Catégorie : Tribune-Express (Hawkesbury)

L’École secondaire catholique régionale de Hawkesbury (ESCRH) annonce son nouveau programme de hockey en collaboration avec l’Académie des habiletés de hockey du Canada (AHHC).

Ce qui avait débuté comme un projet pilote en 2023, permettant aux étudiants de s’adonner à la pratique du hockey sur glace une fois toutes les deux semaines, compte aujourd’hui plus de 30 élèves de 7e et 8e année de l’ESCRH, qui perfectionnent leurs compétences chaque semaine grâce au programme de l’AHHC. Ces jeunes passionnés de hockey bénéficient également d’entraînements parascolaires s’ils font partie de l’équipe de hockey du Pavillon de l’ESCRH, leur offrant ainsi l’opportunité de peaufiner leur jeu d’équipe.

Les élèves ne manquent pas de cours pour participer à ce programme optionnel. Le nombre d’étudiants participants a doublé par rapport à l’année dernière.

L’un des facteurs qui pourrait expliquer cela est l’effort de l’administration pour rendre le programme plus abordable et accessible à tous les étudiants intéressés.

En début d’année, le programme devait coûter 300$ par élève pour couvrir le prix de la location de patinoires pour 27 pratiques, de septembre 2023 à mars 2024, ainsi que le coût du transport. Depuis, l’ESCRH a reçu des fonds de commanditaires et de Hockey Canada, ce qui permettra à l’école de remettre un remboursement aux élèves participants.

La coordinatrice du programme, Nadia Lalonde-Côté, a déclaré qu’elle souhaitait offrir le prix le plus bas possible afin que tous les étudiants intéressés par le programme puissent y participer.

« Nous voulons donner la chance au plus grand nombre », a-t-elle expliqué.

Le programme AHHC a été instauré en Alberta lors de l’année scolaire 2000-2001, dans le but d’enrichir l’expérience éducative des élèves en intégrant le hockey dans leur journée scolaire, tout en optimisant l’utilisation des patinoires tout au long de la journée. Depuis sa création, plus de 5 500 élèves, répartis dans 150 écoles à travers le Canada, participent activement à ce programme chaque année.

Les Aigles de Saint-Isidore ont perdu leur première joute de 2024 contre les Castors de Cumberland.

Leur première joute était contre les Castors de Cumberland ce dimanche 7 janvier. Les Aigles ont perdu 5-1. Justin Cloutier a été le seul à marquer, à 15 minutes et 17 secondes dans la première période, avec l’aide de Cedric Hughes. Mathieu Sauve était le gardien de but des Aigles.

La première pénalité a été attribuée à Nathan Lassenba pour double-échec mineur, à dix minutes et huit secondes de la deuxième période.

Cody Cook à reçu une pénalité pour rudesse mineure, à une minute et 50 secondes de la fin de la deuxième période.

Pendant la troisième période, les Aigles ont écopé de six pénalités. Nathan Lassenba a été sanctionné pour avoir fait trébucher à 19 minutes et 23 secondes de la fin. Maxime Patenaude a écopé de deux minutes pour avoir accroché, avec 11 minutes et 22 secondes restantes. Connor Cook a fait trébucher un adversaire et a reçu deux pénalités de deux minutes avec cinq minutes et 52 secondes restantes. Parallèlement, Kyle Huneault a écopé d’une punition de banc pour deux minutes. La dernière pénalité a été attribuée à Tyler Proulx pour rudesse, à une minute et 50 secondes de la fin.

Les Aigles retourneront sur la glace le 13 janvier contre les Castors de Cumberland.

The owner of the burned-down apartment building on County Road 17 in L’Orignal previously informed tenants of his intention to tear down the building, signing tenancy termination notices a little more than a month before the fire. 

On December 2, 2023, Albero Neyra provided tenants of the building an N13 tenancy termination notice, officially informing them their leases would be end on April 30, 2024.  

The legal notice, obtained by EAP, states the residential building was to be destroyed to allow for the construction of a commercial warehouse. Neyra also obtained a demolition permit from Champlain Township on November 18, 2023. The demolition permit was attached to the N13. 

The N13 form is used to end a tenants rental agreement for the purpose of destroying, renovating or changing a building from residential another use. If the rental unit is located in a residential complex that contains at least five units, landlords must offer the tenant a monetary amount equal to three months’ rent or an alternative unit. Had the building been destroyed in May 2024 as planned, tenants would have been entitled to compensation. 

