Catégorie : Vision (Clarence-Rockland)

Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie is hoping the provincial riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell can return to Liberal glory when Ontarians head to the polls in the summer of 2026. 

Crombie, who was named the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party on Dec 2, 2023, following the resignation of former leader Steven Del Duca, visited the United Counties of Prescott and Russell (UCPR) on Friday, May 10, where she had the opportunity to discuss concerns and priorities with local politicians and leaders.  

“I wanted to hear what the problems are and help with brainstorming some solutions,” said Crombie, during a stop at the Broken Stick Brewery in Hammond last Friday. “The party and its executive really want me to get out there and tour, especially coming to small town communities. I am a new leader with a new vision, and it’s important for people to get to know me.” 

Crombie, has been touring ridings across the province, and before visiting Hammond, she was in Ottawa, Sudbury and Brockville.  

Progressive Conservative Stéphane Sarrazin currently represents the provincial of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell riding, and was elected in 2022.  

“Liberalism has evolved,” said Crombie. “I don’t want to be tied to the legislature. I want to be out there, learning and understanding what’s happening jn small communities. I want to know, if you didn’t vote Liberal last time, what has your MPP done for your community, and how can we as a party gain your confidence when it comes time to vote?” 

Support for Francophones 

Communities across the UCPR are predominately Francophone, and Crombie said she understands the importance of providing equal representation for the French speaking population.  

“I made the commitment to reinstate the Francophone commissioner,” said Crombie, addressing the fact that the program was cancelled. “It is very important to stand up for Francophone rights.” 

Roads and infrastructure 

The Ontario government recently announced it is taking over Highway 174, more than 25 years after the road in Ottawa’s east end was downloaded to the City of Ottawa.  

Premier Doug Ford announced a new $543 million agreement between the Ontario government and the City of Ottawa, which includes Ontario taking over responsibility of Ottawa Road 174. 

And while Crombie is happy for the City of Ottawa, she wonders what it means for neighbouring municipalities, many of them who rely heavily on the stretch of road to get to and from Ottawa.  

“Of course it should be offloaded to other municipalities,” said Crombie on the highway. “Every City needs fair infrastructure, roads and bridges.” 

A new voice for the riding 

Crombie was joined by Trevor Stewart, who is seeking the provincial Liberal nomination for the riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell.  

Stewart, who is from Hammond, is currently a Clarence-Rockland city councillor.  

First elected to municipal council in 2022 at the young age of 23, the young councillor has made an impression and now hopes to provide a voice to a region he feels has been ignored by the province. 

“As a municipal councillor, I have seen how much our (riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell) growth has been held back by the provincial government,” said Stewart. “This area has been good to my family, and for me, politics is a way of giving back to the community I love.” 

Xavier Laurent summed up his time with the Rockland Nationals with one word.  

“Amazing.” 

And while he came up short of his goal to win a Bogart Cup, the former Nationals captain said he will forever be grateful to an organization who believed in him and moulded him into the player he is today.  

“My time with Rockland will always be special to me,” said Laurent. “I gave everything I had and I am really, really proud of how our guys worked last season.” 

As he prepares for the next chapter in his life and budding hockey career, Laurent had a chance to reflect on his last season with the Nationals, one he truly won’t forget.  

Not only was he named the team’s captain, but he was named the CCHL’s top defenseman by racking up 14 goals, which ranked second amongst CCHL defenders, and 43 points, which led all blueliners during the 2023-2024 season.  

Laurent represented the Nats at the Eastern Canada Cup and the CCHL all-star game this season, and led the Nats to their first playoff berth in four years.  

“My time with the Nationals, it was a really stepping stone for me in my hockey career,” said Laurent. “I learned so much and had so much fun, especially last season, and became a better hockey player.” 

Laurent was a big part in leading the Nats for their first postseason berth in four years, where the team also earned a first round playoff win against the Renfrew Wolves, only to lose to the Navan Grads in the second round.  

