CALEB NICKERSON

PONTIAC May 15, 2019

Local interest groups have been active in the past week in their efforts to keep the PPJ trail open to only non-motorized traffic.

At the last MRC meeting, a committee of mayors was formed to look at converting the cycling path into a “multi-use” trail for ATVs, dirt bikes and other motorized vehicles in the summer. The committee is made up of Mayors Gaston Allard (Fort Coulonge), Gilles Dionne (Mansfield), David Rochon (Waltham), Maurice Beauregard (Campbell’s Bay) and Sandra Murray (Shawville).

At the Shawville council meeting on Tuesday night, several residents representing the Green PPJ Verte Committee and Les Amies du Cycloparc PPJ were present to voice their opposition to the plan. Carole Valin read a list of reasons why motorized vehicles are unsuitable for the trail, with an emphasis on the safety of pedestrians and children who use it in the summer months.

Council also heard testimony from resident Mike Hodgins, who lives next to the trail and uses it daily. Hodgins is blind and navigates with the help of his service dog, Nellie. He said that many who currently use the trail are seniors or people with mobility problems who don’t have an alternative place to walk or exercise.

“That’s my biggest problem, I don’t want to be in anyone else’s way walking down the street without a sidewalk,” he said. “When I go on the trail, my mind is free from that fear of falling into something or getting [a branch] in the face.”

He said that motorized vehicles would jeopardize the safety and peacefulness of the town and called for the council to oppose a change to the route.

“I’ve never encountered any kinds of dangers on the trail except for the odd skunk,” he said. “By letting on these recreational four wheelers or side by sides, I think we’re going to have a big problem.”

Mayor Sandra Murray told the visitors that she has a seat on the “multi-use” committee –which has yet to meet – and is staunchly opposed to motorized vehicles on the trail. Following the presentation, council unanimously passed a motion in opposition to motorized vehicles on the PPJ, joining the municipalities of Thorne and Bristol.

At the MRC meeting the following night, Green PPJ Verte representatives Lynne Lavery and Jim Coffey presented similar arguments to the council of mayors. They were accompanied by a contingent of supporters that filled the public seating area of the Elsie Gibbons Room and spilled out into the hall.

Lavery started by acknowledging the stress the council was under due to the floods in the region.

“I appreciate your attention while I speak about something less critical but still important to many people in the Pontiac,” she said. “We, the regular users of the PPJ, are deeply concerned by a new attempt to allow ATVs access to the trail. For us, this is a bad dream déjà vu, because we had the same discussion with the mayors three years ago.”

Back in the summer of 2016, a previous committee set out with a similar mandate and clashed with groups like Green PPJ Verte and Les Amies du Cycloparc PPJ over letting ATVs on the trail. She refuted the claim that the PPJ is underused and pointed out that half of the current maintenance funding for the PPJ ($125,000) comes from being a part of the Route Verte cycling trail system.

“The new talk is for a multi-use trail, as Renfrew County did with their old rail bed,” she said. “However, in Quebec, there is no such thing as a multi-use trail. Trails in Quebec are for either motorized or non-motorized vehicles. This is really important for you to understand as you discuss this topic.”

She also took issue with a common comparison that is made between the PPJ and the trail system in nearby Renfrew County, which also uses repurposed rail corridors.

“[Renfrew’s trails are] clearly not the same as the PPJ because what they have done is double the width, instead of six to eight feet, they are 16 to 18 feet wide,” Lavery explained, noting that the over width on the PPJ is narrow to non-existent in some places. “But now they are faced with the Ford government, they lost their funding and they are stuck with a shortfall of an estimated $2 million to complete their project, they only have 65 km open of an estimated 218. The cost to do this on the PPJ is clearly more than any combined budget that the MRC and the Club Quad could come up with.”

She spoke of many homeowners and businesses such as Base Macrocarpa campground in Mansfield, who are situated near the trail and have concerns about the speed of ATVs around children and pedestrians, as well as the noise and dust motorized vehicles bring.

Coffey spoke briefly about how the trail might be ahead of its time, in terms of being a tourist attraction for the region.

Lavery concluded by requesting that the MRC reverse its course on the issue.

“Ideally, all the people who came with us … we would like the discussion about allowing ATVs on the trail to end tonight and to have the MRC focus on promoting and maintaining the trail,” she said. “But if the MRC is determined to form another committee to study the trail, which did come out of the last MRC meeting, then it has to be a balanced committee.”

She pointed out that the majority of the mayors on the committee are in favour of ATVs on the trail, and requested that some members of the Green PPJ Verte group be added to the committee. Pontiac Warden Jane Toller declined the request, and said the mayors had plenty of information from MRC staff.

“We have listened to everything you have said, we have access to the newspaper articles,” she said. “It’s important that you come and express your point of view, representing many people. But this particular committee is not a mayor-citizen committee, it is just a committee of mayors, and we are placing our trust in them.”

Toller assured the group that the committee’s recommendations would be presented at a public meeting when they were ready.