The recent brouhaha over the potential closure of a snowmobile trail linking the Municipality of Pontiac and La Pêche has exposed the lack of trust between residents, the municipal administration and the National Capital Commission (NCC).
The Pontiac Snowmobile Drivers Association (PSDA) doesn’t trust the NCC or Mayor Joanne Labadie.
Labadie herself admitted that the municipality’s history with the NCC is complicated and contentious.
The PSDA has been working with the NCC to find an alternate route to replace the existing Curley Lake Road trail, which has been deemed an ecologically sensitive site.
On July 3, the PSDA received an email from the NCC informing them that the trail could be closed ahead of the upcoming riding season after a meeting with the mayor and municipal brass.

Understandably, this raised concerns for members of the PSDA who saw the email as an attempt to cut them out of negotiations on the new trail. The group saw the email as the result of a backroom deal between the municipality and the NCC.
This served to exacerbate already strained relations between the PSDA and both the municipality and the NCC.
Those fears should have been allayed when Labadie managed to negotiate a one-year moratorium on the closure of the trail while the municipality negotiates with the NCC for a new tourism and recreational trail that would link the municipality with La Pêche.
But once the NCC sent the email to the PSDA, it’s not shocking the PSDA would see it as cutting them out of the process. They went from working with the NCC to being told the trail would be permanently closed.
But the response was not exactly productive.
The PSDA posted the email to its social media page where the response from members was so vitriolic the club had to take down the post after a CBC story appeared online.
The comments put on full display the disdain many have for Labadie.
At the council meeting on July 10, more contention erupted as it was asserted by PSDA president Alain Goulet that Labadie should recuse herself from negotiations with the NCC because she could stand to benefit from investments the NCC plans to make at the Luskville Falls Park.
Since Labadie owns a winery nearby, and this business could benefit from investments at the Luskville Falls Park, club members argued that she was in a conflict of interest.
This is absurd.
Just because Labadie has a business that is located near the park, that doesn’t mean she’s in a conflict of interest.
How far away from the park would her business have to be to be considered far enough? Should we impose restrictions on who can and can’t run for council based on the businesses they own and where they are located?
Ultimately, the municipality has few options.
The NCC has the ability to expropriate the land from the municipality. Which means it would get absolutely nothing from the NCC for that land.
The current, albeit tentative, plan would see the NCC take over Curley Lake Road and, in exchange, make investments in the proposed new trail and the Luskville Falls Park.
At least this way, the municipality gets something for handing over the land.
The NCC has been trying to get control of Curley Lake Road for years and has already constructed several recreational trails nearby in the MRC des Collines. It has also indicated that it is ready to move forward with plans to close Curley Lake Road.
But instead of coming together to solve this problem, council chose to kick the can further down the road.
Councillor Nancy Draper Maxsom entered a last-minute motion to remove from the agenda the motion that would have given Labadie and the municipality’s Acting Assistant Director General Dominic Labrie the right to negotiate with the NCC.
Her motion was approved and it was removed from the agenda.
Draper Maxsom said the issue needed further discussion, despite the fact that it was already discussed at caucus.
This either shows a lack of preparation on the part of councillors or it shows a cynical attempt at legislative obstruction.
Regardless, it’s clear that some councillors and the PSDA don’t want Labadie anywhere near the negotiations.
But as mayor, she has every right to be a part of the negotiations. Granted, other councillors should have more of a say but, at the end of the day, every decision Labadie makes has to go through council regardless.
The Municipality of Pontiac has had to deal with a bickering and divided council for years now.
Last term, the council struggled to hold meetings because there weren’t enough councillors for a quorum.
Residents in the municipality would be well-served if their elected representatives put aside their personal issues of mistrust and work together for the betterment of their constituents.
After all, that’s why they’re in office in the first place.

Chris Lowrey