The former Nats captain said it was amazing to see how the community rallied around the team, and it was special to bring the excitement of playoff hockey back to Rockland.  

He credits the new coaching staff, led by first year coach Justin Pereira, for changing the culture of the team, and bringing out the best in the club’s players.  

“Everytime we came to the rink, the coaches always find out to help us improve,” said Laurent. “They brought out the best in us and helped every single guy on our team.” 

He still feels gutted for not being able to bring the Bogart Cup to Rockland, but is now focused on what comes next.  

Laurent, who is from Laval, has fully committed to Concordia University, and will be attending the post-secondary institution beginning this fall.  

“It’s close to home (in Laval) and they have a great hockey program,” said Laurent who enrolled in the Athletics Therapy program at Concordia University. “I am excited to get started.” 

The Rockland Nationals organization paid its respects to Xavier with a social media post, calling him “a terrific leader for the Nationals both on and off the ice.” 

“Xavier was also a great mentor and leader for all his teammates this season,” the Nationals post on Facebook said. “He leads through his actions with his dedication, discipline and passion for the game. Xavier will always have a special place in the hearts of the Nationals. The Nationals want to thank Xavier for all his time and effort he put into the organization and wish him continued success at this time at Concordia.” 

In 105 career games with the Rockland Nationals, Xavier tallied 18 goals and 39 assists, good for 57 points.  

 

The City of Clarence-Rockland held a virtual focus group on Thursday, May 9, where representatives detailed the process of a new Community Improvement Plan (CIP).  

The City of Clarence Rockland retained Sierra Planning & Management to prepare a new CIP and asked residents and local business owners for their input in an online meeting last week.  

The 2017-2022 CIP supported businesses along the main commercial corridor along Laurier Street.  

“As villages grow, it’s important for us to open things up and provide opportunities outside the core of Rockland,” said Ali Riel, the City of Clarence-Rockland’s economic development officer.  

Through collaboration, the new CIP will provide evidence-based guidance on the most effective ways to stimulate economic development across a variety of sectors, property improvement, development, and redevelopment. 

The City of Clarence-Rockland provided 12 grants and invested $23,780 to support local business investments in the downtown commercial area revitalization. Projects ranged from façade improvements, energy efficiency upgrades, landscaping, signage installation and permit application fees.  

“We were very pleased with the interest we had,” added Riel, regarding the attendance and feedback given during the focus group. “It’s going to be really beneficial having the expertise from a group like Sierra, who has worked with many municipalities to develop a CIP.” 

Those attending the focus group session expressed interest in creating signage to promote businesses in the region, while adding some landscape to make the municipality more attractive for visitors and passers-by.  

The new CIP project will revisit the CIP area boundary and lay out opportunities for the City to provide incentive-based programs as an economic development tool. 

The plan is to pull the community together to review the draft and ask questions. 

Sierra is producing a draft of the new CIP, which should be ready by the end of June, noted Riel. They hope to have the CIP approved and adopted between late winter of 2024 or early spring of 2025.  

A CIP is a tool available to municipalities under Section 28 of the Planning Act.  CIPs help facilitating revitalization and redevelopment efforts in a defined area or areas. To carry out CIPs, municipalities can establish grants, loans, and other programs to encourage private sector investment in development and renovation projects which seek to improve areas in accordance with local goals and priorities. 

A CIP establishes an environment that facilitates support for existing business and can play a role in attracting new business.  

La Cité de Clarence-Rockland et Rockland Racket Sports ont organisé une journée portes ouvertes, le mardi 7 mai, afin de présenter en détail les plans d’un important centre de tennis dans la communauté.   

 En janvier de cette année, la Cité et l’organisation sportive locale ont signé un protocole d’entente pour la construction d’une installation récréative multisports de grande envergure à Rockland.   

