The summer solstice has kissed our beautiful lake and started the summer with glorious weather, teasing us by turns with some unpleasantly hot and freakishly cold spells. The summer forecast promises sun and fun for Lac Bernard this season.

Here are some of the anticipated events and news from the Owners and Residents Association of Lac Bernard:

Lac Bernard Annual Golf Tourney

Saturday July 26, 2025

All are welcome to the Annual Lac Bernard Invitational to be held at Mount Cascades Golf Club, 915 Chem. du Mont-des-Cascades, Cantley, QC https://montcascades.com on Saturday, July 26, 2025.

First tee off at 8:00 AM. Additional tee times added on a first come basis.

Lunch and good cheer following the round at 12:30.

Green fees $68.99; lunch $25.06, (burgers, dogs, salads and dessert), payable at the Club.

You need not golf to join us for lunch.

To register: contact Matt Carr at mcarr@giffordcarr.ca to register you and/or your team for golf, lunch or both.

A great way to meet, mingle and lose golf balls with your Lac Bernard neighbours!

Lac Bernard Annual Regatta 2025

August 2, 2025

We’re excited to invite you to this year’s Lac Bernard Regatta! Festivities kick off at 11:00 AM, so our youngest residents can enjoy games and activities before nap time, and we can wrap up a little earlier. Waterfront activities and races will begin at 1:00 PM. We can’t wait to see everyone for another fun-filled day by the bay!

Last year’s regatta was a fantastic success, and we’re looking forward to making even more memories together. Your participation is what makes this event truly special!

As always, there will be plenty of raffle and silent auction prizes, including a 50/50 draw!

Join us for an assortment of burgers, hot dogs and refreshments.

The latest in Lac Bernard swag, including sweatshirts, tee shirts and hats will be available for purchase.

(Note that we are limited to cash sales only – bring lots of loonies and toonies, or throw a few larger bill donations too).

Volunteers Needed

If you can assist with any of the following, please email both Wendy Carr at wcarr1480@gmail.com and Linda Radford at lradford115@gmail.com:

• Preparing the grounds
• Setting up
• Cleaning up
• Assisting with on-land activities
• Assisting with arts and crafts for the kids
• Helping with water activities and races

If you have raffle or auction items to donate or know of businesses that might like to support our event, we’d love to hear from you!

Youth Involvement

We’ve been working hard to increase youth participation in the regatta and hope to continue this momentum this year. Volunteering is a fantastic way for young people to connect with others and have fun. Plus, for students in Ontario, it’s an excellent opportunity to earn volunteer hours toward the high school requirement.

If you have a young person at home who wants to help make the day a success, please let us know!

We look forward to seeing you at the Regatta!

Navigation buoys

As per tradition, the buoys were out before the long weekend in May and will be maintained through to Thanksgiving weekend. Your navigation committee has an appreciation for the commitment of Laurence McClelland, who performed this task for over 40 years. Will Lockhart, chair Navigation Committee sends thanks out to the current volunteers who have helped him: Alan Landry, Chris Melbourn, Robin Higgins, Alain Marcil, Andre Durand, Andrew Floyd, Sandra Floyd, and Michael Kennedy.

Lac Bernard Environment

The Strategic Management Plan (SMP) provides a detailed set of actions to mitigate and prevent the Eurasian Water Milfoil (EWM) spread on Lac Bernard. It was developed by the volunteers who make up the Environment Committee, which reports to the Owners and Residents Association of Lac Bernard (ORALB). The SMP summarizes the background, the current status, and the proposed actions/plans for operationalizing the proactive management plan to mitigate the spread of EWM in our lake. Under the direction of ORALB, the EC will make this SMP a ‘living’ plan that continues to be informed by research and by investigating the evolving mitigation methods being trialed internationally, nationally, provincially, and locally. The SMP will be reviewed annually for approval of associated actions/budget at the ORALB Annual General Meeting as part of the budgetary review process. This first version was presented to the ORALB AGM in May 2025 and endorsed by the membership.

The overwhelming consensus from our research is that there is no ‘silver bullet’ from Lac Bernard to mitigate EWM or eliminate it. Instead, a series of actions is required that are detailed in this ‘living’ SMP that will be updated annually and developed, together with the membership of the ORALB. Most of our research pointed toward a the need for a comprehensive and adaptive long term action plan to prevent and mitigate the impacts of EWM.

