These interviews are part of a series THE EQUITY is publishing with candidates in all 12 mayoral races ahead of the election. Portage-du-Fort interviews were conducted by Caleb Nickerson.
Lynne Cameron has just wrapped up her fourth term as mayor of Portage-du-Fort and is seeking a fifth mandate in the small border village. Prior to her nearly 20 years in the municipality’s top seat, she sat on council for 11 years.
In the previous two elections, she ran against Nicole Thompson, winning by 11 votes (88 compared to her opponent’s 77) in 2021 and six votes (94 to Thompson’s 88) in 2017.
One of the big challenges in the municipality is the upkeep on its water infrastructure, including the treatment plant and aging pipes, the cost of which is borne by a small tax base (217 registered electors in 2021). Cameron said that in the last term she’s been proud of the renovations they’ve made to their municipal hall, as well as the upgrades to their water pipes.
“I’m really happy with the work that was done,” she said. “As usual we had a couple of bumps with the water, but we’ve overcome that. We had another section of the water lines re-lined.”
She said that she decided to run for another term because there are still projects that she would like to see through to fruition, including their continued work on the water lines and the implementation of the new MRC-wide changes to waste management.
“We’re really going places with the recycling and composting,” she said. “We have a pretty good committee on that.”
She also said that she had worked on regional tourism at the MRC, and pointed out the municipality’s gazebo and rest stop near the Chenaux bridge.
She said that a perpetual concern of hers is the goings-on at the Litchfield Industrial site, the location of the former Smurfit-Stone paper mill just upstream from the village which now houses several businesses that operate near the river’s edge. She pointed to the proposed Samonix land-based aquaculture project that’s planned for the site, as well as the existing sewage treatment plant and construction waste sorting centre.
“I’m always interested in the water because, as you know, we’re the only community that’s affected by anything that’s coming in the water,” she said. “Take for example the salmon farm, we’re the only community that will be affected if something goes wrong there.”
As far as MRC level, Cameron said that she would appreciate more transparency around how properties are evaluated, a topic of concern in many municipalities across the territory.
“I would like to see how they actually come up with the evaluations. I’m not arguing that my house is over-evaluated, it did go up $100,000 and I haven’t done anything,” she said. “But, I wouldn’t be able to sell it for what it’s evaluated at. You have to consider that too, eh.”
Cameron said that despite her long time in office, she would still be hitting the pavement in her municipality to meet residents and hear what they had to say.
“Going door-to-door, you hear the residents’ concerns,” she said. “Sometimes you get some pretty good concerns.”
Kevin Murphy is a life-long resident of Portage-du-Fort and said that he was running because he had taken a step back from some of his work and had more time to devote to the community.
“There’s too many people talking, we need change,” he said. “There’s nothing been done in town in I don’t know how many years. We need to catch up to the other municipalities.”
A truck driver, Murphy also worked as a contractor for the village for 16 years, handling snow removal and other tasks. He and his wife have also owned Murph’s chip stand on rue de l’Église for the last five years, though they currently have it up for sale.
“You can see the traffic that comes through here,” he said, gesturing to the main highway that cuts through the town. “That’s kind of why we’re selling it. It’s too busy.”
He said that while he doesn’t have any previous political experience, he has a deep knowledge of the town having been a contractor, the president of the recreation association and a former firefighter. He said that he feels the municipality should be applying for more grant funding, and added that they pay a high tax rate for scant services.
“I find that they’re not researching enough and trying to get enough money to build the town up,” he said. “There’s so many grants up there [ . . . ] That’s our main thing, the shortage of funds in town because the tax [rate] is so high, everybody’s paying so much in taxes that there’s not a lot of money left over.”
When asked about MRC-level issues, Murphy admitted that he wasn’t well-versed on the goings-on at the county office, but said he would do his homework if elected. He added that that part of the issue is a lack of communication about MRC business from the current municipal government.
“If I do win, I’m going to dig into what’s going on at the MRC,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going on in town here. We don’t get any updates at all from the municipality, and that’s one thing that we’re going to change is every meeting that we have, everything that’s done at the MRC, we want residents to know what’s going on.”
Murphy said there should be more public consultation on how money is spent on municipal projects.
“They got a grant and spent a bunch of money on the municipal town hall, which is a beautiful building, but it’s not feasible for a lot of people,” he said. “Older people can’t use it because they can’t get up the stairs.”
In regards to Cameron’s long time in office, Murphy said that he wasn’t impressed.
“She’s been around too long in my opinion, because like I said, nothing’s been done,” he said. “Really if you think of the amount of time she’s been in it, the water plant is the only thing that is here and it’s still not running right.”
Murphy said that he had been busy knocking on doors around town and invited residents to contact him at kevinmurphy300@icloud.com.
