed. 

Newberry landed in hot water last month after it was revealed that he owns land close to the proposed national park project. 

Committee chair and Campbell’s Bay Mayor Maurice Beauregard said that Newberry had been invited to attend the special meeting called where members requested that he be dismissed, but didn’t show up. Beauregard called Newberry prior to the MRC meeting to let him know about his dismissal. 

Newberry was also removed from the Chutes Coulonge committee, which he had no knowledge of prior to the meeting, and was replaced by Warden Toller. Toller claimed that she had heard from other members of the committee that Newberry hadn’t been attending meetings, a claim that he vehemently denied. 

Newberry was the only mayor opposed to the two resolutions. The Equity requested meeting minutes and attendance records from the Chutes committee’s director general, Cyndy Phillips, who declined the request. 

Flood inquiry

Fort Coulonge Mayor Gaston Allard spoke out after the council passed a resolution reiterating their demand for a public inquiry into the management of dams on the Ottawa River, following the flooding this spring. 

He said he was tired of being ignored by higher levels of government and wasn’t satisfied with the answers he got from bureaucrats at the public meetings that were recently held in the region. In a phone call with The Equity following the meeting, he said that the Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board has little influence over the powerful corporations that operate on the river. 

“What the guy from [Ontario Power Generation] OPG told me, these are his words, ‘The [board] advises us on the steps that we should take, but we are free to operate the way we want,’” he said. “In other words, the [board] does not rule over them.  They don’t have to act in the way the commission says they should … In my mind there’s definitely a problem the re.”