Up the Gatineau! Articles
The following article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 51.
Article disponible en français
Le Projet Neufbourg: They Shared a Dream…
and Cantley Was Their Legacy
Michael Rosen
For most people, the idea of like-minded friends living together in the countryside would remain an unfulfilled fantasy. But in a small corner of Cantley, eight families decided to make their dream a reality, creating their own paradise called “Neufbourg,” a unique community that was, in many ways, way ahead of its time.
Today, Place du Neufbourg looks no different from other streets in its neighbourhood. Here, typical 1980s houses are situated in a circle. Most of its current residents are probably unaware of the spirit and effort exerted to create this once-unique community.
In 1995, as a new resident to Cantley and anxious to explore the woods behind my acre of paradise, I discovered a dug frog pond, a splendid maple sugar shack, and plaques with the names of the trees in French and some in Latin. When I asked a neighbour, “Who was responsible for this?” he replied, “Oh, c’est le Projet Neufbourg, c’est du monde spécial.” (“That’s the Neufbourg Project…they are special people.”)
Humble Beginnings
“Les Neufbourgeois” were special people who created a rural community of friends with common interests. The story began in the mid-1970s when three couples in their late 40s from Gatineau, Sherbrooke and Montreal talked about living together. They were children of the Quiet Revolution,1 fiercely nationalistic, proud to be francophone, and also religious, seeing their Catholic faith as a way to help society. Two of the founders, Marc-André Tardif and Bernard Bouthillette, were former priests who had married former nuns. Tardiff was in many ways the spiritual leader of the group, and at the age of 90 in 2017 wrote the definitive history of this community in his book, Le Projet Neufbourg, on which much of this article is based. For his part, Bouthillette would go on to become the first mayor of Cantley.
In 1976, with four young children in tow, they purchased an 1850s-era house in Aylmer, each family living on a separate floor. They shared household tasks: babysitting, groceries, laundry, etc. The house became somewhat of a centre of spiritual and cultural thought. Others, many of whom were associated with L’Arche, a French charity to help people with intellectual disabilities, visited. Some would eventually make the move to Cantley.
Move to Cantley
After two years in Aylmer, they sought to grow the community in a rural setting. Although none of the couples were from Cantley, they saw potential in this then-undiscovered borough of Gatineau, when Cantley was then part of that city. Tardif and Bouthillette purchased 17 acres for $61,444, choosing the name “Neufbourg” for both the project and the street, based on the name of a community in France. The word “neuf,” or “new,” related to its recent creation, and “bourg” means a rural village. The community was to be based on “mutual aid, sharing, personal growth and spirituality.”2
Cantley in 1978 was quite different from today. It had a population of around 3,000 and was about 60 percent francophone; today its 12,000 residents are 85 percent francophone. Highway 307, its major transportation link, was paved a mere 10 years earlier. The City of Gatineau had been formed in 1975, three years earlier, from seven municipalities; Cantley constituted 7 percent of the population. As Neufbourg was being created, there were already rumblings within Cantley about this amalgamation, and within 10 years, Cantley would separate from Gatineau, with strong leadership from the Neufbourg community.
The Work Began
Infrastructure became a priority—roads,”3 a culvert to contain a stream, wells and hydro—while the families lived part-time in tents and trailers. It was a gargantuan effort. Their original plan called for a multi-unit building with a common basement, communal well and septic system. The City of Gatineau would have none of it. “One home on one acre” was the mantra of rural planning. Ironically, although this rule still reigns in Cantley today, it is now being challenged as part of densification efforts, partly to accommodate the same type of multi-unit housing that Neufbourg was proposing.
Gatineau accepted a revised plan for Neufbourg: eight separate properties, like pieces of pizza radiating from a circle, each with a well and septic and a common park in the middle. After a legal survey, engineer plan and hydro were in place, the lots were priced for $8,000 each. By 1979, four couples (and five children) were living on the site.
Léo Maisonneuve, a longtime Cantleyen and two-term municipal councillor, who was impressed with the group’s energy, recalled to me in a recent conversation how one of the residents, Bouthillette’s wife, Claudette Dionne, said, “Together we can move mountains.”
