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Showing posts with label Gatineau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gatineau. Show all posts

The best French Fries in Gatineau??

Le Patapouf
117 Gatineau Ave.



Here is another hidden gem in Gatineau, except this time it is for French fries.

The prices are great and the service is friendly and the french fries are top notch. Too bad about the location. But if you are out and about and want a great snack, try the Patapouf .... you won't be disappointed.

Dealing with the winter blues ...

Cross post from http://muscleyou.com
I will start this post off with a happy thought: Winter is almost over. For many of us, especially those in the North and Canada, winter can be long, hard and draining. The lack of sunshine, fresh air and the cold can take its toll on your body after a few months. So here are a few tips to survive the long winter.

Sunshine: Many people are affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD or Winter Depression), some estimate as many as 1 in 5. The most common symptoms of SAD include extreme fatigue, oversleeping, not being able to get out of bed, overeating, carbohydrate cravings and weight gain. It can also be accompanied by the regular symptoms of depression, such as low mood, loss of interest in activities and trouble concentrating.

The best therapy is light therapy - either natural (get outside for 15-20 minutes a day) or through a special light treatment lamp. I have also found that 15-30 minutes a week in a tanning bed through January and February to be very beneficial.

Exercise: Exercise encourages the release of endorphins into the blood stream that have a great effect on mood and energy. 30 minutes of moderate exercise 3 or 4 times a week can help elevate your mood, and combat winter weight gain.

Be careful to avoid overtraining as it can depress your immune system and make you more susceptible to colds and flu. In addition if you feel an illness coming on, reduce your training intensity and training session length. Please be kind to others: if you are a member of a gym, stay home for a few days so that you don’t expose others to your germs and viruses.

Vitamin Therapy: Vitamins B and C can help you overcome fatigue, and boost your immune system so that your body can beat winter time colds. Vitamin B complex usually has a number (50 or 100) which corresponds to the amount in mg of each Vitamin B factor. In winter, a 200 pound man can take up to 200mg a day. Vitamin C supplements are usually sold in 500mg or 1g tablets. You can take up to 2g a day of vitamin C (Personally, if I feel the onset of a cold, I double my Vitamin C intake to 4g a day, add Echinacea and a ZMA complex.).

While getting through winter may be tough, just remember to eat right, exercise moderately, take your vitamins and treat yourself to some natural or artificial sunshine every once in a while. Spring is juts around the corner.

Public Transportation costs ...

There were a few comment I received on my public transit post about what it costs to operate a car vs. the per km cost per person on a bus (approx. $0.35 per km per person for a bus, and I estimated about $0.30 per km based on my car - although that post has since been edited for length and content).

Anyhow, since some people questioned it, here is the estimated operating costs per km (2005 data) from CAA.



Obviously gas prices are slightly higher now. Keep in mind this is operating cost, not ownership cost. For the rest of this document: http://www.peoplescar.org/pages/documents/CAA_annual_driving_costs_2005.pdf

Series of Break and Enter goes unsolved

According to the Police (Saturday) there have been numerous break-ins in the Mont Luc area of Gatineau lately.

The thief or thiefs use force to enter (smashing down doors) and rummage though the house for cash and jewlery. The Police have no clues and no suspects and their advice was "Get a good insurance company".

Everyone in Gatineau needs to be on the lookout. These robberies are not silent (kicking doors down) and most likely someone in your neighbourhood.

If you see anything, call the Police.

Pont des Draveurs - Load Restriction

Anomalies in the bridge structure of Pont des Draveurs in Gatineau is forcing the Ministry of Transportation of Quebec to ban the movement of heavy trucks in the right lanes. Starting a midnight Friday October 19th, buses, trucks and any vehicle with more than five tons can only move in the centre lanes of the bridge.

The ministry says it is necessary to carry out repairs to cracks on the concrete piers supporting the bridge, however, work on the bridge is not expected before next spring.


This information was released to French media outlets on Thursday Oct 18th. There are still no further details on the City of Gatineau website.

