Up the Gatineau! Articles

The following article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 52.

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Saving Cantley

Margaret Phillips

Cantley's citizens celebrated like never before. Their battles were finally over and they had won. On December 22, 1988, the province’s Bill 101 received Royal Assent, declaring that Cantley’s 13-year forced merger into the City of Gatineau would end on January 1, 1989. Cantley would be an independent municipality once again with its own budget of $1.5 million. “Phantom” Mayor Michel Charbonneau told reporters, “We are celebrating the rebirth ofa municipalityfirst created in 1889."¹

Indeed, Cantley was reborn in 1989. It accomplished what no other municipality had been able to do at the time. Cantley’s Bertrand Boily and its citizens made this happen. For more than 10 years, francophones and anglophones worked together, researching and writing reports, letters and press releases. They organized interviews and meetings and held demonstrations and protests. Their dedication and persistence paid off. They restored Cantley’s century-old autonomy and saved its rural heritage.

Saving Cantley — These citizens were instrumental in the 1889 creation of Cantley as a municipality. Alexandre Prud’homme, shown with his wife, Jane Johnston, was Cantley’s first mayor. Courtesy of Cantley 1889. GVHS 3074.49/61.

Cantley’s actual birth was in 1889, exactly one century before. The year 1989 was an incredibly important milestone, but it led to some widespread misconceptions. For example, in 2009 Cantley's “20th” anniversary was celebrated with many special municipal events. Local history buffs were happy of course, but we were worried that Cantley's entire history leading up to 1989 had been totally ignored. The municipal website even boasted, “Cantley is one of the youngest municipalities in Quebec.” Sadly, Cantley has no historic village centre or public buildings to remind residents about its past. Many citizens still believe Cantley has no history before 1989. This article details Cantley’s confusing political past and highlights the remarkable events that have made Cantley the special place it is today.

Cantley’s first settlers began arriving in 1829 to build their farms on tracts of land running east from the Gatineau River. By 1841, 41 families had arrived. In 1855, the Township of Hull was established with boundaries that included the town of Hull, as well as the large territories of Cantley and Chelsea, Cantley’s neighbour on the west side of the Gatineau River. The early settlers had already named their community “Cantley”; this name became official in 1857, when the Cantley Post Office was established.

A few decades later, in 1875, the Township of Hull was split in two, separating the town of Hull from a new rural municipality—West Hull, which included both Cantley and today’s Chelsea. However, Cantley’s citizens wanted their own say in how to govern their unique farmlands and wilderness areas, so local citizens of the day helped make this happen. On September 12, 1889, West Hull itself was divided, with Cantley’s territory east of the Gatineau River becoming one municipality to be called East Hull, with the remaining territory still named West Hull (and now known as Chelsea). On October 16, 1889, Cantley had its first election, and Alexandre Prud’homme became its first mayor.

Although the official name was East Hull, local residents both here and elsewhere in the Gatineau Valley continued to call it Cantley, including even the local post office. However official records of the day, such as council meeting minutes, were documented as “East Hull” This has caused confusion ever since, particularly for those researching Cantley’s history. Archival newspapers from that time refer to both Cantley and East Hull, sometimes in the same edition. In this article, I use “Cantley” throughout.

Cantley has remained mostly rural, with pastoral farmlands scattered in valleys bordered by rocky hills, mountains and forests along the Gatineau River. Until 1989, this municipality was a vast territory of 154 square kilometres, 95 percent rural. Its eastern boundary included the territory east from the Gatineau River as far as Templeton. Its 30-km western boundary began from near today's Draveurs Bridge in the south to Wilson’s Corners in the north. Its 23 kilometres of river shoreline brings in Horseshoe Bay in the south and Mont Lorne and Mont Cascades in the north.

In the 1960s, pivotal changes happened. Housing development began in a small triangular sector of southern Cantley; this became known as Touraine. By 1965, Touraine’s population, together with its existing rural Cantley sector, was large enough to become an official municipality. Rural and urban were merged under the one new name of Touraine and the names of Cantley and East Hull officially disappeared. It held its council meetings in a rented building in Touraine’s urban centre. Cantley's 1893 town hall in the heart of its rural community was never used again, and it was eventually torn down.

In 1971, Touraine was upgraded to city status and renamed “Ville de Touraine.” With no ward system, most councillors were from the densely populated urban south. Only one councillor represented Cantley’s small rural population. Cantley residents shared nothing in common with the city sector and had many unique needs of their own.

Cantley’s worst fears came true in 1975, when their rural community was amalgamated yet a second time. With no public consultation, seven municipalities² merged to create a city of Gatineau, including Touraine (which Cantley was still a part of).³

Cantley’s small rural population had become part of an enormous metropolis spanning 271 square kilometres with 86,000 people. A decade later, the province appointed three commissioners to examine and make recommendations about Cantley’s situation. The 1988 Giles Report concluded that the two mergers had been serious mistakes. Cantley had lost its name and was losing its historic rural identity.

Cantley’s citizens consider local resident Bertrand Boily to be the father of modern Cantley. Boily first worked with fellow volunteers in the 1970s to develop four new community parks (Denis, Godmaire, Lafortune, Ste-Elisabeth) and a baseball field. As they created the infrastructure (storage cabins, skating rinks, water) and organized winter carnivals and other events, they repeatedly requested funding from Gatineau. The requests were either denied, or token amounts were granted.

