Chris Lowrey
CHAPEAU April 30, 2018
Pontiac MNA André Fortin and Pontiac MP Will Amos were in attendance to announce the start of construction on the Pontiac’s newest seniors’ residence – Résidence Meilleur du Haut Pontiac.
The facility is located on Allumettes Island and is the culmination of seven years of hard work by local volunteers.
The facility will include 12 affordable housing units for seniors and will cost a total of $3.1 million.
The federal and provincial governments have chipped in $1.1 million of the total cost to help bring the project to fruition.
Additionally, the municipality of Allumettes Island also kicked in just over $300,000.

Fortin said projects like this one are becoming more and more necessary in the Pontiac.
“It was something that was dreamed of and asked for by many local citizens for years now,” Fortin said. “There really is a need, right across the Pontiac, to improve our availability of housing for seniors.”
Fortin said that the lack of options has been driving seniors out of the region.
“The upper Pontiac has been losing residents to the Pembroke area,” he said.
Residents of the facility will benefit from the SHQ rent supplement program, which ensures that no more than 25 per cent of an individual’s income goes to housing costs.
Fortin also pointed to the uniqueness of the Résidence Meilleur du Haut Pontiac project. He said that most of the legwork had been completed for the residence when a fire killed 32 people and injured 15 at a seniors home in L’Isle Verte in 2014.
The L’Isle Verte facility wasn’t equipped with a sprinkler system, as Quebec only requires highrise buildings to have them.
In light of the tragedy, the Quebec government reexamined its regulations and the Résidence Meilleur du Haut Pontiac had to wait.
“It slowed down government,” Fortin said. “We wanted to review our programs to make sure that the housing that was being built was up to norms and that events like that wouldn’t happen again.”
In the same vein as the Résidence Meilleur du Haut Pontiac, Fortin also spoke about the Villa James Shaw project in Shawville.
“The Shawville project certainly is a very positive one,” Fortin said. “One that would meet the needs of the community in Shawville because the dynamic in Shawville is much the same as the one in Chapeau.”
Fortin said that the Villa James Shaw committee is finishing up some studies and is headed in the right direction and that when the plans are in place, the government will be there to help.
Fortin also wanted to congratulate the volunteers who spearheaded the Résidence Meilleur du Haut Pontiac project.
“Their resilience is exemplary in that they didn’t let some roadblocks along the way stop them,” Fortin said. “They had a determined vision and they saw it through.”