Inside this week Annual hunting Gaspesie A Gaspesian connection contest inside! Literacy Council AGM Contract 400119680 ESTABLISHED • MAY 1975 VOLUME 44 / NO 40 / OCTOBER 10, 2018 $1.50 (Tax included) October 1st election: Recount requested in Gaspé Geneviève Gélinas Mélançon. Box 61 covers a part of the Wakeham area in GASPÉ – Parti québécois Gaspé. candidate in the Gaspé riding, Ms. Perry Mélançon states Méganne Perry Mélançon, that members of her team feels “quite confident” that spoke to the scrutineer, and she will be elected after the ju- that the official results of box dicial recount requested by 61 do not reflect reality. “Sev- her party. A formal complaint eral scenarios lead us to be- was filed to the Quebec Chief lieve that we won,” the Electoral Officer on October 3 candidate says. about the surprising results of A PQ victory in the Gaspé a ballot box, namely box 61. riding would have “a national Liberal candidate Alexan- impact. It would make a sig- dre Boulay won the provincial nificant difference. The PQ election on October 1 with would have 10 Members of 132 more votes than Ms. the National Assembly. We Perry Mélançon. would be the second official According to the official opposition in place of Québec results, the ballot box number solidaire,” Ms. Perry 61 contained 194 ballots, all Mélançon points out. Photo: G. Gélinas of them for the Liberal candi- Québec solidaire has ten Méganne Perry Mélançon, defeated on October 1 by the Liberal candidate, says that she’s date, and none for the three MNAs and 16.1% of the “shocked” by the last twists of the electoral process. other candidates. votes. The PQ has 17.06 % of “Obviously, it seems that the votes but only nine visibility,” explains Mrs. didates in the Gaspé riding, it can tell what really is in box there was an error. Some of MNAs. Due to its higher pop- Perry Mélançon. would be projected that the 61. our members confirmed to us ular support, the PQ would Judicial recounts are su- PQ candidate would win with As SPEC was reaching its that they voted for the PQ,” step in front of Québec sol- pervised by judges of the a majority of approximately deadline on October 5, a judge states the PQ communications idaire. Quebec Court. 60 votes, however, this is just was supposed to hear Ms. director, Yanick Grégoire. Forming the second oppo- Spec estimates that if the an estimate and there is no ev- Perry Mélançon’s request that Five electors of the area sition would give the PQ votes in box 61 were distrib- idence that the electors voted afternoon. The candidate is re- declared under oath that they “more speaking rights (at the uted in the same accordance according to those proportions questing a recount on October voted for Ms. Perry National Assembly) and more as those obtained by the can- and only an official recount 9. You wouldn’t trust just anyone 63% of Canadians can't spot fake news. with your health. So why trust Access to truthful news is under threat. just anyone for your news? Pledge your support: newspapersmatter.ca LeBoutillier proud of having improved CAQ score in Gaspé Geneviève Gélinas GASPÉ: – The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) candidate in Gaspé, Louis LeBoutillier, is proud of having improved his party’s results even if he was defeated. He finished third with 19.44% of the votes. The former CAQ candidate, Yvan Blanchard, had obtained 6.19% of the votes in 2014. “I did a lot of leg work,” said Mr. LeBoutillier. He thinks that “the other parties have been able to make Gaspesians believe that we are against the regions. My two Achilles heels, with four arrows stuck in them, were wind energy and the cement plant,” he adds. Those two important files for the Gaspé Coast have been widely criticized by the CAQ over the last years. “If the CAQ is in power, it’s because of the re- gions,” believes Mr. LeBoutillier, who emphasizes that only a few CAQ candidates were elected on Montreal island. “Maybe Gaspe- Photo: G. Gagné sians didn’t understand the message,” says Mr. LeBoutillier, who Some track maintenance equipment is visible along various parts of the line, like here in Mata- wants to run again four years down the road. pedia. Gaspé engineer Martin Crousset Railway repairs are progressing removed from professional order The Quebec government, unknown for now but Luc Geneviève Gélinas Gilles Gagné which acquired the Matapedia Lévesque says that a lot of GASPÉ: – The Quebec Order of Engineers has temporarily re- MATAPEDIA: – Since the to Gaspé line in March 2015, work is carried out this fall to moved Mario Crousset from its registry for 20 