Four more couples and children moved in, making eight families in total. By 1985 all the houses had been built, and the park was complete, with swings, badminton nets and an above-ground pool. A nominal monthly fee was assigned to each household for the maintenance of the park.4
It didn’t take long for the rumour mill to start about these “different people” and their “different ideas.” Some of the municipal staff would greet them with, “How goes the commune?”; others would suggest “partner exchanges.” For some in the Neufbourg community, it was difficult to accept. Tardif would explain to the teasers that while the community shared a common vision it was hardly a “commune,” and the joking eventually stopped.
La Charte de Place Neufbourg (The Neufbourg Charter)
In 1979, the Neufbourg Charter was created, a document that residents read and signed, and a homeowners’ group, “L’Association des propriétaires de Place Neufbourg,” was formed. As Tardif wrote, “The spirit that guides this agreement can be summed up in a few principles: quality of life, sharing, mutual aid, a sense of community, welcome regardless of sex, religion, political opinion, assets or age (importance of children’s participation).”
The charter had 10 sections and included topics such as consensus building, the operation of an executive committee, and stipulations that no fences were to exist between properties and that community chores would be shared. Interestingly, the Charter also stated that “children always remain the responsibility of their own parents, although this does not prevent other parents from giving them advice from time to time!”
The Sugar Shack and Community Park
A sugar shack, located behind the Tardifs’, was a particular attraction. Tardif had chosen his rocky lot chiefly because it had the greatest number of sugar maples. Each March, he led the collection and boiling of sap from his 120-tap sugarbush—a tribute to his Beauce roots. Many a “souper canadien” followed, complete with smoked ham, “fêves au lard,” salads and of course the precious “tire” or “taffy.”
The community park in the middle played an important role in the residents’ lives. Many celebrations were held there, including community picnics for residents and their guests. It was a sad reminder of the demise of Neufbourg when the park was sold in 2007 and a house was constructed on it.
Neufbourg and the Creation of Cantley
Just as Neufbourg was being established, dissatisfaction with the City of Gatineau was growing within Cantley. The loss of rural identity, the added tax burden, and the possibility that Cantley would be the site of a Gatineau garbage dump led Cantley residents to lobby for its independence.
It was an arduous task, with many taking up leadership roles and working long hours. Steve Harris, a former mayor of Cantley (2005–2013), saw the Neufbourg community as instrumental in the creation of the new municipality. “I remember meeting in the basement of Bernard Bouthillette and Claudette Dionne to strategize on how to separate from Gatineau,” he said. “Bouthillette took his experience in founding Neufbourg and applied it to setting up Cantley.”
Former councillor Léo Maisonneuve, who also joined in these meetings at the Bouthillette/Dionne residence, noted, “I remember remarking how wellkept the properties were.” Ten years after Neufbourg was created, Cantley did separate from Gatineau, and Bouthillette was elected as Cantley’s first mayor.
Neufbourg and the Church
Spirituality was always part of Neufbourg, with most of its residents affiliated with the Catholic church. Of the eight families, three of the couples were former priests or nuns. This led some to refer to the Neufbourg community as that “gang des anciens prêtres et soeurs” (a bunch of old priests and nuns).
The Neufbourgeois were idealistic—people who cared for humanity and the environment. Many were educators; some had worked as missionaries in Africa. In many ways, they represented a refreshing image of a new Catholicism: humanitarian, progressive, and dedicated to serving the community.
In the late 1990s, while volunteering for a Catholic immigrant agency, Tardif would appear at my doorstep with recent immigrants from Yugoslavia who were foresters (I’m a professional forester). They were stateless because of the civil war, and eager to learn of job opportunities in Canada. I was impressed with Tardif ’s compassion.
And after the fall of the brutal Duvalier regime in Haiti in the mid-1980s, one of the Neufbourg couples, Benoît Bégin and Helena Kelly, created a charity known as Solidarité Haïti (https://solidaritehaiti.org/). This was supported by most of the Neufbourg community.
After moving to Cantley, the Neufbourg community took a special interest in the local Catholic church, St. Elizabeth (or Ste-Élisabeth). Originally founded by the anglophone community in 1868, St. Elizabeth was trying to maintain its relevance in an increasingly francophone population. The Neufbourg group worked to modernize the church by bringing a more francophone orientation to its mass, liturgy and culture. Encountering some resistance at first, separate masses were eventually given in English and French, and bilingual priests were hired.
