the beginning of the pandemic where the municipality was not accepting written questions from residents to be read at council. Those who wished to ask council a question had to appear for the video conference, but none of the people present did so.

Hiring of building technician

A role that was vacant for a year and a half has now been filled by the municipality, with council voting to confirm the hiring of Isabelle Rondeau as the new building technician as of Sept. 14.

Rondeau’s role will have multiple aspects, firstly serving as the official responsible for issuing permits and certificates related to urban planning bylaws. She will also be responsible for making sure that application of bylaw governing matters related to flow of water are done, assisting the MRC des Collines on this file. Additionally, she will be assisting in disagreements on agricultural land over common fences and ditches.

“There’s a real shortage of people with urbanism experience in the region, and we’ve gone out to post for this a number of times,” Mayor Joanne Labadie said after the meeting. “So we’re very happy to be able to find someone who’s really qualified.”

Contracts and expenses

The municipality had several road-related expenses to resolve at the meeting, with the first being authorization for the company Pavage Robillard to pave several street sections through the region. The price tag set was at $67,635 plus taxes.

The second expense was to agree to a new contract for Nugent Construction to continue its maintenance and snow removal in the municipality. The company submitted a proposal of $593,046.89 for the next four years of snow clearance and the council agreed to this proposal, with the money set to come from the general fund.

Council also resolved to pay QDI, an engineering firm, $85,000 plus taxes for them to supervise the impending repairs on chemin de la Montagne.

Labadie told THE EQUITY that the firm that performed the design plans for the repairs, CIMA+, was unprepared to continue the supervision due to COVID-19 among other factors, and therefore council agreed to the supervision costs.

Community assistance

Council made commitments with several different organizations during the meeting, firstly on the tabling of the ACTION-CLIMAT program. This program has been driven by Gatineau think-tank CREDDO, design studio Mandaworks and the Canadian organization Park People.

The project was brought to the MoP on June 8, 2020 with the goal to “better understand the phenomenon of flooding on its territory and its impacts as well as to strengthen the capacity of its multiple actors in the conserving development and sensitive and innovative approach for adapting its shorelines.”

The municipality agreed to commit a maximum of $20,000 to the project, although budgeting will not be finalized until the project is submitted to the Ministry of Environment. The contribution could come in the form of payment in-kind, technical assistance or cash.

Council also approved the request for use of space made by Le Grenier des Collines, a local food bank. Labadie told the council how Grenier has dealt with increased demand throughout the pandemic and that they wish to increase their supply of food, mainly fruit and vegetables.

The council agreed to authorize a five-year lease space agreement with Grenier to use the Quyon Women’s Institute two days per week.

The municipality will also be granting a request for financial assistance to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 231 after agreeing during the meeting.

The legion requested funding after experiencing decreased contributions due to the pandemic and not qualifying for aid from the federal government.

Council granted assistance of $2,500 to the local branch.

Public question discussion

The issue of residents sending in questions was raised, with councillor Scott McDonald seeking clarification from Labadie at the end of the meeting.

He said that he had received emails from residents who were seeking to ask questions, and he wondered when the opportunity for those to be heard would be.

Labadie told him that the council would now be only accepting residents questions if they were present for the Zoom calls, as the MoP had indicated on their Facebook page.

After the meeting, Labadie explained the new format.

“During the Zoom era, what we did was we adapted that we allowed people to write letters, to send us their question,” she said. “But what we were getting were people sending an email [and] not showing up at the meeting in order for us to address it. That’s not permitted at a public meeting, so we would like people to be present, ask your question live, in respect to our policy.”

She also explained why the council has yet to gather in-person despite COVID-19 numbers subsiding.

“As a municipality, I’m not comfortable reopening our public meetings at this point [and putting] our municipal employees or municipal councillors and the public who come to our meetings at risk.”

She added that many of the residents who might normally attend meetings are older and more at risk to the impact of COVD-19 spread.

Miscellaneous

The council used the Sept. 8 meeting to announce the hiring of eight new volunteer firefighters.

Meeting dates for 2021 were also set, and they are the following: Jan. 12, Feb. 9, March 9, April 13, May 11, June 8, July 6, Aug. 24, Sept. 14, Oct. 12, Nov. 9 and Dec. 14.

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