At the MRC Pontiac council of mayors meeting on Apr. 16, council passed a resolution to apply for a joint FRR grant that would pay for municipal court services in the region.
MRC public safety coordinator Julien Gagnon said that currently MRC des Collines provides municipal court services to the other Outaouais MRCs, and the application was for des Collines to apply for a joint FRR grant to cover these services in Pontiac as well.
“They already provide that service to MRC Papineau and MRC Vallée de la Gatineau, so they have an idea of what offering service like that to another MRC costs,” he said.
Gagnon said that currently, Sureté du Québec-enforced bylaws are already covered by a contract that the MRC has to collect fines. However, municipal bylaw fines that are contested have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
“If it was something along the lines of zoning, or property cleanliness or something like that, if they issue let’s say, a $100 fine, the municipality has to justify hiring a lawyer to take that case to court if they plead not guilty, resulting in probably more than $100 in lawyer fees, so you’re not making anything,” he said.
Gagnon said that the goal is to have the service offered out of the Campbell’s Bay courthouse, creating a unified system across the county which would make budgeting for these types of expenses a lot easier.
“The goal of this municipal court is we would have by default a whole team of judges and lawyers and admin assistants to come in, book the courthouse in Campbell’s Bay for one day a month or two days a month, depending on what we need, and they’d send all those files there and the municipalities would share that cost,” he said.
Gagnon said he didn’t have an indication when the service would be implemented.
Zipline upgrades at Chutes
At the meeting, council also approved a FRR grant of $48,400 for the Chutes Coulonge Park for upgrades to its aerial park. The overall project cost is listed as $92,000.
Chutes director Cameron Montgomery said that one of the bigger upgrades is a new braking system on the main zipline to make stopping easier for participants, as the current method is manually applying friction with a piece of leather.
“All the aerial park was installed over 10 years ago now, so there’s just some infrastructure things that need to be upgraded,” she told THE EQUITY. “So while we’re in the process of upgrading the big zip especially, we’re putting in a zip stop, which is a new technology that will make it more accessible.”
She added that since the ziplines traverse a watercourse, the installation process is complicated and pricey.
“That’s the most expensive thing. It’s not the zip stop itself, replacing the cord, because it’s across water is expensive, so that’s the big cost there,” she said.
She said that she anticipates the work to begin within the next few weeks.
