Brett Thoms
Pontiac April 1, 2022
The council of the Municipality of Pontiac(MOP) is in the preliminary stages of exploring whether or not to apply to the Government of Quebec to leave the MRC des Collines for the MRC Pontiac.
On March 15, Rino Soucy, the lawyer who handled the transfer of the . . .
municipality of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette from the MRC des Collins to the MRC Papineau, gave a presentation to MOP council on how the process could go.
Since this presentation, the MOP’s council has yet to make any further moves in starting the process.
According to Mayor Roger Larose, the next step he plans on taking is to seek agreement from the warden of MRC des Collines and then ask council to commission a study on the merits of proceeding with the transfer.
The process for how a municipality goes about changing an MRC is outlined in the Quebec law entitled The Act Respecting Municipal Territory Organization.
The act allows the MOP to submit an application to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing as well as to the MRC Pontiac and MRC des Collines to make the move.
Once that application is received by the minister, a thirty-day period is initiated after which a public hearing is held by the Municipal Commission of Quebec.
After the hearing, the Minister of Municipal Affairs has the option to initiate a referendum in the municipality applying to join the MRC. If the municipality approves of the transfer, a similar process would be initiated in the MRC Pontiac.
Once that is completed, the minister then has the final say on whether to approve the request or amend it, if necessary.
The council of the applicant municipality would then vote to approve any amendments made by the minister.
After the transfer of the municipality has been approved by the minister, any laws that were passed by the MRC des Collines would still be applicable in the MOP, until they expire, meet their objective or have been repealed or replaced.
The law also states that the cost of the process is paid for by the applicant municipality.
The process is not used often according to Soucy. The transfer of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette was the last time the process was started and took about two years to complete.
Soucy also added that there wasn’t a referendum in Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette before the transfer. This is because, whether or not a referendum happens in either the applicant municipality or the MRC they wish to join is at the discretion of the minister and not a necessary precondition of the process.
As of now the municipal council of Pontiac has not applied to the province or formally asked the two MRC’s about their positions, according to Mayor Roger Larose. He says the council still needs to prepare the list of reasons to present to the provincial government and commission a study on whether the move makes financial sense.
“As far as I’m concerned, we were in the wrong MRC from day one,” said Larose. He added the fact that the municipality has to cooperate with MRC Pontiac on issues like transportation is one possible good reason why the move may make sense.
The pandemic, and in particular how COVID-19 measures were implemented in the MOP compared to the MRC Pontiac, is a major reason for why this move is happening now.
“We were separated from the MRC Pontiac but that’s where our day-to-day lives take place,” said Caryl McCann, councillor of ward two, and daughter of Edward McCann, who ran for mayor on the platform of changing MRCs in the last election.
“We didn’t have cases like in (Gatineau). We were more like Shawville. That alone as a parent was enough to make me be pro switching,” said McCann, whose eldest daughter attends school in Shawville. “On a personal level, it’s just about investing and being a part of where I live the bulk of my life.”
MNA André Fortin, who is from Quyon, is supportive of the MOP investigating the pros and cons of a move.
“In many regards, Quyon has much more ties to the MRC Pontiac than it does the MRC des Collines”, said Fortin. “So, it’s logical from a services standpoint, from a collaboration standpoint and from a cultural standpoint to look into the impact of switching MRCs. I certainly encourage the MOP to complete that analysis and to look at the benefits and risks of changing MRCs.”
Mayor Larose stated that without support for the move from the wardens of both MRCs there is no point in continuing the process.
Jane Toller, warden of the MRC Pontiac is supportive.
“I am in great support of this idea,” said Toller. “The advantages for us are that we would have a population increase of 6,000 people, so we go from 14,000 to 20,000. A lot of people are moving into the area and there’s quite a bit of a good revenue stream coming in.”
“But secondly, I believe we will take better care of them. I believe we have more in common with them,” Toller added.
There is some concern that the population disparities between the MOP and the other 18 municipalities of the MRC may cause some issues relating to democratic representation, as each municipality regardless of its size, has one vote on MRC council.
“There could be a possible disadvantage to either us or municipalities in the MRC Pontiac because we have a bigger population. Some may be concerned that we would have more power because we have more people and that would be unfair,” said McCann who added that she would have to think about the issue more.
“We currently have Mansfield with 2500 people, and they still only get one vote versus say Rapides-des-Joachims which is less than 200 people,” said Toller about the issue. “But I don’t know, we’d have to take a look. It would be a little different. But at this point, the easiest thing would be that they would become the nineteenth municipality of the MRC.”
Mayor Larose said he was looking to resolve the question about changing MRCs one way or another in the near future. “In the end it is always an issue every election year,” said Mayor Larose.
