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HATLEY:
CONT'D FROM PAGE 1
business trip in the U.S. When he returned,
he was surprised to see the application had
been returned by Canada Post for insufficient
postage. He immediately sent the application
by priority post one day late,
March 1, to Montreal’s regional office of
Canadian Heritage where the applications
are studied. He followed it March 11,with a
letter explaining the situation and appealing
for leniency.
But bureaucrats refused to budge. On
May 1, Côté received the department’s standard
response: “We regret to inform you that
your request will not be recommended for
the following reason: You did not respect the
February 29 deadline for submitting your
project.”
Marie-Claude Cadorette, the Quebec regional
manager and Canada Day program
director who signed the letter of rejection,
told The Outlet she did not remember seeing
the file. After reexamining the application,
Cadorette said the application was rejected
because it requested funding for ‘prizes and
wooden nickles’, both deemed ineligible expenses.
Former Compton-Stanstead MP David
Price doesn’t buy it. “I had to fight tooth and
nail every year for funding for both Bury
and Hatley because every year they’d find a
new excuse to reject the applications.”
Price said as MP, he would often
have to find alternative funding to
help the events. “They (Dept. of
Can Heritage) want to cut expenses
and they have their targets and
once they reject you one year,
it’s easier to do it again.”
Bloc MP France Bonsant
said it would be hypocritical
of her to celebrate Canada
Day, but she did not hesitate
when asked by Hatley
organizers to intervene
on their behalf. “I am
not a federalist so it
would be hypocritical
of me to ride in the
parade, but I am
everyone’s MP and
I will go directly
to the minister on
behalf of any of my
constituents who ask me,” Bonsant
said.
Bonsant found the minister’s door closed
and was told to take it up with Quebec’s regional
office, responsible for the program.
Richard Grey, organizer of Bury’s annual
Canada Day celebrations, said that small
town with the big event finally threw in the
towel after years of wrangling with the department
over funding.
“We became so discouraged after being
rejected for the past five years, we didn’t
even apply this year,” Grey said. “The
policies and criteria are always
changing. They send
back letters
s a y i n g
y o u ’ r e
m i s s i n g
this or that
and when
you call
tofind out
how to comply,
theynever call
you back. It’s as
though we were
being black-balled.”
Grey said organizers
became so frustrated
after filling in
the myriad of forms
only to be rejected year
after year, that they even
wrote to the prime minister
on one occasion, but did
not receive a response.
He said Bury celebrations
were refused funding for several years because
the celebrations were held on the
weekend and not on July 1. “We were told
the event had to be held on July 1 in order to
get funding and we tried to explain it didn’t
make sense to hold an event on a Wednesday
when nobody could come, but there was no
changing their minds,” Grey said. “One
year we respected the July 1 date and they
found another reason to reject us.”
Event organizers complain the criteria is
deliberately vague and ‘what’s good for the
goose is not always good for the gander.’
Last year’s list of approved projects for
example, included several events held between
June 21 and June 29 and several others
listed ‘prizes, t-shirts and hats’ as part of their
projects. The sample application form on the
department’s web site, designed to help applicants
fill out the forms, lists ‘prizes’ as part
of the budget, yet prizes are not an eligible
expense according to Cadorette. “It can be
part of the budget but not part of the eligible
expenses,” she explained.
“There are no exceptions to the date,” she
said. “They could celebrate beetween June
21 and July the 1st, but only the activities
that are held on June 21 (National Aboriginal
Day), June 27 (Canadian Multiculturalism
Day), June 24 (St-Jean-Baptiste day)
and July 1st (Canada Day) are eligible for
funding.”
Sherbrooke and Thetford Mines in the
Eastern Townships were among the 28 Quebec
municipalities, targeted by the department
to share $3.2 million to celebrate
Canada Day last year. Another 141 organizations
and municipalities across Quebec received
grants of $100-$33,000 for Canada
day festivities.
Hatley and Bury were not among them.
Cherry River:
CONT'D FROM PAGE 1
 Ron Warnholtz, pastor of the Cherry
River chapel located at the foot of the
bridge, said he contacted Environment Quebec
immediately when he heard water running
from the pipe, and smelled the strong
odour of sewage.
“They told me the town was aware of the
problem and they tried to fix it, but they
need to wait for a part,” Warnoltz said.‘That was more than two weeks ago.”
Jennifer Archer, who lives across the
street from the chapel, said the stench from
the spewing sewage has been unbearable for
nearly three weeks, and she is concerned
about the steady flow of toxins into the
river.
“You can see that it has killed the leaves
on the trees below the bridge where it’s
been landing,” she pointed out.
Public works officials were on the scene
inspecting the damaged pipe when The Outlet
was there in mid-June. Public works director
Bernard Lambert said town workers
made two unsuccessful attempts to stop the
flow until a decision could be made on a
permanent solution.
A special meeting of Orford council was
held June 16 to authorize the purchase of
materials necessary to replace the pipe. The
firm MP Eco was mandated to carry out the
work of dismantling the ruptured pipe and
installing a new 120-foot conduit under the
bridge. Lambert said it will take another
week for materials to arrive and the new installation
should be complete within two
weeks, roughly July 3.
Meanwhile, Lambert said two temporary
membranes have been put in place to collect
the wastewater and repump it into the sewer
system until the work is complete and
sewage is no longer flowing into the river.
But Gerard Archer says the problem is
not solved. “There is still lots of waste water
flowing into the river,” he said. “I can see it
from my house. We can see that the town
has installed something to collect the water
but there’s still a lot of it going into the river
below.”
Archer said he videotaped the waste still
going into the river after the temporary repairs,
and once again, he notified Environment
Quebec of the situation.
“The smell is something awful, “ Archeradded.“It’s funny the town is after everyone for
the least thing to protect the water and here
we have sewage pouring right into the
water,” he said. Cherry River empties into
Lake Memphremagog, a major source of
drinking water for the area.
Ron Warnholtz, who runs a summer
bible camp, said he received a letter from
the town telling him young campers walking
along the river bank during the summer
camping season, could have a negative effect
on the health of the river.
“They’re apparently more worried about
footprints than sewage going into the
water,” he said.
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