Milestones

It will be 9 years since the merger and amalgamation of Aylmer (et al.) into the city of Gatineau. During the original referendum, the majority in Aylmer voted against the conglomerate, but being one of the smaller of the 5 towns/townships, our vote was buried under an avalanche of support from the larger of the regions.

In the early years of the turn of the century (1999-2000), Aylmer has a stagnant population around 30,000 people. Since amalgamation, the population has risen almost 50% of that and is now closing in on 45,000 people.

Much of this increase has come at the expense of Aylmer's forests and undeveloped land. The area bound by Deschenes, Wychwood, The Ottawa River and Glenwood/Aylmer Park, once a large and boisterous forest, is now a large and boisterous housing complex.

The area between Hull and Aylmer bound by McConnel road, Vanier road, Mountain road and Pink is now one giant mess of houses, stores, schools and industry.

While I'm not opposed to industry or new housing projects as such, it is fairly obvious that developers, city planners, the NCC and provincial/federal governments put very little thought into the process.

Our infrastructure is basically the same, with some upgrades and modernizations done. They finally completed the highway between downtown Hull and Aylmer, added a third lane on the Champlain bridge, and repaved Pink road.

So it remains, Aylmer has grown 15,000 people, yet our roadways remain roughly the same since pre-amalgamation. Our health-care infrastructure has actually gotten smaller. We have no hospital, very few doctors and/or clinics and the CLSC is the same as it was prior.

Developers have build houses by the thousands (yes thousands!), and Aylmerites are still forced to travel to over-burdened Hull or Gatineau hospitals. Waiting times in emergency rooms can be anywhere from 2 to 18 or more hours.

The Sacred Heart hospital in Hull has had an extra wing added to it recently, and has under-gone several transformations over the past 20 years. Wouldn't it be wiser to have built a hospital in Aylmer with that money?

The smart (and those not in serious condition), take the 45 minute drive to Shawville and use their hospital) Wait, Shawville has it's own hospital, with a population of a booming 2000? Shawville native and Ottawa Senators GM Brian Murray must have paid for it! Seriously, taking into account the entire population between Luskville and the end of the Hwy 148, there are still significantly less people than in Aylmer. Considering those closer to Pembroke would travel across the river...

Aylmer was once billed (and still promotes itself) as the recreation capital of the Outaouais. The city must have built a new arena, or added some new soccer or baseball fields? Nope, none of the above. We have this reputation based on a few golf courses, the marina and a few remaining trails.

Hockey is Canada's love, and in Quebec, a passion. yet - here in our town of 45,000 people, we have 2 arenas. Coaches are now renting ice time in Ottawa for their teams to practice. Those with foresight have rented their 2012 ice time already. Yes, we want our kids to have a good time, become athletic and become good hockey players. But, darn don't allow them any ice time.... ! Better yet, lets revert back to the 1940's and use those outdoor rinks, this way Canadian Tire will earn a ton of cash sharpening skate blades every day.

The city did upgrade Aydelu Baseball Park this past Spring. A plan that has been in the works since 2002! In return, Allen park was taken away from Aylmer and given to Hull. Aylmer (ABAA) has roughly 400 players, they play the vast majority of their games on 3 main fields. Hull (ABAH) has under 100 players and while 'Le Stade' at Mont Bleu was converted to yet another soccer field, the city decided, instead of adjusting one of the many vacant Hull fields, they would just give one of Aylmer's away. Go figure!

I'm not belittling Hull or anyone else, just pointing out that Aylmer's infrastructure, since amalgamation has changed little, yet the city of Gatineau loves our free land to build on and increase the tax base.

Shouldn't we see some new arena's, ball fields, bridges, roadways or even a new hospital or medical centre? It's painfully obvious the environmental concerns about missing trees, forests and wild-life have been pushed to the back-benches. This doesn't seem to faze anyone except Ian Huggett (the local environmental guru).

Isn't it time our councillors started making some noise about this? If they have been, they must have been whispering, because most-every person I speak to in Aylmer has the same opinion. Stand up at the council table, demand that this sector is properly administered.