Since early 2024, the Regroupement de Protection des lacs de la Petite-Nation, chaired by Louis St-Hilaire, has been working on a vast project to create a protected area of over 100 sq. km. along the eastern side of Lac Gagnon. The project was submitted in September in response to a call for projects issued by the Ministry of the Environment, and was deemed admissible by the Ministry.
This project is part of the province’s objective to set aside 30% of its territory as protected areas by 2030. The Marie-Lefranc-Petite-Nation project (see map), connects the Buttes-du-Montjoie area, which is in the final stages of approval as a protected area, to the Petite-Nation sector, that follows the entire east side of Lac Gagnon and runs eastwards as far as Lac Marie-Lefranc. This territory includes Lac Gagnon’s main water sources, three ancestral forests, several lakes, wetlands, a heronry, the Route des Zingues and many other natural sites. It is entirely within the Réserve faunique Papineau-Labelle and economic activities would be prohibited in this area forever.
The approval process will take three years. The first stage, that of acceptance by the community, has been successfully completed, as the project has been supported by the three RCMs concerned (Laurentides, Papineau and Labelle), the two MNAs (Mathieu Lacombe and Chantal Jeannotte), 19 municipalities, 20 lake associations, the Petite-Nation Chamber of Commerce and a vast number of nature conservation organizations. The regional consultation stage will take place in 2025, where various stakeholders in the Laurentians and Outaouais will choose the most interesting projects for selection by the Ministère de l’Environnement, which will make its choices in 2026. Since we submitted this project, a number of others have come on board, making Marie-Lefranc-Petite-Nation the hub of a major ecological corridor taking shape in the Outaouais and Laurentians. We’re excited about this project and confident about its chances of success. There’s still work to be done, but given the significant benefits for the health of the lake and our quality of life, this is a project that is a pleasure to be working on.