Tel que présenté à la Ville l’an dernier, le projet sera situé dans le parc industriel de Rockland, à proximité de l’aréna de Clarence-Rockland et de l’Académie internationale de hockey du Canada (CIH), le long de la route de comté 17.     

Représentant un investissement de plus de 20 millions de dollars dans la communauté, la première phase du partenariat public-privé permettra la construction d’une installation de deux millions de dollars comprenant 14 courts de pickleball, un pavillon extérieur pour les spectateurs et un dôme pour quatre courts de tennis intérieurs.   

La ville transfère environ trois acres de terrain à Rockland Racket Sports, propriété d’Aaron Merkel et Brad Cartier, hommes d’affaires réputés de Clarence-Rockland, pour la construction de l’installation.   

« Notre objectif est de faire de notre mieux pour obtenir le meilleur résultat possible pour la communauté, a déclaré Aaron Merkel lors de la journée portes ouvertes organisée la semaine dernière dans la salle Optimiste Performance. Je vis dans cette communauté. Je ne suis pas un gars de Toronto qui va venir ici, faire quelque chose, puis repartir. »   

La construction de la première phase devrait commencer cet été, et l’inscription des membres ainsi que l’accès à la communauté devraient avoir lieu à la fin de l’automne ou au début de l’hiver.    

Mme Merkel a fait remarquer que les principales préoccupations des habitants qui ont participé à la journée portes ouvertes concernaient le bruit, le stationnement et l’accès à la nouvelle installation.   

« Je pense que nous avons répondu à une grande partie des préoccupations concernant le bruit en installant un dôme et en le plaçant à proximité d’un espace commercial, a déclaré M. Merkel. Si vous faites partie de la communauté, vous devez avoir votre mot à dire. Avec une planification et une mise en œuvre correctes, nous pouvons faire de ce projet une réussite. »  

La deuxième phase du projet est la construction d’une Académie de tennis. Comme le CIH, l’Académie de tennis comprendra des dortoirs, des services de restauration, des commerces de détail et des salles de sport où les athlètes locaux et internationaux pourront s’entraîner et se loger.    

La valeur de l’académie est estimée à environ 18 millions de dollars. La construction de la deuxième phase débutera en 2025.   

Robert et Christine Gelfand espéraient pouvoir discuter un peu plus de la deuxième phase lors de la journée portes ouvertes.   

Mme Merkel a toutefois fait remarquer que la journée portes ouvertes n’était axée que sur la première phase.    

« Nous aurions aimé savoir ce qui nous attend, surtout en ce qui concerne la deuxième phase, a déclaré Christine. Qu’adviendra-t-il de l’espace vert ? Les arbres seront-ils remplacés ? »   

Le couple, qui a déménagé d’Orléans à Rockland, a déclaré que la zone située à proximité du complexe sportif proposé est déjà suffisamment occupée et que l’ajout d’un nouveau complexe sportif ne ferait qu’ajouter aux préoccupations actuelles en matière de circulation.    

« Nous avons tellement d’enfants qui rentrent de l’école et de propriétaires d’animaux qui promènent leurs chiens, a déclaré Christine. Que se passe-t-il si quelqu’un arrive en retard au tribunal ? Il pourrait y avoir des problèmes d’excès de vitesse. »   

Matthew Cragg, qui a déménagé à Rockland il y a quatre ans avec sa famille, estime que les avantages d’une nouvelle installation sportive l’emportent sur les inconvénients.   

« Nous entendons souvent dire qu’il n’y a rien à faire à Rockland », a-t-il ajouté. Cette option nous donne quelque chose à faire et je m’en réjouis. Je pense que c’est une bonne chose pour notre communauté. »   

Dans le cadre de l’accord conclu avec la ville, Rockland Racket Sports offrira aux résidents de Clarence-Rockland une réduction de 20 % sur les frais d’adhésion standard, ainsi qu’une réduction de 25 % sur la location des courts en dehors des heures de pointe. Les courts seront accessibles au public pendant au moins 70 % du temps, selon le protocole d’entente entre la ville et Rockland Racket Sports.   

