“We receive instructions from our mayor to remain neutral, but I can tell you that since the beginning of the TES Canada file, we have not had any exchanges to date in the city council or in the working committee. We are given bits and pieces, we are told that it will be decided at the MRC of Mékinac, but we have not had any point on the agenda of a study committee saying: “let’s discuss YOUR Canada among ourselves” », criticizes Guy Baillargeon, advisor to seat number three.
It was this lack of discussions that prompted Mr. Baillargeon to refuse to attend a meeting requested by representatives of TES Canada. The meeting was ultimately canceled, since upon learning that three advisors would not attend the meeting, the other three decided to follow suit.
“Before meeting them, we should at least talk a little as members of the council,” maintains Mr. Baillargeon.
“We talk about it so much”
For her part, Mayor Annie Pronovost acknowledges that there was no formal discussion on the TES Canada project between council members.
“We talk about it so much in everyday life, we talk about it when I go to the MRC… But it’s always the same speech from the start. We always talk about the same thing,” says Ms. Pronovost.
Annie Pronovost, mayor of Saint-Tite (center), during the last public meeting of the council of mayors of the MRC of Mékinac. (Stéphane Lessard/Archives Le Nouvelliste)
The first magistrate specifies, however, that the municipal council had the opportunity to hear the explanations of the director of the regional planning service of the MRC, Louis Filteau, invited to present to them the interim control regulation (RCI) on wind turbines .
As to whether the atmosphere had deteriorated around the council table, Ms. Pronovost claims not. The elected officials also met on Saturday morning and had the opportunity to return to the question of the RCI. Unless there is an impediment, the entire Saint-Tite council should therefore attend the consultation session organized by the MRC this Monday.
The mayor adds, however, that the situation in which the MRC’s elected officials find themselves, with few answers to citizens’ numerous questions regarding TES Canada, is far from pleasant.
“It’s all well and good that everyone claps their hands when it’s time to announce the project, but here, it’s the rest of us who pick up the shit in each of our councils. It created divisions, like in Hérouxville. People in the government will have to tell us if we are obliged to have wind turbines and if it is profitable,” she emphasizes.
“This issue is no fun for municipal elected officials.”
— Annie Pronovost, mayor of Saint-Tite
Remember that the prefect of the MRC of Mékinac and mayor of Grandes-Piles, Caroline Clément, sent a letter on Thursday to the Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, asking him to respond to questions from citizens regarding the TES Canada project, to which the MRC was not able to answer. Ms. Clément also deplored the lack of support in this matter from the Quebec government.
