The MRC Pontiac council of mayors resumed its regular monthly meetings on Aug. 20 after taking a break for the month of July.
Mayors began by sharing a few words of thanks to former Shawville mayor Bill McCleary, who stepped down in July and was replaced at the MRC table by Acting Mayor Richard Armitage.
Mayors then passed two resolutions in support of motions also passed at other neighbouring councils. First, mayors voted to support a resolution from MRC Vallée-de-la-Gatineau that calls on the Quebec government to re-establish and maintain sufficient numbers of wildlife protection officers in the rural regions of Quebec, and requests it reopen the Campbell’s Bay Wildlife Protection Office. When the office closed in March of this year, environment ministry spokesperson Ève Morin Desrosiers said the decision was made “with the goal of healthy management of provincial resources” after the office had been reduced to a single part-time administrative employee.
Mayors also joined the growing number of local councils who have passed a resolution calling on all provincial parties to commit to participating in an English-language leaders debate ahead of the October election.
An English debate was scheduled to take place on Sept. 24, but was cancelled because the Coalition avenir Québec and the Parti Québécois declined to participate, citing scheduling conflicts, while the Quebec Liberal Party conditioned its participation on the agreement of all parties.
“English-language leaders’ debates provide an essential opportunity for English-speaking electors to hear directly from provincial party leaders on issues that affect them, including access to services, healthcare, education, and language rights,” the resolution reads.
A copy of the resolution will now be sent to leaders of the PQ, the CAQ, the Quebec Liberal Party, Québec solidaire, and the Conservative Party of Quebec.
Wetland education program coming to Pontiac schools
Mayors passed a resolution brought forward by MRC environment manager Kari Richardson for the approval of the use of $43,844.01 of already obtained provincial funding to pay for the development and delivery of local educational workshops about how to protect wetlands. The money will pay the organization Water Education and Ecosurveillance Group (G3E) to offer this service over the next two school years, with the goal of strengthening young people’s understanding of environmental issues and fostering an interest in wetland conservation.
“We want to use that money to create school programs that would be bilingual for all of our youth across the territory that we can then adopt as our own and adjust in future years as we need,” Richardson said. “Once we’ve paid for this, it becomes our material and we can adjust them for whatever age group we want.”
The funding will come out of the $289,550 received from Quebec’s environment ministry in 2025 for the implementation of the MRC’s Regional Wetlands and Waterways Plan.
New Hurdman Lake leases
Two of the last items on the agenda had to do with the development of new resort leases on Hurdman Lake in the municipality of Chichester.
The first resolution passed approved a subdivision plan for the Hurdman Lake resort development project that would see seven new lease lots added to the five that already exist on the lake.
These lots will be awarded through random draw on the SÉPAQ website. The winners of these lots will pay taxes to and get building permits from Chichester, and will also pay the annual lease fee to the MRC Pontiac, 50 per cent of which will be transferred to the MRNF.
Several mayors around the table raised concerns that people signing these lease agreements are not made aware that the municipalities are not responsible for the maintenance of smaller roads to these lots.
“People buy or get those tickets to have the lot, then they come to our municipality to go cut branches, or do other road repairs, and this and that. Well as of tonight, this is finis chez nous,” said Mansfield-et-Pontefract mayor Sandra Armstrong.
MRC assistant director general Terry Lafleur explained that the lease contract makes clear that municipalities are not responsible for maintaining access to the lots, and mayors requested copies of the contracts for easy reference when talking to lease holders.
The second resolution passed authorized the MRC to pay the stumpage fees for clearing a small access road to the lots and award a $25,000-contract for the construction and repair of the roads with money from the Fonds de mise en valeur du territoire. Under the MRC’s agreement with the MRNF, it is required to give access to these lots.
Two HR items added to agenda
L’Isle-aux-Allumettes mayor Corey Spence, also member of the MRC’s HR committee, added two agenda items pertaining to HR matters.
The first was for the passing of a resolution that would authorize the HR Committee to “retain independent legal counsel as external workplace investigator for the purpose of advising on and, if required, assisting with the processing of a confidential workplace complaint under the MRC’s harassment, violence, and incivility policy.” Mayors approved the request.
The second item was for an in-camera discussion of a workplace employee survey.