L’installation bénéficiera également d’un accord d’équipement municipal, permettant à la construction du bâtiment d’être exemptée des frais de développement et des impôts fonciers de la municipalité et du conseil scolaire.   

  

 

Cela fait un an que le sergent Eric Mueller de la Police provinciale de l’Ontario a perdu la vie lors d’une fusillade à Bourget.   

 Le 11 mai 2023, vers 2 h du matin, la police a répondu à un appel signalant des coups de feu dans le village de Clarence-Rockland. Les trois agents qui ont répondu à l’appel ont été abattus par un individu dans une maison de la rue Laval et ont été transportés à l’hôpital d’Ottawa, où Mueller est décédé.    

« Il y a un an, le 11 mai 2023, le sergent Eric Mueller a été tué dans l’exercice de ses fonctions, a déclaré le commissaire de la Police provinciale de l’Ontario, Thomas Carrique, dans un message publié sur les médias sociaux. On se souviendra toujours de sa vie et de son sacrifice. Des héros dans la vie. »   

Alain Bellefeuille, 39 ans, a été accusé d’un chef d’accusation de meurtre au premier degré et de deux chefs d’accusation de tentative de meurtre.    

« Nous pensons à sa famille, à ses amis et à ses collègues en ce jour difficile », a écrit le maire de Clarence-Rockland, Mario Zanth, sur Facebook.    

« Bien que la communauté fasse de son mieux pour faire face aux conséquences de la fusillade, le 11 mai aura toujours une signification importante pour les résidents de Bourget », a déclaré Josée Sabourin, chef du détachement du comté de Russell de la Police provinciale de l’Ontario, lors d’une entrevue précédente.   

« La vague de soutien et de messages que nous avons reçue a été extraordinaire, a déclaré Mme Sabourin. Nous avons traversé cette épreuve tous ensemble et nous avons dû lutter pour retrouver notre résilience. 

  

 

Cela fait quelques mois que la Banque alimentaire de Bourget a changé de local.   

Le personnel et les bénévoles de l’organisme local ne pourraient être plus heureux de leur nouvelle demeure.   

« Nous sommes vraiment très heureux de ce nouvel emplacement, a déclaré Desneiges Emond, présidente de la Banque alimentaire de Bourget. Cela a très bien fonctionné pour nous.   

Lorsque le groupe a été avisé que les propriétaires de leur ancien emplacement, au 3779B, chemin Champlain, avaient l’intention d’utiliser l’édifice à d’autres fins, la Banque alimentaire de Bourget s’est rapidement mise à la recherche d’un nouvel emplacement.    

Le propriétaire d’entreprise locale Étienne Lepage est intervenu et a offert l’une de ses propriétés, l’ancienne caserne de pompiers de la rue Laval, pour servir de nouveau domicile à la Banque alimentaire de Bourget.   

Mme Emond a fait remarquer que le nouveau local de la banque alimentaire est à peu près de la même taille que l’ancien, mais qu’il a fait l’objet de quelques améliorations.    

« Nous avons de nouveaux murs et de nouveaux planchers, il a vraiment arrangé l’endroit pour nous, a ajouté Mme Emond. Tout est plus accessible et il y a de l’espace pour les comptoirs. Cela nous aide vraiment à mieux servir les gens.   

Sarah Lacombe, qui s’exprimait au nom de M. Lepage, a déclaré qu’il a toujours été important pour l’homme d’affaires local de soutenir la communauté locale de toutes les façons possibles.    

