Carl Mayer has lived in Alleyn-et-Cawood his entire life, and with the exception of a four-year hiatus, has been sitting on town council in some capacity since the mid ‘80s. He was first elected mayor 12 years ago and has held the seat ever since. 

Mayer, who’s had a career as a truck driver for various businesses, said he first ran for council because he was familiar with road maintenance and felt his knowledge could be an asset to the municipality.

“The municipality has lots of roads to look after, so I could help them there, because knowing what it’s worth to get a load of gravel on the road back then, and how much it costs and stuff like that. I was always interested in helping out with the municipality,” he said. 

He said he’s running for a fourth term as mayor because he enjoys the job, and cares about saving the town money however he can. 

“I’ve lived here all my life, and if you want to vote for me, vote for me. If you don’t want to vote for me, that’s fine. Like I said, no hard feelings.”

Mayer said one of the biggest challenges in his municipality is the increase in property evaluations it’s seen over the past couple of years, in part caused by the sale of some empty lots at an inflated price in 2023. 

“I don’t think the evaluation thing is right, to tell you the truth, because, I mean, it’s the land that’s selling for more than what it’s worth. I mean, who wants their house to be evaluated at more than what it’s really worth,” he said. 

“We’re fighting it now with the evaluation part of it, thinking that it’s not done properly with the comparative factor. [ . . . ] The problem is, here, we try to keep the taxes down for a lot of these older people because they’re all in fixed incomes, and some of them just get their old age [pensions].” 

Mayer pointed to his dedication to maintaining the municipality’s roads as one of the efforts he’s most proud of from his past four years. 

“Keeping our roads up to par stuff is the biggest thing, because we have so many,” he said. 

He said council also had to bring in a new rule that people who purchased a vacant lot could only keep a trailer on it for two years before they would have to build on it. 

“We had to do something, because other than that, they have a whole bunch of trailer parks.”

In terms of priorities at the MRC Pontiac level, Mayer said he would like to see the system for calculating municipal shares changed so that municipalities only pay for the services they receive. 

“I have nothing against the PPJ trail, and the bussing and all that stuff, but we pay out of our shares all into that stuff, and we don’t get to see any of that down here,” he said. 

“I mean, why should you have to pay for something that you don’t get a service out of, right?”

Sidney Squitti has lived in Alleyn-et-Cawood since she was three weeks old. She’s now the mother of two young boys, works full-time in project management for Correctional Service Canada, and has been a municipal councillor in Alleyn-et-Cawood for 12 years. In her capacity as pro-mayor over the last year she has been the municipality’s representative at both regional and provincial meetings. 

“I have experience, both on council and in my career, managing budgets, ensuring that projects stay within scope, and dealing with interpersonal issues,” she said. “I just hope to be able to carry on that work and help build this community and make us as strong and bright as it can be.”

Squitti said she began considering running for mayor after getting more involved in her municipality’s property evaluation challenges. 

“Given the evaluation issue that we have faced, I had to take on a leadership role, and I discovered that I’m quite good at it, and I have a very strong, passionate voice for my community.”

In 2023, the sale of a number of empty lots for an inflated value increased Alleyn-et-Cawood’s property evaluations by 370 per cent (in year three of its triennial roll). This number came back down to 80 per cent in 2024, year one of its new roll, but the municipality was still charged its 2023 municipal shares based on the year three figure, shares it has refused to pay because it believes they were determined using an inaccurate municipal evaluation number. 

In Jan. 2025 the MRC proceeded with legal action to get the municipality to pay them, which is still not settled. 

Squitti said she wants to join a committee at the Fédération québecoise des municipalités that will be looking into how to redesign how property evaluations are done, but can only join this committee if she is a mayor. 

“If we want to take Alleyn-et-Caywood to where I think it can be, and if we want to correct the evaluation issue, not just for our municipality, not just for the Pontiac, but for the province as a whole, we need a strong voice, and I feel that I have that strong voice.”

Squitti said if elected mayor, her priorities in the first year would be changing her municipality’s taxation system so property owners are only charged for the services they use, and continuing to grow the community to be a place where young families can establish themselves, work she says she’s already begun through her involvement establishing a summer camp in the community.

“My focus is to make Alleyn-et-Cawood a great place for families and a great place to raise kids.”

In her capacity as a member of the MRC Pontiac council of mayors, Squitti said she would continue to advocate for a reform of how municipal shares are calculated, as well as for opening plenary sessions to the public, and the establishment of municipal court services in the MRC. She would also like to see a greater police presence in Alleyn-et-Cawood to help monitor speeding in the town. 

“In my experience, MRC meetings have been more project based, and not so much the day to day. [ . . . ] There needs to be a balance, right? We need to grow as an MRC and as municipalities, yes, but we also need to correct issues that we are currently facing, and ensure basic services are in place.” 

She said she has already been door knocking and is accessible by way of her campaign Facebook page, for those who wish to get in touch with her.

Updated Oct. 16, 1:30 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect the fact that Sidney Squitti has lived in Alleyn-et-Cawood since she was three weeks old, and not three years old, as was previously reported.