The MoP announced the official unveiling of its newly designed website on May 12 as well, although not in the meeting directly but through a press release from assistant director general Geneviève Latulippe.

The website, which went live on May 12, was designed by several Cégep de l’Outaouais multimedia students over the past year, with the last few stages of the process being done by a single student.

During last Tuesday’s meeting, the council passed a resolution concerning the donating of $2,000 to the multimedia students’ class as a token of gratitude due to the fact that the students developed the new website on a voluntary basis.

Speaking to THE EQUITY following the meeting, Labadie said that the sleek, new website design was a long time coming, as the previous website was designed in 2012 and was not mobile friendly.

“I’m pleased, I think that the students at the Cégep de l’Outaouais were extraordinarily professional, I was so impressed with their skill, their talent, and their ability to work with the administrative team at the municipality, and doing is all through distance and not on site,” she said.

“So I think it’s great moving forward to have a website that will be more user friendly.”

Public works

The council passed a series of resolutions relating to public works during the meeting, beginning with awarding two contracts for snow removal for the years 2021-2025, in Sector G and in Sector A.

For Sector G, a contract worth $955,379.93 was awarded to John Schuiteboer Cartage Inc. while Sector A’s contract, which is for a significantly smaller area, was worth $74,733.76 for Nugent Construction Inc.

Councillor Scott McDonald voted against awarding the contract for Sector G, contesting that it was too significant of an increase from the previous term’s snow contract, which was roughly $540,000. Labadie explained that the previous contract was so much lower because there was an unusual underbid from the contractor.

“Twice the amount? I would send that back out to tender,” McDonald said.

With the section of chemin Bronson Bryant that was washed out during 2019 spring floods yet to be repaired, the council passed a resolution to mandate the firm QDI to carry out the plans and specifications, a hydraulic study, and the supervision of work for the rehabilitation of the culvert that was washed out. The amount to be paid to the firm was set at $85,000.

McDonald voted against the resolution, as he questioned whether the municipality needed to repair an additional entrance into Quyon.

“I’ve always felt that Quyon has many different entrances, we’ve got Clarendon, we’ve got Murray. How many entrances do we need into a small village?” he said. He added that entrances like the one on Clarendon had more attractions to it as opposed to an entrance like Bronson-Bryant, which he described as a “bypass” entrance.

After the meeting, Labadie explained why she felt repairing the washed out section should be a priority.

“It’s not like Bronson Bryant is a four-lane highway that bypasses the village, and the people that live on it are part of the community and when they need a loaf of bread, they’re gonna go to their local business and buy it,” she said.

Next, the council passed a resolution to initiate the call for tender process pertaining to the rehabilitation of chemin Murray and Clarendon, between Hwy. 148 and the bridge crossing the Quyon River in the village.

The council also moved to repair and purchase guardrails on four different roads in the municipality: Wiggins, Westbrook, Cochrane and Crégheur. A resolution was passed to mandate Entreprises Steve Couture to carry out the work for $55,789.43.

Miscellaneous

Earlier on in the meeting, a resolution was passed to utilize the Local Road Network Maintenance Assistance Program (PAERRL) to compensate the municipality for maintaining the road network through 2020. Thanks to the program, the municipality is able to receive the compensation of $563,346 from the Quebec Ministry of Transport.

The council also passed a resolution to pay $9,180.60 to Innovision+ for technical support throughout the pre-election and election process during this fall’s municipal elections. The company will manage documents and materials relating to the election, as the resolution explained that the municipality’s staff alone is not sufficient to oversee the entire election process.

Having already received two grants for the rehabilitation of the ballpark lighting system at the Luskville Recreational Park, the council passed a resolution to proceed with awarding the mandate for the sizing of the bases and the plan and specifications for the work.

The engineering firm CIMA+ was awarded the $29,778.53 mandate through the resolution.

The MoP received $150,000 from a Toronto Blue Jays foundation and an additional $82,914 from the Ministry of Education.

The municipality will be using Canada’s summer job program to hire Julien Charette, who also held the temporary position through the program last summer.

The MoP’s next monthly meeting is scheduled for June 8.

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