Report of the meeting of La Pêche Lake Associations - July 7, 2009

Building partnerships may help us achieve our aims in the Lac Bernard Association.  With that in mind, Marie Williams and Jane Barton, Environment Committee, Lac Bernard Association, participated in the meeting of La Pêche Lake Associations on July 7, 2009.  Other participants included association representatives from Lac des Loups, Notre Dame, Johnston, Halverson, Teeples, Sinclair, Mahon and others.  Our Ward 5 La Pêche Counsellor Jacqueline Lambert-Madore was a major player at the meeting – and is the president of the Lac Notre Dame association.

The meeting provided an opportunity to exchange information on blue green algae particularly with the association of Lac des Loups where there have been blooms of blue green algae since 2002.

Three key messages came from the meeting:

1. Cottagers represent some 50% of the population within La Pêche and provide a high percentage of the tax dollars in the municipality.  However, cottagers and their priorities are not municipal priorities.  This may be due to the fact that cottagers generally have not realized that they could have more power than they do now within municipal politics and operations.

2. Voter registration is important – even if you have no intention of voting.  The size of the ward and the funds it can access is dependent on the number of voters that have registered – and currently in Lac Bernard Ward 5, few cottagers are registered to vote meaning that our ward gets less access to funds than it should. 

Go to the Lac Bernard website at http://www.lacbernard.ca/news/news.htm and scroll down to Voter Registration and find the form that meets your requirements.  Send your completed form to:

Municipalité La Pêche
1, route Principale Ouest
La Pêche (Quebec) J0X 2W0

3. There is an election in November this year.  Water quality is not a priority in the municipality but it is a critical element of our cottages and our investments.  The municipality of La Pêche has currently only 2 full time staff to take water quality samples and to undertake septic inspections and a student helps during the summer.  Lac Bernard and Lac des Loups are getting the vast majority of the resources that the municipality has in place to work on water quality - primarily because both lakes have the dubious distinction of having had blue-green algae blooms.  However, there are a great many other lakes in the municipality.  Without sufficient municipal resources to enforce provincial septic system regulations and assess water quality on a regular basis throughout the municipality, the likelihood is that there will be more lakes with cyanobacteria blooms and the resources devoted to Lac Bernard will be affected.   Council meetings provide an opportunity to take a position – in fact, priorities in the municipality can change when there are sufficient numbers of people taking a stand.  Council meetings are every first and third Monday evening of each month in the Arena in Masham – except in August when there is just one meeting.