On Thursday evening, MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller was sworn in officially for her third term at the helm of county politics. A quick check of the archives and yep, it was yours truly who covered her first inauguration for this paper back on Nov. 14, 2017. Where does the time go?
This time around, Toller ditched the glossy billboard with 11 priorities previous councils had touted and spoke about her new set of preoccupations, which formed the loose acronym PONTIAC.
One thing that was striking about the priorities she brandished in front of her supporters was that the majority are outside of her jurisdiction.
The seven priorities are, briefly, power grid modernization in the upper Pontiac, protecting the local health care system, collective transportation, sharing municipal services, increasing the availability of trades education, protecting agricultural land and supporting private wood producers.
These are mostly provincial issues, and while it’s very important to advocate for change in higher levels of government, this comes across as a bit of political sleight of hand. Many important decisions are made in Quebec City, so why would you set goals around things that you mostly can’t control?
These are the issues that get the most attention. They’re a lot more flashy than the arcane details of the property tax system or sewage infrastructure, a municipal politician’s bread and butter. Even our MNA has only so much say when it comes to something like health care, as he sits on the opposition bench, and the Outaouais resides in the province’s blind spot.
Municipal officials have asked the government to restore our local obstetrics department, but most knew at the time that it wasn’t coming back. The MRC can help house and integrate new doctors or health care workers in the area, but can the warden offer up any new ideas in this department that weren’t available to her for the past eight years?
It should also be noted that Hydro-Québec has already announced it will be upgrading its infrastructure in the area, with work on a new multi-million dollar substation set to be underway in 2029, when this crop of officials is up for re-election (in time for a photo op, perhaps?). It’s quite odd to “prioritize” something an organization has already committed to. What exactly is there left to do from the warden’s chair? The current strategy seems to entail making a show of calling HQ’s community relations line every time someone complains about an outage on Facebook.
Toller also said she aims to keep evaluations and property taxes “affordable”. How? Affordable for whom? These things are largely in the hands of the real estate market which dictates the selling prices, and individual municipalities, which dictate the tax rate. Where exactly does the warden see her role in all this? The MRC share formula was tweaked in the last term after Alleyn-et-Cawood’s situation caused a stir, so what exactly needs further changes?
Near the end of her speech, Toller said that she would be “holding” the provincial government to its promise of delivering cell phone coverage by fall 2026 using “satellite technology.” Do we have Legault’s phone number? Are we going to make him an offer he can’t refuse if he flakes on us?
It’s fine to advocate for our region, but the focus should remain on things that municipal officials are actually capable of doing. With a $10 million budget (give or take) and an ever expanding brain trust of bureaucrats at the office in Campbell’s Bay, surely there are things under the warden’s control that she could have shoehorned into her acrostic campaign slogan. Back in 2017, her first change was to move the council meetings to the evening, for better public participation. It was one of her best decisions as warden, and it made an immediate improvement. Credit where it’s due.
One priority Toller mentioned that is firmly in her jurisdiction is the sharing of municipal services, a subject that has come to the forefront recently due to MRC public safety staff exploring the merging of local fire departments.
To take that thought even further, maybe, just maybe, we don’t need 18 different councils and municipal staff for 15,000 people. No need to rush, this has only been talked about in circles for more than a decade.
However, even this subject is out of Toller’s hands, as each fief lord sitting around the table can choose not to vote themselves out of a job.
Every council in the region has been asked more than once to consider reducing the size of their councils to four, and only two chose to reduce their number in the previous term. To no one’s surprise, the majority think the status quo is just fine, and paying for a full council, DG and other employees for jurisdictions with less than 500 people is an efficient use of tax dollars. Changing this would likely be a good way to keep those all-important property taxes “affordable”.
Presenting an alternative path for the future is a difficult challenge for any political leader. It’s even more difficult if you’ve got the baggage of sitting in the driver’s seat for the past eight years and are now attempting a course-correction.
There are some important priorities in the list, including the abattoir project, in which the MRC has invested significant funds, as well as increasing education/job training options for local youth. However, setting realistic goals means having a realistic understanding of the limits of your power.
Making our case to what’s likely to be a PQ government on any of the aforementioned provincial subjects will be an uphill battle, to say the least. Bonne chance, Jane.
