Lives & Legacy

Why do we keep trying to jam square pegs into round holes?

A total of 371 people died on Quebec’s roads last year, according to the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec’s Bilan routiere 2025 released last month — with nine of these fatalities recorded in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region.

The small town of Terrasse Vaudreuil has been making headlines across Quebec, Canada and the globe this past month, following its novel move to recognize the rights of trees on its territory.

Renaming Sandy Beach is one of the issues the Town of Hudson is soliciting citizen input on as it develops a conservation plan for the waterfront space it acquired earlier this year.

Xavier Villeneuve, an 18-year-old standout hockey defencemen from Les Cèdres, experienced last month what most young players can only dream of — hearing his name called at the annual NHL Entry Draft.

Touting it as an example of cooperation between all three levels of government, while also framing the announcement in an election-campaign-style framework to showcase the CAQ’s focus on the housing crisis, Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette headlined the official unveiling of an affordable housing project in St. Lazare last week.

JOSHUA ALLANThe 1019 Report – Local Journalism Initiative After approving, and then postponing the funding to create much-needed additional space for municipal office workers in the small town of Pointe des Cascades, the provincial government recently announced it finally will be providing financial assistance leading the municipality to finally move forward with its plans. The Quebec government made good on its commitment to fund the lion’s share of the project to convert a former church presbytery into additional municipal office space last month. It had abruptly postponed its pledge to deliver the funds last fall. About $630,000 in provincial funding will now go toward the project, estimated to cost a total of about $900,000. Work is scheduled to begin this fall. Describing it as “a little Christmas gift before the (Quebec) election,” Pointe des Cascades Mayor Peter Zytynsky said he is happy. “We’re not complaining.” There had been “a lot of long faces last year” when the town was informed that the Coalition Avenir Québec government opted to suspend the funding that had originally been committed to in 2022 until April 2027, without providing a reason for the delay, he said. Zytynsky had penned a letter to the government last November, asking them to reconsider. He had also brought up the issue with Quebec Ministry of Municipal Affairs officials and Soulanges MNA Marilyne Picard. “Then, all of a sudden, last month we get a letter saying, ‘Your project is a go, start where you have to start,’” Zytynsky said. The town had acquired the former presbytery about 10 years ago. It sits a few doors down from the town hall along Chemin du Fleuve. The nearby church had since been converted into a public library. The town’s current municipal office is located at a former Caisse Desjardins building. Zytynsky said the town had acquired the building to use as municipal office space sometime back in the 1970s. The small building, which has only one washroom, was sufficient for back when the town had only a couple of municipal office workers. But as the town has grown, both in population and in number of municipal employees, the small space became too packed, Zytynsky said. “There’s no room, it’s very small,” he said. “I have to put our activities person in the library. I’ve got to put another person in the community centre.” The project will see the interior of the building renovated, which has already been gutted. Minor exterior work will also be done, including the installation of an access ramp. The town has already gone out to public offer for this project and is currently waiting for bids. “And then, if everything goes well, we hope to break ground in October,” Zytynsky said. While the government has committed to providing about $630,000, the remaining $270,000 needed to fund the project will likely come out of the town’s surplus, Zytynsky added, though this is still being discussed. You are unauthorized to view this page.

Details are emerging of an undercover operation by Montreal Police that has landed an Île Perrot man in jail for selling two illegal weapons and luring a teenager to help him commit the crime.

A 31-year-old man from Vaudreuil sur le Lac was in a Montreal courtroom late last month where he pleaded not guilty to charges related to an impaired driving incident in April 2023. A date for his trial was set, but he remains in custody as he also faces charges related to another drunk-driving accident in October 2024 that left a Pointe Claire woman severely injured.

Last December, when municipal officials across the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region were approving budgets for 2026, many town officials aimed to keep tax increases roughly around the 3-per-cent-rate-of-inflation range, while the MRC council approved a budget that included a 10-per-cent spending hike. That increase by the regional authority translated into a 15.6-per-cent jump in the amounts billed to the 23 towns in the territory.