Citing the ongoing police investigation, Neyra refused to speak about the fire itself, however, he said he is open to giving some compensation to the residents. 

Despite sending out the N13 notices, Neyra explained he was still looking to sell the building instead of demolishing it before the fire occurred. He said the building had many structural issues and an expert in construction may have been better qualified to own and repair the building. 

Poor Tenant-Landlord relations 

Neyra also explained that his relationship with the tenants was strained, another reason he wanted to sell or demolish the former motel. 

“I wasn’t interested in managing quarrels. We didn’t have good relations,” said Neyra of the building’s tenants in French. “It’s a shame what happened, but at the same time, it’s not surprising with the kind of people they are.” 

Past and present tenants of the building agree that the relationship between the landlord and residents was often fraught. 

Emily Young, a former tenant who moved out of the building in December, explained she often overheard screaming matches between other residents and the landlord.  

“I don’t think there was one tenant that got along well with him” said Young. 

Other tenants living in the building at the time of the fire said Neyra often became frustrated and berated tenants. Julie Tomkinson, sister of current tenant Jude Belisle, said she and other tenants filed complaints against Neyra over the last few years. 

Neyra said he could not confirm whether or not complaints were made against him, but said he filed complaints against some of the tenants himself. 

The Fire

The fire started around 12:45 p.m. Friday, January 5, after a breaker connected to a vacant apartment was flipped by the landlord, according to several residents. The fire quickly spread to the entire building, forcing the residents to evacuate and destroying all nine apartments. According to the Hawkesbury detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), all occupants were evacuated from the building without any injuries reported. 

Champlain Township firefighters along with crews from Alfred and Plantagenet Township, Hawkesbury and East Hawkesbury were all called in to fight the fire. 

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and Ontario Fire Marshall are currently investigating the cause of the fire. 

Sergeant Alain Potvin of the Hawkesbury detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) was awarded a citation of bravery for rescuing a family from a vehicle submerged along a flooded dirt road in 2020.  

On March 15, 2020, Sergeant Potvin responded to a call involving a vehicle stuck on a flooded dirt road near Riceville. The vehicle was submerged in approximately  a metre (three feet) of water, and was about six metres from the Nation River. The current was flowing rapidly towards the river from a nearby field, dragging the vehicle along with it. The vehicle was quickly filling with water, sinking the front end. 

A woman and her 5-year-old twin grand-daughters were in the vehicle at the time. Sergeant Potvin tied himself off with a rope to the cruiser’s push bars, then navigated the waist-deep water to rescue the children and grandmother, successfully bring them to safety. 

Sergeant Potvin returned to the water to assist the tow operator in removing the vehicle from the flooded road. 

The Hawkesbury Hawks lost two back-to-back games to the Carleton Place Canadians to start of the second half of their season in 2024. 

The Hawks faced the Canadians on Friday, Jan. 5, at the Robert Hartley sports complex. The Canadians took the lead early in the first period with a goal from Cole Mathews, but Deklyn Campbell tied the game for the Hawks just two minutes later. With five minutes to play in the first, Carleton Place’s Masen Cutley scored his team’s second goal to put his team ahead. 

Owen Hardy scored to put the Hawks back on even footing in the second period, but Bill Gourgon scored the Canadians third goal before the end of the period.  

No goals were scored in the third period, giving Carleton Place the two points with a 3-2 win. 

Hawks Meet Canadians for a Rematch 

Hawkesbury visited Carleton Place on Sunday afternoon hoping to take back points after their defeat on Friday night. Unfortunately for the Hawks, Carleton Place scored the five goals in the first and second period, with goals from Mathieu Fehr, Noah Kinloch Varga, Caton Ryan and two from Gourgon. 

Campbell and Aiden Stubbings scored two goals for the Hawks early in the third period showing a glimmer of hope for a comeback, but the Canadians put an end to the Hawks’ hopes with a goal from Jace Benvie. Alex Fournier scored a final consolation goal for the Hawks with three minutes left in the third, but it was too little, too late. Carleton Place took the game 6-3. 

The Vankleek Hill Cougars came back from their holiday break and kicked off 2024 with one loss and one win against the Gatineau Hull-Volant and the Cumberland Castors, respectively. 