Gatineau City Coucil

District maps:






















































Councillors
1 – Aylmer District2 – Lucerne District3 – Deschênes District4 – Val-Tétreau District5 – Wright–Parc-de-la-Montagne District


1

Frank Thérien

819-595-7110





André Laframboise

819-595-7110





Alain Riel

819-595-7110



3

Alain Pilon

819-595-7110




Patrice Martin

819-595-7110


6 – Orée-du-Parc District7 – Saint-Raymond–Vanier District8 – Hull District9 – Limbour District10 – Riverains District




Louise Poirier

819-595-7110





Pierre Philion

819-595-7110






Denise Laferrière

819-595-7110





Simon Racine

819-595-7110





Denis Tassé

819-595-7110


11 – Promenades District12 – Versant District13 – Bellevue District14 – Lac-Beauchamp District15 – Rivière-Blanche District




Luc Angers

819-595-7110





Joseph De Sylva

819-595-7110





Richard Côté

819-595-7110





Aurèle Desjardins

819-595-7110





Yvon Boucher

819-595-7110


16 – Masson-Angers District17 – Buckingham District


16

Luc Montreuil

819-595-7110



17

Jocelyne Houle

819-595-7110


Gatineau to Get $40 Million for Infrastructure

Time to write to the Mayor and your City Councillor and demand that the Highway 50 and Highway 5 interchange be enhanced and the Alonzo Bridge and Verendrye from Greber to St-Louis be expanded to 2 lanes!

August 31, 2007

The City of Gatineau Receives an Initial Payment of $11,848,869 from the Transfer of a Portion of Federal Gasoline Excise Tax Revenues and the Government of Quebec’s Contribution

Gatineau, Quebec - The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, and Benoît Pelletier, Quebec Minister responsible for the Outaouais region and MNA for Chapleau, on behalf of Nathalie Normandeau, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Regions, are pleased to announce that the City of Gatineau will receive $11,848,869 under the federal-provincial agreement on the transfer of a portion of federal gasoline excise tax revenues and the Government of Quebec’s contribution. This is the first payment for the City of Gatineau, which will receive a total of $37,027,716 over the next four years for major infrastructure projects. Also present at this event today were Stéphanie Vallée, MNA for Gatineau, and Charlotte L’Écuyer, MNA for Pontiac.

“We all know to what extent modern infrastructure benefits to all Canadians and is instrumental to the environment and the economy of the country”, said Minister Lawrence Cannon. “This is why our government works in partnership with the Quebec government to make cities and communities in Quebec the best places to live, study, work and visit.”

“The repair and modernization of public infrastructure is a high priority for the Government of Quebec. The funding announced today is a reflection of our commitment to improve the quality of life of residents. With this agreement, the City of Gatineau will now be able to rely on stable annual funding, which will facilitate planning the work that needs to be done,” said Minister Benoît Pelletier.

“I am pleased that the City of Gatineau can benefit from this governmental funding in order to modernize the drinking water treatment plan in the Aylmer sector,” added the Mayor of Gatineau, Marc Bureau.

The goal of the Canada-Quebec Agreement is to provide funding for the renewal of municipal and local infrastructure, and specifically for municipal drinking water, wastewater, local road system and public transit infrastructure, within a context of sustainable development. Canada’s new government will pay the Government of Quebec a total of $1.34 billion over five years, to which Quebec will add $475.7 million, for a grand total of $1.8 billion. Including contributions from municipalities, $2.3 billion will go toward renewing municipal infrastructure. The funds will be administered by the Société de financement des infrastructures locales du Québec (SOFIL).

City of Gatineau - Beautiful Nature

The last bunch of posts about Gatineau I have focussed on some of the negative aspects of living in the city of Gatineau and tried to dispell some of the sales myths used to lure home buyers to this region.

Today I want to focus on what I feel is the main selling point of Gatineau - Natural Beauty.

Gatineau, famous for "the Gatineau Hills" is a fantactic place for outdoor recreation. There are dozens of large parks, bike paths that go from one end of the city to the other, and many attractions and festivals.

Here are some pictures of the Gatineau Hills:



The Lac Lemay Casino and surroundings:

City of Gatineau Services - Daycare

The City of Gatineau and most of it's supporters talk about the "7 dollar-a-day" daycare system as a justification for the increased taxload.

My daughter was born in July 2006. My wife and I started contacting daycares for a $7 spot starting in January 2006 (yes - before she was even born) for July 2007 spots. It is now October 2007 and we have yet to hear from any subsidized daycares in the city of Gatineau.

While these spots do exist, they are not unlimited and they are very hard to get. If you put your child on a waiting list before they are born, you might get a daycare spot by the time they are 2.

If you are using the cheap daycare as a justification for the excessive Gatineau taxload, get your facts straight!!

Gatineau - the Traffic Problem

Gatineau 2007 is a result of the amalgamation of a few smaller cities: Gatineau, Aylmer, and Hull. The total population of the new city of Gatineau is about 250, 000 and about 1/2 of those live in the old city of Gatineau.

Despite being a city of about 100,000 people, Gatineau has a terrible traffic problem due partly to geography and partly to VERY poor city planning.

As you can see from the map below, Gatineau sector is bordered to the south and the west by the Ottawa and Gatineau Rivers.


There are only 3 bridges to cross the river - 2 street level (one 2 lane, one 1-lane) and one highway. As a result, leaving or returning to the district of Gatineau during rush hour can take approximately 30-45 minutes (to travel less than 5 kms).

In addition to the lack of street access, one bridge (the single lane bridge) is at a corner with a Subway, Mcdonalds, Tim Hortons and other stores and restaurants.

I really don't know who in this city is responsible for traffic analysis, but they should be fired. And the citizens of Gatineau should be demanding better transportation options from the over-paid municipal government.

Gatineau - the Tax I almost forgot ...

I forgot in my taxes post to include this one ...

The Gatineau Tax de Bienvenue

Loosely translated that means "Gatineau Welcome Tax" and roughly it is about 1% of whatever you paid for your house. So about $2500 for your new $250,000 house.

And what services does that tax pay for? Well, nothing really. You just pay it for the privilege of moving in ...

Seriously ...

Gatineau - What about the Services?

The city of Gatineau, or at least those who try to sell houses here, talk a lot about the world class services in this city. Well, let me start with health care services ...

I will summarize by saying this - I have leaved here 4 years now and have yet to see a Quebec Doctor.

No, not by choice!

My family Dr. is in Ottawa because the waiting list for doctors in Gatineau is an estimated 6 years. Even my 1 year old daughter has to see an Ontario Doctor because there are no pediatricians taking new patients in the City of Gatineau.

Now, there is one part of the health care service that is adequate. The CLSC Gatineau has provided free immunizations for my daughter, and they sent a nurse to our home for the 48 hour and 1 week check-up of my daughter.

Does this make up for having to drive to Orleans Ontario (35 minutes) last month with my sick daughter because she is refused a 6 clinics (Yes, 6 Gatineau clinics refused to see her - a 14 month old!) - absolutely not.

If you have health issues, do NOT move to Gatineau!

Gatineau Taxes - the Biggest Lie

Lets start with property taxes:
A 2000 sq.ft home in Ottawa on a 50 x 100ft lot (approx) taxes are about $3,000 a year.
In Gatineau : $5,600 a year!

Difference? $50 a week

Income taxes:
Based on a Salary of $60,000
Ontario net per paycheck : $2,000
Gatineau net per paycheck : $1,600

Difference? $200 a week

So if you are a home owner with a $250,000 house and a $60,000 a year job, you WILL PAY about $13,000 more taxes PER YEAR than your conterpart living in Ottawa. Read that again - Gatineau taxes are THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS more ...

Why Gatineau?

3 years ago I started looking for a house. As a Public Sevant working on the Quebec side of the river, I thought I would take a look at Gatineau.

Accoring to the site "avec un agent" these were the advantages:

Advantages of Living in the Outaouais
The situation that currently prevails in the real estate sector at the national level mirrors what we are seeing in the Outaouais region.
Several factors increase the appeal of the Outaouais:
Municipal tax rates are relatively low;
New housing developments are located near urban centres;
Building lots in the Outaouais are usually larger with more extensive wooded areas;
Couples with young children can obtain quality childcare services at a cost of $7/day;
A wide range of businesses can be found nearby;
Sports facilities are widely accessible;
Quality school and health care systems are available in both French and English;
The economy is thriving.
A number of factors relating to quality of life may also be considered:
Proximity to Gatineau Park, rivers and lakes
Numerous golf courses
Exceptional bike paths
Breathtaking scenery
One final thing to consider: Gatineau is rated as the second best city in Canada in terms of quality of life. (Source: Economic Profile of the City of Gatineau, February 2004)

Well, allow me to dispell these myths one by one.

Check back often for more stories about the real Gatineau.