CALEB NICKERSON

CAMPBELL’S BAY Aug. 19, 2020

MRC Pontiac held their first in-person council meeting since February on Aug. 19, opting for the spacious RA Hall in Campbell’s Bay rather than the Elsie Gibbons Room at their offices. The mayors, MRC staff and members of the public were spaced out to . . .

comply with public health guidelines, and contact information was collected from everyone in attendance as a precaution.

The Municipality of Thorne was not represented at the meeting, and the Municipality of Fort Coulonge was represented by pro-Mayor Debbie Laporte.

Presentations

Following a brief meeting on the non-organized territories (TNO), the council opened up the floor to two presentations from local organizations, as well as questions from the public.

First up was John Petty, who spoke about the Pontiac Terry Fox Run, and how they would be adapting to restrictions on public gatherings. He explained that this year, every citizen of the Pontiac would be encouraged to get active and track their kilometres, whether it’s by walking, running, kayaking or cycling. Instead of one stand-alone event, participants are asked to complete their trekking between Aug. 22 and Sept. 20, either in groups or on their own.

“We need you people in the Pontiac, the mayors, the community, to help us out,” he said. “Make it important in your community. Find a way to keep his legacy going, bottom line we get a cure for cancer some day.”

Teams from the area can sign up online at terryfox.org/run under Pontiac and log their distance travelled, with the goal being to match Terry’s 5,373 km.

Next was Guillaume Lavoie-Harvey, who was requesting municipal support for the Ski at School program, which provides cross-country skis and lessons through local schools. He said that they were on the verge of creating a charity foundation for the program, with the goal of being self-sustaining in the near future. Warden Jane Toller asked him to send his request to each of the 18 municipal councils individually, so they could deliberate on the amount of support that would be appropriate.

Lynne Lavery was the next speaker to take the microphone, on behalf of local cycling advocacy groups The Friends of Cycloparc PPJ and the Green PPJ Verte committee.

She questioned the MRC’s use of funds for upkeep and repairs on the PPJ trail, and highlighted areas that were desperately in need of attention. She praised the MRC’s efforts to promote the trail and said that usage had increased dramatically this summer, but noted that shoddily maintained areas could be a huge liability.

“All this effort could be lost if sections of the trail aren’t in good condition,” she said. “Visitors simply won’t return or will give it a bad review when they go back home if they experience too many rough sections when they ride.”

In response to Lavery’s questions about the trail’s maintenance budget, MRC engineer Kim Lesage said that in the past few years, there had been delays in receiving the approval through the Route Verte program, which accounts for half the trail’s funding.

Campbell’s Bay Mayor Maurice Beauregard suggested that Lavery and her colleagues could put some pressure on the administrators of the program to send their approval letters out earlier in the year, so the MRC could more effectively make use of the funds.

Economic development

MRC Economic Development Director Cyndy Phillips began her presentation to council with the formation of a new committee to look at the creation of a provincial park on the Lafontaine Islands, which sit on the west side of L’Île du Grand Calumet. A previous committee had been created in November 2018, but was dismantled the following year after it was reported the L’Île du Grand Calumet Mayor Serge Newberry did not disclose that he owned two islands in the vicinity of the proposed park.

Toller said that she had asked the mayors if they would be interested in sitting on a new committee and Newberry said that he had put his name forward as well. Toller said that Newberry’s pro-Mayor, Alice Meilleur Pieschke had reached out to her and would be representing the municipality instead.

“Alice mentioned to me, she knew because of her meeting, that this was coming to our council, and she expressed her interest, and I thought because of your conflict, at least your pro-Mayor could represent, Calumet Island.”

Newberry asked that Toller stop referring to his “conflict” since the complaint that the MRC had filed with the authorities hadn’t resulted in any reprimand. When Toller called a vote on Newberry’s membership, only a handful of his fellow mayors supported him.

Litchfield Mayor Colleen Lariviere suggested that they reach out to the Commission Municipale du Quebec (CMQ), to determine if Newberry was indeed in the clear.

The membership of the committee was as follows: Chichester Mayor Donald Gagnon, Beauregard, Bryson Mayor Alain Gagnon , Meilleur Pieschke and Phillips.

Phillips then gave a rundown of the emergency loans for small and medium businesses that the MRC has been distributing. She said that they had received requests for $678,287 to date and added that they have approved 13 loans totalling $480,645