At the MRC Pontiac public meeting on May 21, council passed a resolution requesting that the Municipality of Rapides-des-Joachims be recognized as a remote/isolated community by Quebec’s Ministry of Health and Social Services.
The resolution highlights the difficulties faced in the municipality, which has roughly 150 year-round residents and sits more than an hour west of the rest of the county, only accessible through Ontario. The resolution notes that “comparable Quebec communities with similar or lesser constraints have been recognized as remote or isolated and benefit from adapted funding and service models” and states that the recognition would support equitable service delivery and access to health care.
It calls for the creation of a comprehensive supporting dossier documenting the issues of travel times, emergency response delays and gaps in service. The MRC has committed to supporting the request, which will be sent to the Ministry of Health, regional health authority CISSSO, local members of the National Assembly and Pontiac MP Sophie Chatel.
Mayor Roger Lafond said that there have been a host of issues caused by the village’s distance from amenities and authorities on the Quebec side of the river.
He highlighted the public safety concerns that they have in a community where Quebec police have to travel more than an hour through Ontario to respond to calls. A particularly concerning incident took place during the May long weekend, as someone stole a logging truck and drove it dangerously through town. Lafond said that Sûreté du Québec (SQ) officers arrived after the damage had been done and the perpetrator was gone, due to the distance they had to travel to reach the scene.
SQ spokesperson Marc Tessier wrote in an email that they had received a call at around 1:30 p.m. on May 16 about a person driving a truck at a high speed in the municipality.
“Moments later, we received a request for assistance from the OPP regarding a vehicle theft in their jurisdiction, and the vehicle in question matches the same one. The vehicle was later located abandoned on Church Street, with no driver present, and there was damage to a fence. An investigation is underway to locate the driver of the truck.”
As of June 1, no arrests had been made in the case, though the SQ noted that the investigation is ongoing. Lafond said that the situation was extremely frustrating since the perpetrator is known in the community. He said that the truck was driven in broad daylight through the centre of town, near the village’s playground and damaged some ditches and a fence by the cemetery.
“People were leaving town with their children with her driving that truck around,” he said.
He said SQ’s local liaison officer was given an earful by concerned residents when he visited last week.
“He came last week and we sat down and we talked [ . . . ] we wanted to know the procedures that they do. People were very concerned that there was no arrest. It’s because there’s an ongoing investigation,” he said. “It’s now in the crown’s hands, he didn’t have much info because he’s not the investigating officer. He’s aware of our frustrations because he got grilled by [them] pretty hard.”
Another issue Lafond said they deal with is access to health care. The community has a nurse that comes up to the local CLSC one day a week. In emergencies, residents can be taken to the Deep River Hospital, roughly 15 minutes away. However, Lafond said that to avoid paying out of pocket, some need to travel as far as Fort-Couonge, a three-hour round trip, to purchase their medication.
Lafond added that the closest public long-term care facility on the Quebec side was in Mansfield, which can put a big strain on families travelling to visit regularly.
He said that some kind of agreement for local residents to access some services on the Ontario side, closer to home, would be a massive improvement, and that if the municipality could forge some kind of similar liaison with the local OPP branch to respond in their community would also be a massive improvement.
This isn’t the first time the municipality has requested special status. In August 2024, the previous council passed a resolution asking for increased access to cross-border services, such as health care.
