Pontiac council report - municipal finances
Mo Laidlaw
Pontiac

Mayor Roger Larose read his report on the finances of the municipality at the beginning of the regular council meeting of 10 December 2013. By law the financial report must be presented at least four weeks before the budget is tabled. There were 18 members of the public in the Luskville community centre.
Preliminary results for 2013 show a small deficit. Councillors are paid $12,408.60 per year including benefit. The mayor’s salary including benefit is three times this, $37,225.92 and as MRC representative he receives $21,995.50, for a total annual pay of $59,181.42. The financial report lists all contracts over $25,000 for 2013, mostly for snow removal, gravel, asphalt and road repair; vehicle maintenance and diesel; and surveying. The largest single contract, $292,372 is to Waste Management for garbage and recycling.

Projects for 2014 include buying a fire truck, building the new community centre in Quyon, completing the septic sludge treatment system and buying a replacement grader.

An information meeting on the budget will be held on 6 January at 7:30 pm. The budget will be adopted on 14 January at 7 pm, before the regular meeting at 7:30 pm. All these meetings are in the Luskville community centre

In 2014 regular council meetings will start at 7:30, on the second Tuesday of the month. All meetings are in the Luskville Community Centre except on 13 May in the Breckenridge fire hall, and on 12 August in the Quyon Lions Hall.

A list of council members in charge of various committees and sitting on committees was adopted (see the municipal webpage at www.municipalitepontiac.com). Residents will be invited to join committees in the New Year. Councillor Brian Middlemiss is named as pro-mayor for 8 months. There will be a rotation of this responsibility among councillors.

Two properties which were for sale because of unpaid taxes, failed to find buyers on 5 December. The municipality therefore acquires these properties, at 1033 rue de Clarendon, and 19 rue Rear, both in Quyon.

A borrowing bylaw for $81,600, adopted in 2010 for paving ch. Cedarvale, was cancelled. The paving was paid from the municipal surplus.

Mr Larose gave notice that the subdivision bylaw will be modified to increase the amount of land or financial compensation to be contributed for parks, playgrounds or natural areas, when land is subdivided, from 4% to 10%.

Money matters
The following were approved:
Invoices for November amounting to $58,797, fixed expenses for November of $221,224, incurred expenses for December of $8353.
$11,200 to Brent Mainville for annual maintenance of the Luskville park, including the skating rink, for 2014.
$7473 to Christian Lauzon for maintaining the ice rink at Davis Park from 10 December 2013 for this winter.
$2500 to MMQ insurance company, being the deductible in the case of 6592031 Canada Inc. vs. the municipality, which a court ruled that the municipality must pay.
A maximum of $1500 to Sylvie Drolet to translate 4 bylaws into English. These are to incorporate the definition of the natural high water mark, new standards applicable to the protection of riverbanks, shores and floodplains, and new standards applicable to landslide zones, into three of the town planning bylaws.

Archived reports are at: http://www.heritagepontiac.ca/Municipality 
The Action Pontiac blog at http://actionpontiac.blogspot.com has information about local events.