Fort-Coulonge reduces council to four, other municipalities opt to stick with six

Fort-Coulonge reduces council to four, other municipalities opt to stick with six

Last Wednesday (November 6), the Municipality of Fort-Coulonge finalized their decision to reduce the number of municipal councillors during the next election cycle from six to four.

The change stems from Quebec’s newly passed Bill 57, which allows municipalities with less than 2,000 residents to reduce their council size. With the next municipal election scheduled for November 2025, the changes must be made by December. Jacques Demers, the President of the Federation of Quebec Municipalities, told the Canadian Press in September that many small towns have difficulty filling full slates of candidates.

In the last election in 2021, nearly 60% of Pontiac’s municipal officials (73) ran unopposed, with the councils of Chichester, Campbell’s Bay and Waltham elected entirely by acclamation.

Despite being one of the larger municipalities population-wise in the Pontiac with 1,300 residents, Fort-Coulonge is currently the only municipality to drop to four councillors and a mayor this cycle. Mansfield-et-Pontefract, with more than 2,000 residents, is ineligible and Rapides-des-Joachims has had four councillors for more than a decade. Sheenboro, with a year-round population of 126, held a public consultation on November 12 and has tabled a resolution on the issue for their December meeting (all population figures cited here are from the 2021 census).

Mayor Christine Francoeur explained that the reduction would bring modest savings of around $14,000 per year, but the financial motive wasn’t a primary factor in the decision. Also, since four of Fort-Coulonge’s current seats were elected by acclamation, she said that less seats would hopefully result in more competitive races. She added that during their public consultation, the citizenry who attended were in favour.

Francoeur added that the next council elected in November 2025 would have the option of reversing the decision if they chose, though it would be for the following election cycle.

CHIP 101.9 reached out to the remaining municipalities eligible to reduce their council size, and those who responded said that they would be staying with six. Despite repeated attempts, CHIP 101.9  did not receive responses from representatives of Bryson or Ile-du-Grand-Calumet.

Mayor Carl Mayer of Alleyn-et-Cawood (year-round population 229) said that his council had discussed the change and decided that there was enough work for six councillors, especially since most have day jobs.

Fort-Coulonge’s rate of representation will shift from roughly one council member per 185 people to one per 260 people. In places like Portage-du-Fort, with a year-round population of 232, six councilllors works out to roughly one council member per 38 people. Pontiac, with roughly 14,000 year-round residents, currently elects 124 officials (18 mayors, 106 councillors), roughly the same number as there are in the National Assembly.