Calumet Mayor Jean-Louis Corriveau discusses municipal budget

Calumet Mayor Jean-Louis Corriveau discusses municipal budget

CHIP 101.9 rounded up its tour of municipal budgets in the Pontiac region by going to the Municipality of L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet to meet with Mayor Jean-Louis Corriveau. Like other municipalities, Mayor Corriveau highlighted the significant increase that his municipality must pay in its share to the MRC Pontiac. This is an increase of $68,000 that has been charged for the current year to a municipality of approximately 700 people.

“It looks like a small tax increase, we’re talking about 4 cents of the 100 dollars [of evaluation]. It makes you aware that there is no one who likes tax increases, but we have to raise taxes with everything that goes up, in terms of economy and fuel and all that,” he said (translated). “The [share] rose by $68,000. The [share] today, in 2023, is $216,263. This means that it is an increase which … in any case, which hurts the municipality. Because, as I was telling you earlier, with the increase there, we will get $52,000 more in income with the additional taxable value and the 4 cents. That means we’re still down from $16,000 to cover the increase in the MRC.”

While Fort-Coulonge closed its library and Mansfield-et-Pontefract created a partnership with l’École secondaire Sieur-de-Coulonge to provide library services, L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet, the smallest municipality with a French-speaking majority in MRC Pontiac, still offers its services to the population and has even improved its offerings.

“The library support wall, it’s been over for 3-4 years. There, this year, we would like to redo the support wall, wall to wall,” he said (translated). “We think, without a doubt, an estimate of $100,000 … Yes, certainly, we hired someone before Christmas, a new person, I think she is very dynamic. There, we invested a little bit in a big television, a screen to show stories, for the children. And I think the new hire is very interested in trying to get people to come, as you say, to watch these stories. I think it’s really positive in my opinion because there are young people who come.”

The full (French-language) interview with Corriveau (6m50) is available here.