MRC Pontiac mayors voted to award one portion of the MRC’s contract for the handling of the territory’s recycling to a Mont Tremblant-based company at their monthly meeting on June 18.
Under this contract, Location Martin-Lalonde Inc. will be providing door-to-door recycling collection for the municipalities of Bryson, Campbell’s Bay, Portage du Fort, Allumette Island, Chichester, Sheenboro and Waltham, as well as seasonal collection in certain urban areas of Bristol.
Shawville, Fort Coulonge, Alleyn and Cawood and Mansfield will conduct their own recycling collection service, while residents in other municipalities will continue to take their recycling to their local transfer station.
Warden Jane Toller said this contract will get some municipalities closer to what she knows the Government of Quebec will be mandating by 2028 – province-wide door-to-door pick up of recycling.
In January 2025, a non-profit organization called Éco Entreprises Québec (EEQ) took over the management of recycling across the province. Its management will see companies that produce plastic items pay for the cost of recycling them, money that will then be used to subsidize recycling collection and processing costs across the province.
“[EEQ] has guaranteed that by working with the manufacturers they can get the money they can then pay back to the municipalities,” Warden Toller explained. “So if all goes well, a future tax bill would not be charging people for recycling or composting. That would be looked after by the EEQ.”
The two-year contract awarded to Location Martin-Lalonde has a value of $504,609.63 before taxes, which will be reimbursed by the EEQ. Only one bid was received for this lot.
Toller said the MRC received several bids for lots two and three of the call for tender, for the collection and transportation of front-loading and roll-off containers, as well as for the rental of front-loading and roll-off containers, respectively.
“We just aren’t ready to vote on them or announce them yet,” she said.
Two solar developers interested in region
Also at the monthly public mayors’ meeting, MRC economic development officer Rachel Soar-Flandé presented an update on the work she, along with the MRC’s renewable energy committee, has been doing to position the Pontiac region as a good place for solar energy development.
“The MRC Pontiac has one of the best solar resources in Quebec,” she said. “By 2035 Hydro-Québec aims to develop 40,000 megawatts of solar energy in Quebec. Germany has 80,000 megawatts of solar energy on their territory and they have 20 per cent less sun.”
Soar-Flandé said Hydro-Québec announced at the beginning of May 2025 that it was launching calls for tender for 300 megawatts of solar energy, and that the MRC is currently supporting renewable energy developer Innergex in putting together a bid.
She said during project development, the MRC Pontiac can contribute to the partnership by collaborating with the promoter to carry out “social acceptability processes within the population,” support with site research and facilitation for land acquisition or leasing, and provide support adapting municipal land use plans and zoning, if necessary.
She emphasized that Hydro-Québec’s call for tenders does not permit the use of any agricultural land for solar projects.
Pontiac warden Jane Toller said a second company has also expressed interest in developing a solar project on the territory.
“So right now they’re each looking at our industrial lands and where there could be brownfields – places where a solar farm could be easily placed – and that could span different municipalities,” Toller said.
“Innergex didn’t ask for exclusivity, just exclusivity at their own site [ . . . ] We could have multiple solar locations.”
