MRC Pontiac releases results of 2024 housing survey

MRC Pontiac releases results of 2024 housing survey

MRC Pontiac recently released the results of a survey on housing that they conducted in early 2024 and released in March 2025. The survey was available online for two months and in other venues, was divided into owners, tenants, landlords and businesses. The results of the survey can be found here.

Rachel Soar Flandé, the MRC’s economic development officer for housing, highlighted the high number of people renting without a lease (53.57% of landlords and 54.55% of tenants surveyed said they signed no lease), which she called problematic. In addition, she also pointed to the discrepancy between the 55.5% of tenants who said their buildings required renovations, compared to 25% of landlords who said the same.

Soar Flandé said that they would be using the results of the survey to inform developers and other stakeholders of the realities in the region.

However, the small number of responses and lack of participation in certain regions raises questions about the overall utility of the data. The survey was completed by 219 people, representing just under 1.5% of the Pontiac’s roughly 14,000 residents. In the tenants section, there were no responses from half the municipalities in the MRC (Alleyn-et-Cawood, Chichester, L’Isle-aux-Allumettes, Litchfield, Portage-du-Fort, Rapides-des-Joachims, Sheenboro, Thorne and Waltham). In addition, there were no anglophone tenants surveyed who were under 50 years-old.

Soar Flandé acknowledged she would have liked more responses, and said that she aims to conduct another survey in a few years time.

The full interview with Soar Flandé (14m30) is available here.