weeks. The presi- start of summer, repairs on the will conduct work east of Ca- assess the state of bridges in dent of Kwatröe Consultant, accepted to pay $22,575 to Roche, railway and assessment duties plan for the first time since be- many places. another engineering firm, for fictitious professional services, be- for bridge upgrade work have coming the owner. Thousands “Things are moving. We fore being paid back. This was part of a scheme of illegal politi- progressed at a faster pace on of ties will be replaced be- know that the Cascapedia-St- cal party financing. the line between Matapedia tween Caplan and New Jules bridges will be replaced Mr. Crousset pleaded guilty to having violated the code of and New Carlisle. Some eval- Carlisle this fall. The work is by a new structure south of the ethics of engineers by having lent himself to shameful, or even uation work has even been carried out with the Gaspésie existing bridge. A call for ten- dishonest or doubtful practices. carried out between New Railway Society, the line op- ders will eventually be pub- The incident took place in 2009, during the reconstruction of Carlisle and Gaspé. erator. lished,” he says. It might take Highway 132 in Rivière-au-Renard, when Kwatröe was conduct- So far since July, 20,000 “We were supposed to two years before the new ing land surveys and site supervision for Roche. ties have been replaced be- change 20,000 ties there but bridges are in place but Mr. In May 2009, Roche consultant, Martin Lapointe, asked Mario tween Matapedia and New we will have to settle for Lévesque prefers not to spec- Crousset to address two invoices to Kwatröe for a total of Richmond, as expected in the fewer because the plants can- ulate on the time frame. $22,575, and then charge the same amount to Roche, in order to information released by the not supply enough ties. We ex- In Caplan, the Ruisselet be paid back. Mr. Crousset did it. Quebec government over the pect to change about half of bridge could be replaced but it In July 2009, Mr. Lapointe pressed Mr. Crousset to pay the spring. the expected number, so is a much shorter structure amount of $22,575. On July 30, 2009, cheques were exchanged. “Most of the 20,000 ties 10,000 this fall,” says Mr. than the Cascapedia-St-Jules At that moment, it had become obvious that no service had been were installed between Nou- Lévesque. ones and it can be done in a provided by the Roche consultant, Mr. Crousset admitted. Facing velle and Saint Jules, barring Transport Quebec had de- relatively shorter time frame. Mr. Lapointe’s insistence, “we suspected that he was using the a few exceptions west of Nou- cided to put the line east of Some work is expected on money for political purposes,” Mr. Crousset stated. velle, where some ties were Caplan in a dormant state the Ruisseau Leblanc bridge, In fact, the amount was used to pay Mr. Lapointe back for his also replaced. The Cascape- upon the acquisition of the at the Caplan and Saint- donations to political parties. He was then able to get around the dia-New Richmond stretch re- Matapedia to Gaspé line three- Siméon limit, and two Port Election Act, which prohibits companies from giving money to mains to be done,” points out and-a-half years ago, a deci- Daniel bridges require some a provincial party’s campaign funds. Luc Lévesque, director gen- sion that proved to be work as well. The Order’s disciplinary council highlighted that even if Mr. eral of the Gaspésie Railway controversial since most of the East of Port Daniel, most Crousset didn’t know the political purpose of the scheme at the Society. traffic development since of the work carried out this beginning, it wasn’t too late to step back when he understood it. That contract was awarded March 2015 originates from year consists of assessing cer- “He failed to meet his integrity obligations and lent himself to to a Montreal firm, AB Rail, that closed part. In May 2015, tain parts of the line that could practices he knew were dishonest, independently of the political which has a facility in Tide the Quebec government de- need some protection, like purpose of the affair,” stated the disciplinary council in its judge- Head, New Brunswick. cided to reopen the line east of places prone to rock slides. ment. Ballast is currently spread Caplan but that will require “However, we have In May 2014, the Quebec anti-corruption squad (UPAC) vis- between Matapedia and New time. reached an agreement with ited the Kwatröe office in Gaspé to take documents. At that time, Richmond. “It has started. The The Port Daniel cement Transport Quebec for the up- Mr.