« Il est originaire d’ici (Bourget) et tout le monde le connaît, a déclaré Mme Lacombe. Il a toujours été important pour lui de soutenir les initiatives locales et il a voulu les aider (la banque alimentaire de Bourget) en raison du travail qu’ils font pour la communauté. »   

Selon Mme Emond, le personnel et les bénévoles de la Banque alimentaire de Bourget sont reconnaissants du geste de M. Lepage, car il leur permet de continuer à aider les résidents les plus vulnérables de la collectivité   

« Depuis septembre 2023, les bénévoles de la banque alimentaire sont heureux de travailler dans ce bel espace qui a été rénové pour répondre aux besoins de la banque alimentaire en matière d’inventaire et de service à la clientèle », ont déclaré les représentants de la banque alimentaire dans un communiqué de remerciement à la communauté.   

La banque alimentaire souhaite remercier ses nombreux donateurs et bénévoles pour leur grande générosité. C’est grâce à eux que la banque alimentaire est en mesure d’aider les personnes les plus démunies de notre communauté. Leur contribution, qu’il s’agisse d’argent, de nourriture ou de temps, est très appréciée. Merci beaucoup.” 

 

A forecast for intermittent rain throughout a coolish day and gloomy overcast skies and drizzle didn’t dampen spirits too much for the first CR Market of 2024 this past Sunday.

The collection of two rows of vendors in Simon Park settled beneath their canopies sheltered and dry and ready to sell their goods despite Mother Nature: as the saying has it, the show – and the market – must go on.

At their most basic, urban markets are meeting places where farmers and producers engage in commercial transactions with customers through bartering and trading, in much earlier days, and eventually through the exchange of money today.

Whatever the manner of business, for hundreds of years markets have always been a site of urban and rural interaction.

While it was once essential a long time ago for city residents to head to urban farmers’ markets for fresh food, the advent of the automobile, public transit and massive “supermarkets” heavily laden with shelves of food from around the world sent the humble, quaint – and local – farmers’ market into a semi-retirement.

The dynamics are complex, but in the last, say, 25 years – a tiny blip of time compared to the long arc of market history – there has been a distinct renaissance of sorts of farmers’ markets.

To isolate just one reason is reductive, but I will point out that in 2007 Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon published “The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating,” an account of their search for local sustainable ingredients for their home kitchen from small, unique producers within a circumscribed area that is now generally accepted as defining “local.”

Truth be told, city markets have been doing that for centuries.

The CR Market, which just kicked off its summer schedule, is an initiative of the City of Clarence-Rockland following an economic development study.

The Market is in its third year, and it does precisely what urban markets have always done: connect producers and growers with an urban community for the purchase of food and other goods and products.

Clarence-Rockland communications officer Julie Chartrand says Market attendance in previous years has been strong and that 32 vendors had registered for the May 12 market.

The city had a variety of tree saplings and plants displayed on tables available for market shoppers to take away at no cost; a local outlet of a frozen-food retail chain had their barbecues fired up and running as well.

The obvious benefit is of a market is mutual: producers get to sell their wares and shoppers at the market get to purchase locally made foods and products. That makes the transaction a “showcase” opportunity for the businesses, according to Chartrand.

“Local and regional businesses that are not brick-and-mortar or not fronting on the main street get to sell their products,” she said.

No matter what city you visit and no matter its size – Montreal, Saint John, Victoria or Clarence-Rockland – markets support and build local economies which are made up of primarily small businesses that in many cases, but not exclusively, provide access to fresh, healthy food.

Buying local products can reduce the environmental impact of transportation of goods, and access to farmers’ markets, especially, give urban centres a way to mitigate the “dietary damage” done by food deserts wherever there is a lack of access to nutritious food among vulnerable populations.

While we are very early in the 2024 harvest – the first crop, of course, just behind us with maple syrup – fiddleheads, ramps, rhubarb and asparagus are harbingers of early summer when it comes to the food component.

During my tour of this first early CR Market, I found a Rockland-based coffee roaster – granted, coffee is not local but the people who roast it are – jars of honey, baked goods and sweets, ready-made Italian dishes, maple syrup, condiments, snacks for dogs and assorted and sundry crafts.

While that historic commercial transaction that reaches back centuries was obviously apparent and customers were buying these local products, there was another dynamic at play rather than just retail: a social one.

