New law expected to ban hunting from roads: Next fall, a provincial law will prohibit hunting from public roadways in zone 10, including Pontiac.

That’s the recommendation Wildlife and Parks Quebec, a newly-formed association under the Ministry of Transport will give to the Ministry of Wildlife and Environment.

“When you stop road hunting, you stop 95 per cent of the problem (associated with hunting),” said Jean-Marc Besserve, the director of protection of Wildlife and Parks Quebec.

Landowners besieged by trespassing hunters every season are welcoming the news.

“The only way to (stop it) is to pass a provincial law,” said Eric Fletcher, whose Steele Line farm north of Quyon has often been a target for roadside hunters.

The law will prohibit hunting from the roadway and a 10-metre shoulder. It will also make it illegal to fire across the roadway or shoot an animal that is on a road.

McCrank named new warden: With nary a challenger, Litchfield Mayor Michael McCrank was named warden of Pontiac MRC on Monday.

The 17 mayors gave their full support to McCrank who replaces Mansfield Mayor Robert Ladouceur. Who resigned as warden after nine years at the helm.

“We have big changes ahead of us,” said McCrank, who was first elected as mayor seven years ago.

With the upcoming Bedard Commission on municipal reform, “it means we have to work closer together than ever before,” said McCrank, showing he and Ladouceur are reading from the same page.

Caldwell Notes by Hermonie Sharpe: This is Friday, as I write and the temperature on my thermometer registers 25 degrees below Celsius, but then, I like the Fahrenheit side which says around 10 degrees below. When I read that side, I feel warmer. We sure need snow as this cold weather isn’t good for the farmers’ fields.