The Cougars faced the toughest team in the league on Friday night, Jan. 5, resulting in their 3-1 defeat to the Gatineau Hull-Volant. Gatineau has only two losses in 26 games. Joshua Desjardins scored the first goal of the game for the Cougars in the second period, but Gatineau scored three back-to-back goals in the third period, two from Julien Arruda and one from Samuel Emery, to put the game out of the Cougar’s reach.  

Vankleek Hill hosted the Cumberland Castors at home the following Saturday, shutting-out the opposition in a 3-0 win with goals from Maxime Laliberté, Connor Stuart and Bruno Laframboise. 

Police are investigating the fire at a former motel recently converted to residential housing in L’Orignal along County Road 17, between Longueuil Street and John Street.

Champlain Township firefighters along with crews from Alfred and Plantagenet Township, Hawkesbury and East Hawkesbury were called in to fight the fire, which started around 12:45 p.m. Friday, Jan. 5, quickly spreading to the entire building and filling the area with smoke.

According to the Hawkesbury detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), all occupants were evacuated from the building without any injuries reported.

Three residents, huddled in their car down the road with two small dogs, said they lost all of their belongings in the fire and had nowhere else to go for the time being. They added the landlord did not offer them somewhere else to stay.

One resident said the fire started after the landlord flipped a breaker connected to one of the apartments in the nine-unit building.

Neither the OPP nor the fire department confirmed the cause of the fire as of 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 5.

Police stated on the morning of Saturday, Jan. 6, that there is an active and ongoing investigation into the cause of the fire, requesting that anyone with information should contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122, or anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222- 8477 (TIPS).

This story was updated from an earlier version to include the police investigation announced Saturday morning, Jan. 6.

A 60-year-old man from Gatineau is dead following an accident involving a single vehicle on Highway 417  near Vankleek Hill. 

On Monday, December 18, at approximately 10:40 p.m., the Hawkesbury detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), paramedic services from Prescott-Russell and Cornwall Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry, and the Champlain Township Fire Department responded to a collision involving a single vehicle on Highway 417 in the westbound lanes between the Barb Road and Highway 34 interchanges.

Three passengers were transported to the hospital, one with life threatening injuries and two others with minor injuries. The deceased was driving the vehicle at the time of the crash and was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical services 

The westbound lanes of Highway 417 were closed for approximately seven hours following the accident. 

The OPP is currently investigating the collision and will not share further details.

Les familles se sont réunies dans les rues de la ville de Hawkesbury pour assister à la parade de Noël, le samedi 9 décembre dernier.  

Ce sont 45 chars allégoriques, illuminés de merveilleuses lumières de Noël, qui ont parcouru les rues de Hawkesbury pour répandre la joie et mettre le sourire aux visages des enfants, et parfois même donner quelques cannes en bonbons. 

Sans surprise, le père Noël, invité spécial annuel, était présent pour saluer les résidents de Hawkesbury. Cependant, à l’avenir, il devra être vigilant pour ne pas se faire voler la vedette par la présence d’Elsa, la princesse du film La reine des neiges, et par les spectacles de feux des montgolfières. 

Les chars sont partis du complexe sportif Robert Hartley et ont parcouru les rues Higginson, James, Main et Hamilton pour finalement retourner au complexe sportif. 

La municipalité de Hawkesbury Est a approuvé un budget opérationnel de 5,359,446$ pour l’année 2024 lors de la réunion du conseil du 11 décembre. 

Le budget inclus un prélèvement fiscal de 2,637,094$, soit une hausse de près de 5%, ce qui représente environ 51$ pour une maison moyenne d’une valeur de 210,000$. Cependant, il n’est plus dans le mandat de la municipalité de s’occuper du recyclage. Le recyclage coutait 58$ aux résident l’an dernier. Les résidents verront donc une réduction sur leurs factures. 

Le maire de la municipalité M. Robert Kirby était déçu d’avoir été dans l’obligation de monter le taux d’imposition. « Le taux est pas mal haut, a-t-il affirmé dans une entrevue avec les Éditions André Paquette, mais le prix de tous les affaires a monté. » 

Le budget capital de la municipalité pour 2024 est de 993,000$. Le budget capital est séparé en deux items importants; la construction de la seconde phase du centre communautaire, au coût de 635,000$ et le pavage de la concession neuf, au coût de 240,000$. Cependant, la construction de la seconde phase du centre communautaire est conditionnelle à l’obtention de financement provincial ou fédéral.