The impersonality of a grocery store – no farmers, no growers, few if any real butchers, no cooks – makes buying food not only often more expensive but soulless, too.

At the market, however, there is a social dynamic that blooms as customers can talk to producers and growers; producers and growers, for their part, can also connect and talk to other like-minded entrepreneurs.

It’s an opportunity for customers to learn about farming, for instance, and how things grow and are made, perhaps as well understanding the difficulties and obstacles of getting products to market, even if there’s not the middleman of giant terminals for distribution.

It’s also a chance to chat with your neighbour, and I expect these dynamics to grow as the summer rolls in.

Chartrand agreed that there is more than business being done, noting that there’s education and the person-to-person connection that I mentioned earlier at an historic site of human interaction.

“The Market is a meeting place for the community and a place for residents to talk and learn about the businesses in the region and to discover more about them.”

The CR Market takes place the second Sunday of every month from May to September, in and around the walking path in Simon Park, 1450 Du Parc Avenue. For more information, visit https://www.clarence-rockland.com.

The Russell County detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police are investigating the death of an 11-year-old after a collision with a school bus on the afternoon of Monday, May 13.

According to police, around 3:30 p.m. a school bus hit the child while they were riding their bike on St. Joseph Street near Chéné street, close to Sainte-Trinité elementary school, in Clarence-Rockland.

Prescott-Russell paramedics said the child was transported to CHEO with a traumatic injury. In a statement released Tuesday morning, the police said the child died from the injuries.

According to a letter to parents from the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario (CEPEO), the young student attended Carrefour Jeunesse.

The bus driver was uninjured.

The section of St. Joseph Street was closed for approximately six hours Monday afternoon.

The OPP continue to investigate the incident.

With an unexpected interruption for a global pandemic, Mom’s Kitchen has been serving breakfast, lunch and dinner since 2013, but owner and cook Manon Amyot also runs two food trucks that makes hers a very busy schedule, especially in the summer.

Up a few stairs from the street and into the casual restaurant on Landry Road, there’s the POS system behind some plexiglass, a cooler case for serve-yourself-soda, a dining area replete with pool table and sundry and assorted tchotchke and bric-a-brac that include an ancient Singer sewing machine and old-timey cash register, the latter two remnants of a bygone era.

And Mom’s menu is chock full of classics, too, from a full sheet of breakfasts – including baloney and cretons maison – club sandwiches and “hot hamburg” platters, whistle dogs, fish and chips, lasagna and spaghetti and meatballs.

What also caught my eye was “Old Canadian Food” on Amyot’s business card.

“When we cater, we try to offer old-fashioned food like your grandmother used to cook,” says Amyot, who started her career in the kitchen when she was 15 and preparing meals for the family of a local entrepreneur.

Indeed, classic diner fare and home-style meals. But I was interested in another version of classic: what Mom’s calls poutine du fermier available from a short list of specialty poutines. It was all the more intriguing because the menu notes, “We are famous for our Farmer’s Poutine.”

Granted, it’s a self-proclaimed distinction, but Mom’s prepares a lot of poutine – especially during the summer with those two trucks – and the famous dish is high up my list of favourite snack foods, though one that I remind myself to tuck into with some discretion.

Poutine is ubiquitous across Canada. I couldn’t possibly count the number of times, in several different cities, I’ve scarfed a cardboard takeout clamshell packed with crisp, piping hot fries, melty cheese curds that I describe as sounding “squidgy” when your molars start to compress them, and the drippy gravy.

Over the past decade or so, there has been an evolution: the fries that form the foundational starch of the poutine have morphed into a blank slate for a host of unique flavours and ingredients: butter chicken poutine, lobster poutine, gumbo poutine and pizza poutine.

While I occasionally dive into that riot of possible, and sometime improbable, ingredients, in my new home here I get a different feeling about poutine – that I’m a bit closer to the origins, the epicentre, of the uber-rich and indulgent snack food and not just geographically.