This SMP is based on the following Principles:

Transparency: All significant SMP actions/investments will be reviewed/discussed with ORALB’s membership at the Annual General Meeting or at Special Membership meetings if required.

a. Financial Due Diligence: all significant investments will be understood by the members as well as the financial impact/risk associated with the intervention (e.g. environment risk, habitat risk, etc);

b. Adaptability: the SMP will remain a ‘living’ document that is adaptable to changes in the evolving research/methodologies or changing circumstances associated with the effective mitigation/elimination of EWM;

c. Operationalized: the SMP will outline proactive actions to ‘operationalize’ the EWM mitigation strategy. These actions will be reviewed annually by the ORALB membership.

d. Understanding/Communications: the SMP will describe actions in a manner that is easily understood, precise, memorable and easily communicated to, and expressed by, all members of ORALB so all members can speak clearly to our SMP and associated yearly programs/actions;

e. Consequence: EWM poses a significant threat to our lake’s water quality, wildlife, leisure activities, and land value. As such, violators who conduct any unlawful activity, willingly or otherwise, could be reported to the appropriate authorities at the discretion of ORALB.

The comprehensive status of the milfoil issue on our lake can be found on the Lac Bernard website.

The complete strategic action plan will be posted shortly.

All can help reduce the damage by avoiding the high concentration areas of milfoil on the lake. The primary method of spreading milfoil is the propagation by cuttings chopped up by propellers and even paddles.

Kevin Radford is the chair of the Environment committee and welcomes any comments and feedback about the plan that you have at environment@lacbernard.ca.

Digital Transformation of the Association

The association is undergoing a digital transformation that will streamline processes for members and board volunteers. Several lakers with strong technical backgrounds (think Shopify and IBM) have teamed up and are working on:

• Online membership renewal and payment
• Website refresh
• Online store for logo items
• Google workspace implementation (see below)
• Digital archives

Google workspace is a suite of tools (Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet), all integrated to enhance teamwork and efficiency. It provides enterprise-grade security. As a non-profit organization, the association was able to obtain it at no cost. The investment was a considerable amount of time on the part of Richard McDonald to obtain and set it up for the association.

The chair of the technical committee is Will Lockhart and he welcomes any questions or comments will.lockhart@lacbernard.ca

Lac Bernard History

There are now 180 members on the Lac Bernard History Facebook page. Some 5,000 documents are included in the Archive which are now accessible at https://lacbernard.ca/social-activities/history/ on the lacbernard.ca website, including the indigenous history of our lake, the original fishing club, news clips covering more than 100 years, maps and personal stories from the early days on the lake. Explore and enjoy our vibrant history!

Lac Bernard Swag!

Lake Gear is now here!

Looking for a new hat, t-shirt or hoodie?

We’ve got em!

They will be on sale at the regatta (and potentially before the regatta- just working on logistics).

Pricing and more photos will follow. We are very happy to have these available for you to support your local lake community!

A new generation of logo items and Lac Bernard merchandise is in the works.

(Note that we are limited to cash sales only at the Regatta).

Colleen Forer is available to answer your questions at vicepresident@lacbernard.ca

Association News

On the administrative front, the annual general meeting was held May 21, 2025.

At that meeting, the membership undertook a review and revision of the Association’s bylaws. The revisions were primarily related to fine-tuning the major overhaul of the byelaws that took place in 2022. The one element of significant consideration was a proposal to change the nature of membership to increase the number of members per property. This proposal did not carry and the existing membership criteria related to one voting member per property continues.

The amended bylaws can be found on the Lac Bernard website.

The board considers that the more members we have, associate, or otherwise, increases the weight of our voice with the municipality and the province in terms of seeking improvements to the roads, grants and assistance for environmental issues. To that end, we would like to significantly bolster our membership.

Coming soon will be a revision to the associate membership to allow multiple associate, non-voting memberships per cottage. Our plan is to make that as easy, economical, and as inexpensive as possible. Your participation will be instrumental in enhancing our voice to be heard by the powers that be in order to benefit all who have the great privilege to be on our beautiful lake. We look forward to putting this plan forward and anticipate a positive response.

At the AGM, the Board of Directors for 2025/2026 was elected. At a subsequent meeting of the board, the executive members were selected and committee chairs set in place.

The 2025 Board members are as follows:

• Wendy Carr, Social (Regatta and Golf)
• Colleen Forer, Vice President, Merchandise
• Glynnis French, Secretary
• Fatima Hoekstra, Treasurer
• Mike Hubert, Membership
• Will Lockhart, Technical (IT and Digital transformation)
• Kevin Radford, Environment
• Charles Topp, History
• Gerry Yemensky; President

We are in the process of revising the website and communications. In the interim, inquiries or comments may be directed to Gerry Yemensky at president@lacbernard.ca

Have a great summer!!