STEPHEN RICCIO
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC March 9, 2021
The Municipality of Pontiac (MoP) council gathered virtually for its monthly meeting on March 9, mainly discussing a bevy of subjects pertaining to public works and public safety.
Mayor Joanne Labadie and each of the municipality’s six councillors were in attendance for the meeting that was hosted on Zoom, as well as approximately 10 residents who had gained access to the meeting by request.
Public works
With the rehabilitation of chemin Tremblay at the top of the municipality’s agenda going in 2021, the council used Tuesday’s meeting to award a contract to the engineering firm Équipe Laurence at a cost of $29,400 before taxes.
The firm will be carrying out plans, specifications and supervision of the project, which will consist of repairing a four km stretch of the road, beginning at Hwy. 148 in the Luskville area.
The council agreed to purchase a pole planter for the public works department, as well as a 1,000 lb. vibrating plate for compacting surfaces. The pole planter will cost the municipality $30,002.77 while the plate will cost $12,072.50, with both costs applied to the non-allocated surplus. According to the council’s resolutions, the purchases will make the municipality safer and more compliant with guidelines.
Councillor Nancy Draper Maxsom voiced her disagreement with the purchases, saying that the municipality needed to adopt a maintenance plan before making these types of equipment purchases.
“Even if we had [a maintenance program], we still need to see that the maintenance is being done and that we’re getting us cost savings from it, which we should of course,” she said. “So I’m really … I don’t think I can support this.”
Labadie replied that Director General Pierre Said is in the process of working on a maintenance plan. Said confirmed that no plan was formalized yet but he added that one would be implemented as fast as possible. Councillors Thomas Howard and Scott McDonald also voted against the resolution, causing Labadie to use her vote to break the tie in favour.
A resolution to begin the process of purchasing a new dump truck also passed by a slim majority, with Labadie once again using her vote to break a tie after Howard, McDonald and Draper Maxsom voted against it.
The resolution noted that the dump truck that needed replacing had over 1.2 million km of use on it, and it would authorize the public works department to issue a call for tenders for a new one.
Draper Maxsom questioned why the municipality couldn’t look into buying a used dump truck as a replacement. Labadie explained that going to tender for a new truck would be more advantageous than doing so for a used one, as the municipality is forced to accept the lowest bid with items over $100,000.
“By going out to tender for a new one, it will come with all the guarantees and warranties that come with it,” Labadie said. “Even a used truck is going to cost over $100,000, so we don’t want to be in a situation where we end up with a lemon.”
The council voted to approve the repair costs of a municipal backhoe, authorizing a maximum expense of $15,000. Howard and Draper Maxsom voted against it, with Draper Maxsom once again noting the need for a maintenance program.
An intervention plan for the renewal of drinking water pipes, sewers and roadways was approved during the meeting, and the firm EXP will be hired to carry out the plan. The plan was submitted to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in 2019 and was approved in 2020.
Public safety
With the municipality receiving an increasing amount of complaints about excess speeding around the areas of Notre Dame de la Joie School in Luskville and Onslow Elementary School in Quyon, the council agreed to begin purchasing four educational speed radars and a mobile traffic counter.
Two of the radars will complement the radars already installed at the two schools, while the other two will be installed on chemin Crégheur. The most “advantageous” quote offered to the municipality was for $15,436.54 from Traffic Logix, and the funds will be taken from the non-allocated surplus.
The municipality preemptively green lit overtime costs for management staff in the event of spring flooding this year. The resolution authorized, “the payment of overtime, at regular wage, for management staff working in excess of five hours of their regularly scheduled hours of work per week, for the period of April 1 to June 15, 2021.”
McDonald and Draper Maxsom voted against the resolution, with Draper Maxsom questioning how it would impact volunteers. Labadie said that it wouldn’t have any impact on volunteers.
The council passed a resolution that authorized the submission of an application for financial assistance for the training of volunteer and part-time firefighters. The application will be sent to the provincial Ministry of Public Security, requesting aid through the Financial Assistance Program, which was established in 2014 to assist in firefighter training.
The municipality intends to train five firefighters for the Firefighter I program and 10 firefighters for the Firefighter II program within the next year.
Miscellaneous
The municipality will be using the Voilà! Portal in the redesign of its website in order to provide a more efficient platform to residents. The cost of the portal is $29,706, and it is an application that offers citizens “a wide range of online services.”
The council’s incurred expenses for the month of March were $23,153.21. The council also paid invoices of $14,827.59 from the period ending Dec. 31, 2020.
A scholarship payment of $500 was approved by the council as part of the Pontiac scholarship program. The program’s purpose is to promote access to college and university for students from the territory of MRC Pontiac and the MoP.
The municipality’s next monthly meeting is scheduled for April 13 at 7:30 p.m.
