Last week MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais Warden Marc Carrière met with municipality of Pontiac (MoP) public and council before MoP’s regular public meeting. This was part of a larger tour of the municipalities under his jurisdiction.
Carrière was accompanied by Benoît Gauthier, the Director General of the MRC,, and Martial Mallette, the Director of Public Security of the MRC.
During the meeting, Carrière explained the role of the MRC in the governing of the MoP and listened to comments and questions from residents.
“We had a great discussion. We explained all the services that the MRC offers to either citizens or business people,” Carrière said in an interview following the meeting.
Highlights of the MRC’s responsibilities include regional economic development, property assessment, public safety and land use planning.
During the meeting, most of the attendees who spoke asked questions concerning the spike in property values assessments, which have gone up by an average of 33 per cent in the last year in the MoP, according to Mayor Roger Larose.
Three residents who spoke explained that their assessment increased by over 40 per cent. Central to one of their concerns was that their evaluations were performed when real estate prices were peaking, leaving their properties overvalued in a since-cooled market. Residents questioned the role the MRC, responsible for performing assessments, played in the high evaluations.
Carrière and Gauthier explained property owners can request a review of their assessment under Règlement 196-13 of the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais, however, the process and timelines of assessment are strictly regulated by the provincial Act respecting municipal taxation.
“The thing I recommend to the people who are concerned about their assessment is first call the MRC’s evaluation service if they have any questions or need any explanation. If your situation is different than what we saw, there can be changes. If people are still not happy or don’t agree with the MRC, there’s a legal process which includes an administrative tribunal,” Carrière said.
Overall, he described the assessment process, as laid out by the provincial government, to be very strict and said any real change would have to come from amendments to the provincial guidelines.
Carrière committed to organizing a public meeting in the coming weeks where MRC employees responsible for assessments would be present to address further concerns. MRC officials also took a question from residents who live on chemin de la Montagne over efforts to reduce speeding on the road. While Carrière and Mallette did not make any specific commitments, they said they would direct the Sécurité Publique MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais to make a greater effort at monitoring the road and investigate potential solutions.
Carrière adamant about keeping MRC ‘in tact’
When asked during the interview with THE EQUITY for his views on the potential of MoP moving to join the MRC Pontiac, which the municipal council voted to look into in March 2022, Carrière said:
“There was not much discussion about that with either the mayor or the council on Tuesday night. For us, the Pontiac is part of the MRC as equal as the five other municipalities and we wish to keep it intact.” When asked if he would try to block a future effort from the municipality to transfer to the MRC Pontiac, Carrière didn’t answer the question directly, but instead reiterated that his goal was to keep the MRC des Collines intact.
“We are really working hard with the MoP and with the mayor, who is doing a good job at the MRC council. All the other mayors want to collaborate and work with the MoP,” he said
At the end of the interview, Carrière said the meeting with the council and population of the Pontiac went well, and he hoped to do something similar at least once a year.
Public meeting
After the meeting with the warden and the MRC staff, the regular public meeting was held.
Notably the municipality passed an acknowledgement of the bilingual status of the MoP. The resolution stated that the municipality refuses to have its bilingual status removed and wishes that municipal services continue to be offered in both languages.
This resolution was passed in response to a letter from the Office québécois de la langue française sent to the municipality last December that requested the municipality send a notice of its wish to remain bilingual.
The Quebec government will now have to renew the municipality’s bilingual status. There has been no reported instance of the Quebec government blocking a request to remain bilingual after a resolution passed by a municipal council.
The MoP also passed a resolution requesting that the Quebec Ministry of Public Security provide financial assistance in training new firefighters.
