MRC Pontiac mayors voted on May 21 to call on the province to prioritize cellular coverage improvements in the Outaouais and Pontiac in its master plan to better service rural communities, after the region was omitted from a plan to do so elsewhere in the province by next year.

In 2022, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) promised to implement full cell coverage in rural regions of the province by 2026. By 2024 construction was under way on the 84 sites it had chosen for the first phase of the project, and in June 2024 the party announced an additional $170 million investment in an additional 100 locations.

While work in the Outaouais region was originally slated to be finished by the next provincial elections in 2026, MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller said she learned the work would be delayed despite the MRC not having been informed.

“I feel it’s not acceptable,” Toller said. “We have many zones where there is no service and this is very difficult for us because of many reasons.”

Waltham mayor Odette Godin and Allumette Island mayor Corey Spence tabled a similar motion at an MRC Pontiac council meeting in Jan. 2024, which demanded the province prioritize cellular service in the upper Pontiac and cited several public safety incidents that had occurred due to the lack of cell reception.
THE EQUITY reported at that time that a Waltham woman had died because she had collapsed and the TransporAction driver who was there to pick her up could not reach emergency services in time due to the poor signal.

“That’s one example, emergencies,” Toller said on Friday. “Second, when people are coming to bring businesses or purchase homes, the first thing they ask is about cellular service.”
She said according to her conversations with Pontiac MNA André Fortin the government may not have entirely been the cause of the delay.

In an email to THE EQUITY, Fortin shared what he knew of the plans.

“The government is still promising to roll out cell phone coverage, but they are dependent on companies doing it,” he said. “There doesn’t appear to be a clear game plan for many areas including parts of the Pontiac and the Gatineau Valley.”

Toller said she expects the work should be completed by 2028.

$250K for PPJ maintenance

Mayors also voted in favour of a new funding program that will pay for certain routine maintenance operations of the Cycloparc PPJ.

MRC director general Kim Lesage said the transportation ministry will cover 50 per cent of all expenses related to maintenance. “It could be for signs, it could be for seasonal employees, the tractor, even the gas that we put in the tractor, the stone dust, replacing culverts, everything we do on the bike path,” she said.

The MRC will contribute $125,000 total toward this project, $85,000 of which comes from FRR stream 2 funding while another $40,000 comes from municipal share revenues. It will ask for another $125,000 from the ministry.

“There will be an inspection, probably next month, of the whole trail and determine where we are going to do upgrades,” she said. “We are looking at putting in new gates, some of them are needing to be replaced.”

Allumette Island mayor Corey Spence read a notice of motion about a proposed bylaw change relating to the Cycloparc PPJ which, if passed, would allow certain motorized vehicles access the trail in specific cases.

Lesage said the idea is to update the existing bylaw that has been in place since 1998 to reflect the fact that there are certain motorized vehicles that wish to use the trail.

“Before, it said ‘No vehicles are allowed.’ Well, now we’re saying maybe there are vehicles allowed,” she said, listing e-bikes as an example of vehicles that will be allowed on the trail if the bylaw is passed by the mayors.
Lesage also said the bylaw could also allow “van lifers” – visitors who travel in camper vans and stay at the MRC’s dedicated van stops – to park their vans on the wider parts of the trail.

“For example, in Campbell’s Bay in front of the park there’s that big parking lot, there’s room to park with a van, so it’s making it easier that way,” she said.

She said the PPJ is an asset the MRC must use and maintain well and make accessible for all of its users if it is to be a driver of tourism in the region.

“[It’s about] quality of life, exercise, fresh air, we have the path so we want people to use it. It brings people into different towns and they get to discover and come back, or tell their friends to come.”

MRC to release composting call for interest

Mayors also voted in favour of the MRC releasing a call for interest for the management of organic waste in the county.

MRC environmental coordinator Nina Digiaocchino said the MRC wants to put out a call for interest in order to gauge interest and cost before proceeding with a call for tender.

“We hope to be able to establish what the actual cost would be involved,” she wrote in an email. “And also help determine if there are any local or other businesses that would be interested to handle the collection, transport and or possible processing of compost.”

She said the call for interest should be released by mid-June, and will ask companies to draft proposals for various scenarios.

“Backyard composting continues to be encouraged and works very well in certain areas. However, the type of program we are looking at here includes a much larger array of acceptable materials such as fats, meats and essentially anything produced in your kitchen,” she said.