On June 18, the MRC Pontiac council of mayors met for their monthly public meeting at the MRC office in Campbell’s Bay.
During the TNO section of the council’s monthly meeting, which deals with the county’s non-organized territory, Warden Jane Toller asked territory director Jason Durand about the progress of the bridge project at kilometre 54 of the Jim’s Lake Road, which was washed out earlier this year. Instead of replacing the culvert at the site, the Ministry of Natural Resources determined that a bridge was necessary. The road is a main artery into the territory, and though there is a detour available via chemin Schyan, the blockage has caused major headaches for the outfitters in the area. At the May meeting, the mayors approved up to $80,000 for the project.
At the June meeting, Durand said that the contractor has been selected and is in the process of sending their plans for the bridge to the provincial authorities for approval.
“Now they’re at the point where they’re making blueprints for the bridge,” he said. “From what I understand they’re going to be ready for next week and transmitted to the Ministry of Natural Resources to be analyzed and hopefully they’re in conformity.”
Durand added that once the plan is approved, the delivery of materials could take some time as well.
Youth council no longer meeting
Prompted by a question from Thorne Mayor Terry Murdock, Toller shared that the MRC Pontiac youth council is no longer meeting, due to low attendance.
“We had about two meetings and the numbers were so scarce this year, I don’t know why, but you know, it’s just, sometimes these things go in waves,” Toller said, noting that they had about four students attending. She said they met informally for the last time in March.
The youth council initiative, which Toller spearheaded in 2019, invites students from across the region’s three high schools to discuss issues affecting their cohort, and participate in local politics.
Over the years the councils have held events targeted at young people their age, such as a series of mental health forums back in 2024.
Toller said that they would try and solicit a new group of students in September. She added that in the past, the mayors were tasked with finding youth representatives from their municipalities, and perhaps that would be a better format going forward.
Castor Géant trail feasibility study
The mayors approved a resolution authorizing the cooperative Le Pic-Bois to undertake a feasibility study on the possible development of the Castor Géant trail, connecting the Chutes Coulonge park in Mansfield-et-Pontefract with Leslie Lake park in Otter Lake. There has previously been a roughly 15 km trail in the area that has since been overgrown. The resolution states that the project is set to start June 19 and be completed no later than Mar. 31, 2028.
The financing for the study, which is billed at $40,294, is broken down in the resolution, with $25,000 from Tourism Outaouais, $5,000 from the Leslie Park Foundation and $10,294 from the MRC, via FRR component two funding.
Warden Toller requested that more information on the project be presented to the mayors at the next plenary or parks committee meeting.
Funding for student firefighting equipment
MRC public safety coordinator Julien Gagnon introduced a resolution at the end of the meeting approving a project to fund practice bunker suits for the student firefighter programs at the local high schools. He explained that currently when the students need to practice, they are using equipment borrowed from neighbouring fire departments, and finding the correct size boots, gloves and other equipment for teenagers has proven challenging.
“We sometimes have the problem of, students are a little smaller than fully grown adults in fire services, so there’s a very big difficulty in finding pairs of boots and bunkers suits that are appropriate size for teens,” he said.
“It obviously wouldn’t be fully-fledged bunker suits like in your fire halls, because these students won’t be running into burning buildings, so we can allow ourselves to buy older, maybe reconditioned equipment that doesn’t cost as much and allow them to use it,” he added.
The resolution states that the project’s overall costs are $100,800, with funding to come from the FRR 3 vitalization budget for the 2026 year. It also notes that “fundraising and citizen mobilization activities, including through the La Ruche platform, could be implemented in order to support the sustainability and development of this program.”
The meeting ended with an in-camera discussion of “human resources” issues, an agenda item proposed at the beginning of the meeting by l’Isle-aux-Allumettes mayor and HR committee chair Corey Spence. In-camera sessions are conducted in private and are meant for the council to discuss sensitive issues.
The council doesn’t sit in July and the next public meeting is scheduled for Aug. 20.