Neufbourg as a Mature Community
What followed was 20 years of mostly community bliss with what seemed like an endless series of celebrations: Neufbourg’s 10th and 20th anniversaries, in 1989 and 1999 respectively, the annual International Women’s Day on March 8, with the men preparing the feast, La Fête des Rois,.5 complete with medieval garb and proclamations, St-Jean-Baptiste day of course, and many, many other memorable suppers, birthdays, and anniversaries.
Charles Belle-Isle moved there with his parents in 1980, when he was 12 years old. He, like most of the community, seldom recalled any conflict within the community. “Because my mother was the treasurer, she sometimes expressed frustration about people paying their monthly fee to maintain the park, but it was pretty minor,” he said. Charles still keeps a spreadsheet on the Neufbourg community—parents, children and now grandchildren. As of 2025, 12 of the original 16 adults are still alive, along with 10 Neufbourg children and 12 grandchildren. Charles remarked that the funeral of Marc-André Tardif in 2021 felt like the end of a great chapter for the community, as almost everyone who had been part of it had moved away.
The Neufbourg Legacy
Almost 50 years after its creation, there is no doubt that the Neufbourg Project left its legacy in Cantley as the municipality made its journey from a “rural backwater” to a modern Quebec community. Its leadership was far-reaching: from the creation of the municipality of Cantley, to one of its founders becoming the first mayor, to its work in modernizing the St. Elizabeth parish, helping the church become relevant and increase its membership.
All did not go as the Neufbourg residents hoped for. In assessing the Cantley of today, one original Neufbourg resident, Lucie Smeltzer, provides a caveat. She remarked to me that “I’m not sure what happened to Cantley in the long-term. I think we all thought that Cantley would have developed a more cohesive rural vision than they actually did.”
As Marc-André Tardif noted in Le Projet Neufbourg, all things must end or evolve. Beginning in the 1990s, the original residents started leaving, often to move closer to aging parents or to grandchildren. Death also took its toll, of course. By 2003, only two of the original eight families were left. The Neufbourg Charter and the homeowners’ association fell by the wayside.
In 2022, the final remaining original residents, Michel Legault and Lucie Smeltzer, moved to Hull, selling the house to their son Martin, who is the last original Neufbourgeois. Martin has nothing but wonderful memories, “We shared things in Neufbourg—pints of milk, lawn tractors, vehicles. I grew up thinking that everyone lived like this. It was only after I went to school that I realized that most people lived with fences, not knowing who their neighbours were.”
When 2029 arrives, the 50th anniversary of Neufbourg, there is hope for a reunion, as well as the designation of the creek running through the project as “Ruisseau Neufbourg,” and that a historical plaque could be installed on site to mark the contributions of this unique and amazing community.
The author wishes to thank the community of Neufbourg for their assistance and collaboration in the writing of this article—in particular Benoit Bégin, Charles Belle-Isle, Martin Legault, Michel Legault and Lucie Smeltzer.
Footnotes
- The “Quiet Revolution” reflects the dramatic changes in Quebec society in the 1960s, including the reduced influence of the Catholic church, the move to economic nationalism (“maîtres chez nous”) and the promotion of the French language.
- Marc-André Tardif, Le Projet Neufbourg, Archives Nationales du Québec, 2017.
- The original road access was Highway 307, but foreseeing traffic issues, the community purchased another lot on rue Bouchette (from M. Lizotte), avoiding the highway altogether.
- Personal communication with Charles Belle-Isle, January 23, 2025.
- The “Fête des Rois” (or the Epiphany) is celebrated on January 6, mostly in Europe, as homage to the three Wise Men who presented the first gifts to the infant Jesus (gold, frankincense and myrrh).
References
La Paroisse catholique de Ste-Élisabeth de Cantley, Québec/The Parish of the Roman Catholic Church of Cantley, Québec. Histoire des curés de la paroisse catholique de Ste-Élisabeth de Cantley au Québec/History of the parish priests of St. Elizabeth’s Roman Catholic Church of Cantley, Québec. Based on research of Father Cornelius Boekema, C.S.Sp. Published by Lenora Chamaillard, 1983.
Tardif, Marc-André. Le Projet Neufbourg. Archives Nationales du Québec, INSN-978-2-9803561-7-4, 2017.