News

BRENDA O’FARRELLThe 1019 Report – Local Journalism Initiative “It’s going to be the death of my village.” That stark prediction came from the mayor of Pointe Fortune last week as she was asked to describe the impact the proposed multi-billion-dollar Alto high-speed train project to link Quebec City with Toronto will have on her little town — the second smallest municipality in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region. That is, of...

Hundreds of farmers and residents from rural communities across Quebec and eastern Ontario were in Rigaud last Saturday demanding the federal government halt its plans for the proposed Alto high-speed train from Quebec City to Toronto.

A recent poll that ranks the happiest towns in Quebec has put a smile on some faces in St. Lazare, as it came in 5th place on a list of 85 happiest municipalities in the province, according to survey by Quebec marketing firm Léger.

Soulanges CAQ incumbent Marilyne Picard is being “dishonest” for failing to declare whether she is a federalist or a sovereignist, charged West Island Liberal candidate Monsef Derraji yesterday while in St. Lazare for a press conference.

After years of strained relations between the Quebec government and the province’s English-language schools, the region’s largest English school board is hoping a new government will bring a more collaborative attitude to this relationship.

Improving medical access for seniors and managing the shortage of family doctors are among the top challenges the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area faces when it comes to medical care, says the head of the association of family doctors in the region.

As voters prepare to go to the voting booth in the Oct. 5 election in what pollsters are predicting to be a tight race, The 1019 Report takes a look back at the results of the last provincial election in 2022 in the two ridings in the region.

An environmental group tasked with removing water chestnuts from the bays along the 1019 region’s northern shores says it has seen a drop in the number of these invasive plants this summer. While this is an encouraging sign, the group indicates that next year will determine whether this is a sustained trend.

FREDERIC SERRE The 1019 Report – Local Journalism Initiative A trucker is facing fines of more than $2,000 and his licence has been suspended after he was captured on a surveillance camera dangerously backing his vehicle on Highway 20 in Les Cèdres last week to get to a truck weighing station. The manoeuvre, which took place last Wednesday afternoon, was denounced by the union representing Quebec’s highway control...

A Terrebonne trucker charged with beating a fellow female trucker unconscious two years ago during a shocking road rage incident on the Île aux Tourtes Bridge that was captured on video will learn his fate in two months when a Quebec Court judge renders her decision.

With a solid performance this weekend at a tournament for the world’s first professional women’s flag football league, an emerging star of the sport from St. Lazare is quickly making a name for herself as one of Canada’s best in the rapidly growing sport — and is preparing for the 2028 Olympics, when the sport will be introduced at the Games.

After deferring requests to add French to all its street signs — and delaying taking action for years — a threat from the Office québécois de la langue française that would result in provincial subsidies being withheld has finally prompted the Town of Hudson to adopt a formal plan to outline how it will conform to the province’s language laws.

The City of Vaudreuil-Dorion has dropped substantially on the Top 100 list of best cities for renters, according to a survey compiled by The Globe and Mail.

After deferring a vote on a bylaw to formally ban swimming at Sandy Beach in July, Hudson council at the end of August opted to drop the regulation all together.

The 15-year-old e-scooter driver critically injured after a violent hit-and-run incident in Les Cèdres early Aug. 23 emerged from a coma last week, but remains in hospital in serious condition. The encouraging news comes as the police investigation into the crash intensifies, with the Sûreté du Québec setting up a checkpoint on Highway 338 at the intersection of St. Féréol Road – the location of the incident —...

Amid Canada’s intensifying tariff war with the U.S., bond markets that are making mounting government debt more expensive to finance and the cost of living continuing to rise, leaders of all parties in the provincial election campaign are rolling out their election promises. In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the Quebec Liberal party has made one major commitment — building the long-awaited Highway 20 bypass route through the Dorion section of Vaudreuil-Dorion.

The Town of Hudson wants Santé Québec to reverse course on how it handles 911 calls for non-life-threatening medical emergencies.

VIP en Blues, the Town of L’Île Perrot’s signature annual music festival, is returning for its 14th edition this weekend.

Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot’s annual Festival de la Soupe is returning for its 14th edition this weekend, with plans to attract thousands to enjoy a bowl and experience different communities and cultures.

About 1,000 protesters and 500 tractors are expected to converge in Rigaud on Sept. 19 as farmers from across Quebec and eastern Ontario step up their efforts to urge the federal government to halt its plans for the proposed Alto high-speed train from Quebec City to Toronto, claiming it would have devastating impacts on some of eastern Canada’s best farmland.

A man from Vaudreuil sur le Lac involved in a violent rear-end hit-and-run crash in 2024 in Pointe Claire that left a woman seriously injured has changed his plea to guilty and will be sentenced at the Montreal courthouse on Sept. 28.

The surveillance camera images are shocking and dramatic — from the moment the masked suspect enters the Sonic gas station convenience store in St. Lazare last Saturday evening armed with a rifle to the instant when 65-year-old Daljeet Singh suddenly grabs the barrel of the gun, initiating a struggle, a shot going off and the confrontation spilling outside with the suspect, suddenly unmasked, fleeing.

