CALEB NICKERSON

LUSKVILLE June 10, 2019

More than 100 residents of the Municipality of Pontiac gathered at the Luskville Community Centre on Monday night for bilingual information sessions hosted by the Ministry of Public Security (MSP).

The evening was intended to provide locals with answers to their questions about filing compensation claims with the provincial government.

The meeting was attended by several officials such as MNA André Fortin and Mayor Joanne Labadie as well as a sizable contingent of MSP staffers. The first session, held in French, packed the room while the English session had a more modest turnout.

MSP staff began with an explanation of the type of damage and expenses that are covered by the compensation program, which they stressed is last resort humanitarian assistance. Only primary residences qualify and compensation is capped at $200,000. There is also coverage for flood mitigation expenses such as moving furniture or purchasing pumping equipment. MSP staff were on hand to process claims at the town hall for the next two days, and residents were able to set up appointments to begin the process.

They noted all the documentation to bring, such as insurance statements or municipal assessments, as well as receipts.

Once the plan was outlined the floor was opened to questions, and many let their frustrations about the process be known. Several said that they had made claims through the program after the 2017 flooding and still hadn’t been compensated.

One resident talked about having his file shuffled around between ministry staff, some of whom didn’t speak English. MSP officials assured him that all the staff on site were bilingual.

Many pointed out that the main bottleneck in the system was the difficulty hiring contractors in the Pontiac for quotes and flood repairs. Many companies were backlogged with work in Gatineau, charged exorbitant rates or just flat out refused to travel to the municipality. The need for RBQ licensed contractors also limited the pool they could choose from, since many companies in Ontario aren’t allowed to work in Quebec.

Laurie Crocco, a resident of chemin Clavelle in Luskville, said it took her two years just to get someone to replace her windows that were damaged in 2017.

“I’ve been calling people for months, they just won’t come out here,” she said. “It’s very difficult. How am I supposed to live?”

Residents seeking compensation for repairs need two quotes from contractors, and chemin Dion resident Alain Goulet noted that in the aftermath of the 2017 floods it took nearly four months to get a second quote for a foundation repair.

Goulet also queried whether he and his neighbours could be compensated for the cost of raising their private road.

MSP staff encouraged residents to bring their personal questions to a claims analyst.

Speaking prior to the meeting, Labadie gave an update on the cleanup efforts throughout the region. Residents are asked to place their sandbags by the road to be picked up. They will be collected and taken to the EcoCentre, where they will be dried and used for roadwork.

“Public health tell us that once they dry out, all the bacteria dies and they will be safe to use, so we will repurpose … the sand,” she said. “We also have all the sand from the dike and the gravel. All of that will be repurposed. The sand will be used in the same way and the gravel to resurface and repair the roads that have been damaged.”

“The flood has had and will have a huge impact on our budget and we want to be able to recuperate as much material as possible and repair those roads,” she continued.

Labadie noted that the municipality has already spent $418,000 combating the floods, and many bills are still coming in. Dumpster distribution will begin shortly, but since the municipality is no longer under a state of emergency, the contract would need to go out to tender, according to Labadie. She noted that in 2017, the cost of dumpsters was roughly $80,000.

The army returned to Quyon briefly last week to remove sandbags around the local pumping station, but Labadie said that their mandate is only municipal infrastructure, not residences.

She said that the heavy rains prior to the flooding had done a number on local roads such as chemin Steele, causing them to deteriorate at a faster rate than anticipated. While all roads are currently open, Labadie said that they would be reviewing their priorities for future road maintenance.

“The recent weather has caused havoc to many of our roads and certainly Steele line and [chemin des] Pères Dominicains were degraded far more quickly than we anticipated because of the extreme weather, so we’re going to have to re-jig our priorities on that, that’s for sure,” she said.

Labadie said that they would be hiring temporary staff to help with the backlog of municipal permits that will need to be processed in the coming months.

She concluded by emphasizing the importance of a regional response to the flooding, or other natural disasters, involving all levels of government.

“Small rural municipalities cannot manage a disaster on their own so it’s really important that we have a regional response,” she said. “We need to look at how, as a region in the Outaouais, we can have a structured, organized volunteer service that can react to natural disasters and emergencies.”