To start the session, president Maude-Emmanuelle Lambert called for nominations of president and secretary of the meeting, which went to Robert Baser and Joanne Kellerman respectively.

Baser continued the meeting with a reading of the minutes from their previous annual general meeting, which was followed by a summary of the 2018 activities report and a presentation of the organizations’ upcoming activities and events.

Among those activities will be an information session this June presented by Carapace of Nature Conservancy Canada with the purpose of educating locals on the importance of preserving the region’s declining turtle population, Lambert said.

The organization is also planning on coordinating, with help from Gatineau Plein Air, a canoeing expedition in the Black Bay this July, as well as a cycling trip in Quyon this fall, according to Lambert.

“We would love to do this in early July before people go on vacation,” she said.

According to Lambert, the organization’s activities are a great way of educating locals on the region’s history, culture and landscape in person rather than interpreting it from a book or a screen.

“The objective is to promote the sector to residents,” she said. “To discover their history. It’s always interesting and some people who attend them often teach us certain things that we don’t know. So, it’s more of an exchange of knowledge than a history lesson.”

After presenting the upcoming activities, board member Peter Haughton outlined the organization’s financial statements, which showed a slight uptick in memberships and a total balance of nearly $2,000 more than last year.

“We’re doing pretty well for a small budget,” said Haughton.

The session followed with the election of two seats on the board of directors initially held by Lambert and Deborah Powell who were both re-elected.

During the question period, members discussed the causes of why 2019 floods reached record levels and continue to take a toll on the region, while some debated whether mismanagement of the dams or climate change was the culprit.

With many members concerned about whether or not the dam operators are doing their due diligence, Kellerman stated that it was crucial for locals to be briefed on what they do and how they affect water levels in the region.

“I think it’s important that people publically understand what hydro workers do,” she said. “I don’t think communities up and down the rivers generally understand it.”

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