30 of 250 MDs secured so far BRENDA O’FARRELLThe 1019 Report - Local Journalism Initiative The new Vaudreuil-Soulanges Hospital will open its doors in the summer of 2028 with less than half of its needed staff hired, according to a spokesperson with Santé Québec Montérégie-Ouest. And so far, only 30 doctors of the 250 required have been contracted. “On the medical side, 12 per cent of the required...

Farmers and municipal representatives in a small corner of the 1019 region are sharing their concerns about the proposed Toronto-Quebec high-speed rail project, which they fear could see farms in Pointe Fortune and Rigaud cut off by the new train line.

Residents of the Town of Vaudreuil sur le Lac have blocked the proposed purchase of a wooded area, as 207 signatures were collected on a register Monday, Mayor Mario Tremblay confirmed yesterday.

St. Lazare’s popular Festi Ouest is returning for its fourth edition later this week. Lovers of all things country are invited to gather in Bédard Park from Aug. 21 to 23 for three days chock-full of western-themed activities, snacks, amusement park rides and lots of country music.

As the use of electric scooters has seen a dramatic increase in popularity this summer in St. Lazare — generating much public discussion about safety — and while the town’s municipal council could not agree on whether to formally request its public security committee to explore how municipal officials could regulate the use of these personal motorized devices in July, the Sûreté du Québec last week began flagging...

This was the scene on Main Road last Saturday afternoon at the site of the Hudson-Oka ferry, as motorists looking to cross the Lake of Two Mountains were met with a barrier, as the service— which had finally opened a few days earlier —  had been halted again for the weekend. The once popular ferry service has been closed all summer, opening on Aug. 5, albeit with only...

Hughes, the now former CEO of the Old Brewery Mission, Montreal’s largest emergency shelter, replaces Marie-Claude Nichols.

After rejecting a recommendation from Transport Quebec to restrict right-hand turns on red lights at an intersection on Cité des Jeunes Blvd. in St. Lazare last month, the town’s municipal council last week reversed course and voted in favour of banning the manoeuvre, citing the need to protect pedestrians and cyclists.

The City of Vaudreuil-Dorion will name its new refrigerated outdoor ice rink after Léo Dufour, a 22-year-old resident who died while hiking in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State in 2024.

Vaudreuil MNA Marie-Claude Nichols will not be seeking re-election in this fall’s provincial vote.

A group of homeowners in Vaudreuil sur le Lac is hoping to convince at least 121 residents of the small town to sign a register later this month to block the municipal council’s plans to buy a wooded area. But the residents are not opposed to the purchase — they simply  object to the price, a figure they claim is much higher than the market value based on...

The owner of the Hudson-Oka ferry announced yesterday that service on the lake crossing will be reinstated today — although only one ferry will be in operation.

Setting aside legal advice on a move viewed by many residents as unpopular, Hudson council last week deferred voting on a motion to ban swimming at Sandy Beach, effectively stalling the town’s ability to fine swimmers until at least the end of August.

What began as a leisurely family motorcycle ride last Friday afternoon in St. Télésphore ended in tragedy when two of the bikes collided, resulting in the death of a man in his 50s and serious injuries to another rider.

Police are crediting an off-duty nurse who was at the right place at the right time with providing a swift response to a 65-year-old pedestrian struck by a car while trying to cross an intersection in Rigaud on Sunday morning. The woman suffered minor head injuries.

Two spectacular fires on westbound Highway 20 in Les Cèdres on Saturday afternoon resulted in the destruction of three vehicles, including a large motorhome, creating a traffic nightmare that briefly prevented police and firefighters from reaching both fire scenes.

The latest wave of tariff threats from the U.S. against Canadian goods is being met with calm rather than alarm among the business community in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region, a reaction that is in stark contrast to the first wave of economic sanctions invoked by the Trump administration last year.

It is very likely that a swath of wooded land near a quiet neighbourhood in Vaudreuil-Dorion could become the site of a new residential development, residents were told during a public meeting organized by the city last week.

Described as “the largest federal investment ever made in Vaudreuil,” the Canadian government announced a $211-million contribution to the construction of the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Hospital earlier this month.

After hitting record-setting levels last year, housing prices in Vaudreuil-Soulanges have cooled somewhat in the first half of 2026, with the region emerging as the only area in Greater Montreal where the median selling price has dropped, according to the latest data from the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers.

St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance invoked her power of veto last week after a majority of the town’s council refused to support a resolution to formally begin the process of looking into how the municipality could — or even should — regulate the use of electric scooters and other personal motorized mobility devices, a topic that has generated much public discussion this spring as the popularity of these...

Plans are in the works for the popular Montreal-based Bixi bike-sharing service to expand to Vaudreuil-Dorion next summer, a move that will mark the service’s first expansion into the 1019 region.

Residents of a quiet cul-de-sac in Vaudreuil-Dorion are worried a nearby forested piece of land could soon be turned into a large residential development, similar to what had been blocked seven years ago.

The town of Les Cèdres last week completed the installation of a temporary pumping system to direct wastewater from about 250 homes into its municipal sewer system, finally ending the practice of dumping it into a waterway.

The City of Vaudreuil-Dorion will breathe new life to its former library, announcing it will turn into a new cultural centre.

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.