Cantley, Quebec

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Cantley, Quebec, Canada is a small rural village north of the city of Gatineau, east of the Gatineau River, located within Canada's National Capital Region approximately 15-20 minutes from Parliament Hill. The population in 2001 was 5,898. Its roots are in farmland but recent housing projects are slowly changing the landscape into a suburb of Gatineau. Gatineau's Limbour neighborhood has quickly reached the town's southern limits with the Les Escarpements de Limbour housing development.

Its main artery is Quebec Route 307 also known as Montée de la Source which is the extension of Rue Saint-Louis in Gatineau. Most of the roads in the town connect to Route 307 and most of them are dead-ends (ex: Chemin Hogan, Chemin Bellevue, Chemin Du Bosquet, Chemin Pink, etc.). There are very few that connect to secondary roads (ex: Chemin Denis, Chemin Ste-Elizabeth, etc).

One of the roads (Chemin du Mont-Cascades) gives access to the Mont Cascades Ski Resort, Waterpark and the Mont Cascades Golf Club. The Waterpark is the largest in the Outaouais region while the Ski Resort offers 25 ski trails. Cantley is also home to Nakkertok, the largest cross country ski club in the National Capital Region. Residents have access to a second ski resort, Edelweiss Valley, which is located alongside Highway 366 in Wakefield (La Peche), just beyond Cantley's northern town limits.

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[edit] History

The town of Cantley was founded in the 1830's by Colonel Cantley, a subordinate of Colonel John By during the period that included the birth of the city of Bytown (now Ottawa). During this time, Colonel Cantley went north and set foot in land several kilometres from Bytown where he remained until his death. In the 1850's the area started to develop with the construction of its post office in honour of Cantley and a mass arrival of Irish decendents. Education started to play a role in the same period when a Roman Catholic chapel and school were built as a result of the increasing number of residents in the area. Another school was built on a farmer's land in 1858.

In 1925, a new hydroelectric dam was constructed along the Gatineau River making it the biggest economic and industrial project of its history. This is now known today as the Rapides-Farmers Hydroelectric Station (Centrale Rapides-Farmers). However, the station is now within the city of Gatineau limits.

The Mont Cascades resort opened during the 1960's and 1970's and represents a major part of the town's recreational and touristic assets.

Previously, Cantley was a rural village until annexed by the city of Gatineau in 1975. This move proved highly unpopular with Cantley's rural residents, consequently, they worked feverishly to petition the provincial government to grant Cantley its former independence. This effort was successful in 1989, when Cantley became, once again, an independent rural community.

[edit] Legend surrounding a mythical beach

According to oral history passed down by many generations (Algonquin to Irish settlers and French fur traders of the Gatineau River, then to this day French locals) there exists a large beach hidden in Cantley. Although no physical data seems to support the existence any of significant sized beach in the municipality, some suggest it was flooded by the creation of the hydroelectric dams.

[edit] Cantley Dry Materials Dump Issue

Recently, there has been a controversial issue concerning a dry materials dump located in the northern end of the town. Residents who were living near the dump complained about toxic pollutants generated by the site and that were affecting their health. Many of the residents requested firmly the closure of the dump. At one point a fire broke out underneath the piles of material for several weeks and an excavator had to be used to dig underneath the ground in able to locate and extinguish the fire. Earlier indications reported that the fire had the length of a football field, but was later discovered to be only the size of a football but it had caused an evacuation from the nearby residents during the event.

The Quebec Ministry of Environnment leaded by then-Minister Thomas J. Mulcair demanded the owner of the dry materials dump to adopt measures to reduce the amount of toxic pollutants despite the fact the owner said he was respecting the law. The Ministry has been giving the dump several delays to permit the dump owner to implement these changes. These delays were criticized by the population for being too soft in this case. As of now, the dump is still operational and there have not been any major developments in the past few months despite the arrival of a new mayor in the 2005 municipal elections nor a new Minister of Environment. However, the current mayor, Steve Harris, is in favour of the closure of the dump and signs have been placed in front of Cantley's city hall demanding it. [1]. Several lawsuits were planned by residents against the dump yard owner during the previous few months.

On July 11, 2006, the town went to the court against the dump yard owner in order to receive over 55 000 $ for the 2005 fire and cover costs for the evacuation process and firefighters salary [2] There have been no recent updates of a settlement or a withdrawal of the lawsuit.

Tensions upgraded once more, when the owner of the dump, Gilles Proulx, launched a 250 000$ lawsuit against a local couple. The owner claimed that the couple had made comments against their reputation. [3]. The municipality had decided to partially help the couple in that case [4].

The Quebec government and its Environment Minister Claude Béchard, gave a second warning to the dump yard owner giving him a 10-day notice to comply to the Ministery of Environment's normes (reduced the amount of toxin pollutants) or it will be forcefully shut down [5]

In a report by the provincial government, it was revealed that the site was full of other hazardous elements including substances in a creek, animal carcasses and many more. It was also revealed that the promoter had possible contacts with the Hells Angels biker gang in which Proulx denied and later doubled the amount demanded in his lawsuit against the couple accused them to be part of that revelation. [6]. On September 21, noticing that the promoter haven't respected the conditions imposed by the Ministry of Environment, Bechard demanded the site's permanent closure[7] [8] The site did close for a couple of weeks but it was reopened due to a Court decision as the owner contested the government decision. [9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ La Haye, Dominique, Encore des odeurs au depotoir de Cantley (Persistent odeurs at Cantley dump yard), Le Droit, April 10, 2006, page 8
  2. ^ Bouchard, Regis, Cantley poursuit les proprietaires du depotoir (Translation : Cantley sues dump yard owners), Le Droit, July 11, 2006, page 4
  3. ^ Bouchard, Regis, Le depotoir de Cantley poursuit deux voisins en diffamation (Cantley dump yard sues two neighbors for slandering), Le Droit, August 26, 2006, page 2)
  4. ^ Lord, Audrey, Cantley aidera finacierement le couple Galipeau-Landry (Cantley will financially help couple in dump yard lawsuit), Le Droit, August 30, 2006, page 15
  5. ^ Bélanger, Mathieu, Depotoir de Cantley : Quebec se fache et emet un deuxieme ultimatum (Cantley Dump Yard : Quebec government gives a second ultimatum), Le Droit, September 7, 2006, page 7
  6. ^ Theriault, Charles, Gilles Proulx remet les pendules a l'heure (Gilles Proulx denies report allegations on link with Hells Angels), Le Droit, Ottawa-Gatineau, September 22, 2006, page 3.
  7. ^ Mailloux, Gilles, CHOT News video reports of September 19 to 21 2006.
  8. ^ Theriault, Charles, Claude Béchard met fin à la saga du dépotoir de Cantley (Claude Bechard ends the Cantley Dump saga), Le Droit, Ottawa-Gatineau, September 22, 2006, page 3.
  9. ^ Ebacher, Louis-Denis. "Réouverture du dépotoir : le maire de Cantley garde espoir", Le Droit, October 16, 2006.

[edit] External links

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