“Amalgamation should minimize tax increases for residents, not maximize them”

Sylvie Goneau aims to unseat Gatineau’s mayor

Brendan Shaughnessy

Sylvie Goneau, veteran councillor for the Bellevue ward, set out her electoral platform on September 27. She will hold the line on tax increases, she promises; tax hikes would not go beyond the cost-of-living index. The councillor insists that, like other amalgamated Quebec municipalities, Gatineau should now be able to get greater value for its expenditures.  Instead, Gatineau seems to be spending more,  she notes.

Goneau says that, as mayor, she will place a heavy emphasis on entrepreneurship. She says one staff member in her office would be specifically designated to focus help for the city’s small-business owners.

 

Her goal is to provide entrepreneurs with more tools, while eliminating excess bureaucracy and barriers to urban planning. 

The old administration, she suggests, is mired in barriers and petty regulations.

The councillor is pledging to improve services for all Gatineau residents. Ms Goneau says infrastructure investments would focus first on street and sidewalk repairs. She strongly supports a new Gatineau-Ottawa bridge -- in the east end of the city to serve Buckingham and Masson-Angers. Goneau insists that more discussion on the bridge’s location is necessary with stakeholders.

Goneau says that her administration will raise the city’s profile – bringing in more investment, jobs and services -- given that Gatineau is a gateway to Quebec and the province’s fourth-largest city.  Residents and city officials together have the ability to make Gatineau a true destination, she says, and they should have rallying projects downtown that everyone can be proud of. For example, she supports creation of an interactive regional museum that would celebrate the area’s multiple shorelines as well as display local Indigenous artifacts, among other attractions.

Goneau is serving her second term as a Gatineau city councillor. She is the only woman running against four men in the November 5 election: fellow councillor Denis Tassé, Clément Bélanger, Rémi Bergeron and incumbent Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin.