Always instructive and ofttimes surprising, those videos of missed Hudson council meetings…
Remember last year’s heated discussion over whether the town should accept a $2 million grant from the Montreal Metropolitan Community toward the Sandy Beach purchase?
Some may recall last month’s Survey Monkey poll, with the current council telling taxpayers it was inclined to accept the subsidy even if it meant Hudson taxpayers would have no more right to enjoy the beach than the MCC’s 4.4 million other residents.
As Mayor Chloe Hutchison told a handful of residents at the start of the Feb. 24 meeting, the 560 respondents to the Monkey survey were split 50/50 on whether to accept or reject the MCC.
So how did council vote?
The five — minus an absent District 3 councillor Peter Mate, but more on that later — voted unanimously for the CMM cash. In moving the resolution, District 5 councillor Mark Gray said it was to ease the burden on taxpayers, which as I noted in my Feb. 13 thousandlashes.ca post, ostensibly amounts to $37 per year per unit. Ostensibly, because neither the loan bylaw for the purchase nor the 2026 taxes and tariffs bylaw back up a $127-per-unit verbal estimate released at last August’s public consultation.
The only confirmation of any of these numbers is contained in an internal document called a fiche de règlement d’emprunt, or loan settlement request, filed by the town’s acting treasurer with the municipal affairs ministry in late September. The doc commits the municipality to the total amount of the loan bylaw — $9,648,136, reduced by $2 million from the town’s unallocated surplus. (No mention here of CMM’s subsidy.)
The remaining $7,648,136 will be paid over 40 years at an interest rate of 3.10%. The annual debt service charge: $336,246, split equally among 2,785 units as defined in loan Bylaw 782-2025.
But none of this comes into effect until the Sandy Beach deal is signed with the sellers. As Hutchison explained, a resolution on that evening’s agenda — Bylaw 770.1.2026 modifying Bylaw 770 2024 on the use of the Sandy Beach Nature Park and Beach — was deferred to allow the vendors to make changes to their corporate governance to reflect the death of Nicanco’s founder Hans Muhlegg. Two more weeks, she predicted, with a tentative March 18 handover.
Council has yet to explain what exactly is being changed in this revised bylaw, and why. The 2024 resolution granted public access to “Sandy Beach Nature Park” without further definition. The revision redefines Sandy Beach Nature Park as the area made up of lots 3 080 946, 3 080 948 and 6 359 848. (For a better idea of what this constitutes, I have used the government’s Infolot site to isolate the three cadasters.)
The confusion arises with Gray’s resolution, which made it clear the town’s intention is to put the $2M toward the purchase of all seven lots, thereby opening their use to all MCC residents. So how can the four remaining lots listed in loan Bylaw 782-2025 not be part of the Sandy Beach Nature Park?
Nor was there much light shed on the hiring of the non-profit Nature-Action Quebec to draft a Sandy Beach Nature Park management and conservation plan. Is the $46,840 tab included in the $9,648,136 loan bylaw, or will this and other expenses incurred as part of the Sandy Beach acquisition be treated as operating expenses?
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Council’s spending priorities were questioned by Cameron resident Jeff Gauthier, who took the mic during the first question period to follow up on a near-fatal accident on Cameron early in the New Year. A friend suffered life-changing injuries after being struck by a pickup truck while walking on the pedestrian path and Gauthier has been pushing the administration to commit to making Hudson’s streets safer.
In a Jan. 16 letter to the mayor and District 4 Councillor Reid Thompson, Gauthier described how he has written Thompson in the past regarding the danger to pedestrians from speeders on Cameron. The town’s solution: speed radars to remind speeding drivers how fast they’re going.
“Today it has hit home personally in that one of my very good friends has been struck by a vehicle on Cameron,” Gauthier’s letter continued.”The details are unknown at this time as the gentleman is in hospital with very serious injuries.
Gauthier’s letter concludes: “With all the projects than have been approved by the town council and yourself this last year costing millions of our dollars, it would be unfair to citizens…if there are no serious changes projected for Cameron […] and other traffic security issues, eg, Cote St. Charles.”
In his followup comments to council, Gauthier listed traffic-mitigation measures such lane-separation bollards, better snow-clearing and vegetation trimming as well as the use of the town-owned 17-metre setback at the steepest part of Cameron for a separate pedestrian/cycling path.
Hutchison refused to be drawn into a debate. “There have been multitudes of safety requests,” she replied. A separate pedestrian path on Cameron would cost the town two thirds of Hudson’s annual paving budget and it’s not there for 2026, she went on. Council’s plan? A macro master plan on mobility, “coming to the table soon.”
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The mayor didn’t dwell on the abrupt resignation of District 3 councillor Peter Mate, other than to announce a byelection Sunday, May 3. Mate, elected by acclamation less than five months ago, resigned both as councillor and town planning advisory committee chair Feb. 3, the day before the monthly TPAC meeting.
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