I don’t tuck into the view that poutine is Canada’s national dish, but it certainly is more than just a regional one.

Regardless, its origins have assumed a mythic status that dates to 60 years ago in Quebec when the word was purportedly first found on the menu at L’Ideal in Warwick, about two hours northeast of Montreal.

According to poutine historian Sylvain Charlebois, in his book “Poutine Nation,” the gravy wasn’t added until 1962, and only then as side dish to the fries and cheese curds. It was possibly Jean-Claude Roy, of Drummondville, who created the trifecta in 1964, says Charlebois.

In a poutine pilgrimage in The Toronto Star in 2008, “Food Sleuth” Marion Kane tried to trace the origins of the dish to Drummondville, Victoriaville and Warwick.

Poutine arcana aside, the dish is just a scrumptious and seriously indulgent treat, to say the least, including when you deviate from the purity of the original triumvirate of ingredients into the heady space where foie gras, pulled pork or grilled andouille sausage might make an appearance.

At Mom’s, Amyot has staked a proprietary claim to her version of the dish, among a half-dozen varieties – and the farmer connection is its own myth, she explains.

“A young farmer from La Ferme Ouellette used to come and eat at a food-stand I had in Sarsfield,” Amyot says. “He asked me to put all the meats into one poutine. When I then served it at the Russell Fair, it was in demand.”

It is, indeed, a meat-laden platter that sits before you with what must be a half-dozen meats intermingling with your fries and cheese curds all of which is smothered beneath a rich brown gravy.

To start, the hand-cut fries are twice cooked, blanched and then fried hot and crisp to order (they were very good); the cheese curds are from, of course, St-Albert Cheese, an historic cooperative that started in 1894.

A maven of poutine, perhaps, but Amyot is reluctant to divulge the specific ingredients and techniques that she uses, offering only that some of the meats are marinated and slow-cooked over the course of a day.

I rooted around the bowl of morsels and found some pork breakfast sausage and some crispy bits of roasted pork and beef which gave the dish some added texture.

There is a wide reach to Mom’s poutine: her trucks were at the recent Orleans Poutine Festival and are scheduled to pop up at events in Wendover, Maxville, Chesterville, Metcalfe, Carp, Kanata and Shawville, Quebec.

That’s a full summer up until October for poutine, the classic Quebecois – and Canadian – dish that Charlebois maintains should be nominated as the first Canadian dish to be declared “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO, just like Neapolitan pizza and the Parisian baguette.

I will second that nomination.

Note: Before visiting Mom’s Kitchen, check with the venue regarding dish availability and hours of opening.

Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of “Farm to Table” and co-author of “Cooking with Shakespeare.” Follow him on Instagram @andrewcoppolino.

Rockland District High School was evacuated for the third day in a row Wednesday morning, after threats forced the evacuation of the UCDSB high school and primary school on both Monday and Tuesday.

RDHS was first evacuated early Wednesday morning with arriving students being diverted to a safe location. After the grounds were searched and deemed safe, students returned only to be evacuated again just a couple hours later, marking the fourth evacuation process in three days.

A note from the UCDSB to parents and guardians stated that students had been bused to an alternate location to wait for police to clear the building as safe. Students walking to school at the time of the first evacuation were asked to stay home until further notice.

« We are working with police and following their direction, » read the email. « Student safety is our upmost priority. »

Despite the email, after three days of threats against student safety, parents are growing restless with the limited communication from the police and school board.

Russell County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said they are continuing to investigate the threats, simply stating that officers « have followed established protocols, » and that the safety of the community and the students is « paramount ».

Police stated that schools are only reopened once police and school officials are « satisfied that it is safe to do so. »

Many parents have taken to Facebook groups decrying the school’s and the UCSDB’s ability to provide meaningful updates, with a number saying they will keep their kids at home until further information can be provided.

No additional information from the UCDSB has been provided at this time.