Chris Lowrey
FORT COULONGE Sept. 7, 2017
Local entrepreneur Jane Toller has announced her candidacy for the MRC Pontiac Warden position in this fall’s municipal elections.
Toller, who finished second in the 2006 mayoral race in Toronto, made her declaration at an event at the Spruceholme Inn in front of nearly 100 supporters.
The event was kicked off by former Fort Coulonge Mayor Hector Soucie who gave a speech that those in attendance bursting out into several rounds of applause.
When Toller started her speech – in French – her language choice garnered a rousing cheer from her supporters.
She began by noting the changes that have gone on in the region in the last decade or so.
Toller pointed out the fact that the Pontiac used to be a bustling economic hub in the Ottawa Valley.
“In the 1800s, we were the largest and richest county in Canada,” she said. “When I look around today, one would ask: what happened?”
She pointed to the decline of the lumber industry in the region as one of the driving factors for the bleak economic fortunes of the Pontiac.
She pointed to her roots in the area – her great-grandfather was lumber baron George Bryson.
“I believe the Brysons were builders and the Pontiac showed it.”
She also said that years of government inaction are one of the main causes of the current malaise the Pontiac finds itself in.
She pointed to the MRC biomass project, which she claimed has received $300,000 in government funding with nothing to show for it.
“My belief is that the government forgot about us,” she said. “Sawmills were closed, which led to massive unemployment. Today, many of us ask: Did the mills really have to close in the Pontiac?”
“Every day we hate to see lumber trucks taking pine from north of Sheenboro and driving down the 148,” Toller said. “We have become a drive-through community.”
She pointed to her work in pushing the idea of a municipal pool in Fort Coulonge, which got unanimous approval from council for further exploration.
She also said she is in full support of Soucy’s idea of connecting Fort Coulonge and Calumet Island with a bridge.
But Toller said that her main focus will be on helping to create jobs in the region.
She also spelled out the word Pontiac, with each letter standing for a principle of her campaign.
Although her speech was given in both languages, her French still lags behind her English skills. But Toller said she is working on becoming bilingual, and Francophones need not worry about communicating with her because until she is 100 per cent bilingual, she’ll pay for someone to assist with translating out of her own pocket.
Toller said that if she wins she will trust the day-to-day operations of her business at the Spruceholme Inn to a manager so she can focus exclusively on the Warden job.
Toller sits on several committees in the Pontiac. If she wins, she will step down from several of them but will stay on the Economic SWAT team and the Invest Pontiac committees since the Warden already sits on them.