This lack of funding support from Gatineau motivated Boily to investigate how other regional rural municipalities operated, and what their budgets were. His comprehensive research supported the notion that Cantley could exist independently as its own municipality.

In 1976, Boily organized what was called the first demonstration of discontent by citizens of the Cantley sector. Residents who were upset about their increasing taxes gathered at Arthur Pomeroy's historic farmhouse on Cantley’s River Road to meet Gatineau mayor John Luck and two councillors. The mayor informed them that not only could taxes not be lowered, but that there was no money for improvements in Cantley. This fuelled both anger and the determination of the residents to fight against such injustice. Francophones and anglophones, united in their common cause, were led by Boily with support from anglophones such as Arthur Pomeroy and Bob Phillips. Community spirit strengthened and friendships were made.

In 1979, Councillor Joanisse suggested that to qualify for park funding, Boily’s park volunteers should form an association. They therefore created the Association des Résidents de Cantley (ARC), with Bertrand Boily as president. ARC soon took n the larger issues. Cantley had virtually no community services: recreation was limited to a single outdoor rink, the parish hall served as the only community space, there was no local fire protection (with the nearest station 16 kilometres away), drainage ditches had not been maintained for years, and the roads were in poor condition. Cantley was not fairly represented on city council. Its citizens were burdened by excessive city taxes, while still paying for their own water and septic systems and contributing to city services and amenities many kilometres away that they did not use.

The worst injustice of all happened in 1981 when Gatineau passed its Bill 228-81. This bill imposed a special tax on rural taxpayers for the construction of a sewage interceptor and water purification plant for the Ville de Gatineau. Of course, these services were not available to rural taxpayers. Boily personally contested this bill with the moral support of ARC volunteers and other residents’ associations that had recently formed in various districts of rural Cantley. Claude Lapointe and his law firm Lapointe, Leblanc and Associates represented Boily.

In spite of their strong case and a petition with 1,500 signatures, they lost the case, and a huge debt remained from the legal proceedings. Claude Lapointe supported the cause by waiving his legal fees. Boily and volunteers went door to door to every home in Cantley to ask for a $10 donation to help with court costs still owing.⁴ Eventually, Gatineau’s Mayor Cousineau requested that the regional MRC of Gatineau exempt rural residents from the special tax. This was approved, and Boily estimated this saved Cantley residents about $6 million in taxes over 25 years.

In 1983, Boily with at least 400 angry taxpayers met at Cantley’s Ecole Sainte-Elisabeth. The outcome was the formation of the Rural Residents’ Committee of Cantley, often referred to as “le Comité,” which elected Boily as its president. Residents learned their escalating taxes were already two to three times higher than in neighbouring Chelsea and Val-des-Monts. Gatineau'’s rural sector comprised 74 percent of the city’s land, but only 7 percent of its population. According to Boily, this 1983 meeting was the first time residents realized that Cantley’s autonomy might actually be possible. He produced a 10-page detailed budget for what he hoped would become an autonomous Cantley. Its conclusion noted that Cantley’s “remarkable human and cultural resources will ensure it is managed in a very efficient manner.⁵

In August 1983 le Comité presented its case to Pauline Marois, the governing Parti Québécois minister responsible for the Outaouais. She showed no interest. As the fight continued, the media referred to it as “I'affaire de Cantley” By 1986 Boily was so exhausted that a fellow committee member of the residents’ association (ARC), Bernard Bouthillette, offered to take over his leadership role. The francophone majority continued to work closely with anglophones in their common struggle for autonomy, organizing well-attended public information campaigns and meetings. As Cantley’s Steve Harris remembers, “For the péquistes, it was the first time they saw the positive side of the English, and vice-versa .... Arthur Pomeroy epitomized the image of the old British squire and worked hand in hand with Bernard Boutbhillette, a former Oblate priest and core member of the local branch of the Parti Québécois."⁶

Gatineau benefitted from rural Cantley, and not only from its taxes. The City persuaded Natural Resources Canada, a federal department, to build its second satellite station (the first being in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan) high on a Cantley hilltop once belonging to the McClelland farm. The station opened in 1986 and is still operating there today.

In 1985-86, the then former Quebec Finance Minister Jacques Parizeau chaired hearings commissioned by the Union of Quebec Municipalities for a major study on the financing and governance of Quebec municipalities. When le Comité explained the Cantley situation, Parizeau described it as “.. un trés beau cas de cancer,⁷ and noted that “for ten years, Cantley had been reduced to purely a fiscal role—just paying. Residents had lost their fundamental right to self-govern and provide themselves with services.⁸ Cantley residents were encouraged by his remarks.

Feeling optimistic, le Comité presented an official request for the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Alain Marcoux, to meet with the Gatineau City Council about the procedure for Cantley's separation. Unbelievably, Marcoux denied their request. The Comité members were devastated and gave up, convinced separation could never happen. Thankfully, Bertrand Boily refused to relent and resumed his leadership role with le Comité. His approach was to use this defeat to strengthen Cantley’s case and inspire residents to rallyas never before. They occupied MNA Michel Gratton’s office in Gatineau to plead their case, and 153 residents even pledged to withhold their taxes. The largest and most effective demonstrations by Cantley citizens happened in 1987.

By that point, Boily and his followers were given the name “le petit gang & Boily” by opponents and skeptics who thought autonomy would never happen. That name implied that only this small group of radicals wanted Cantley’s independence, not the majority of residents. They were wrong.

The turning point came on May 24, 1987. Cantley held its own ‘“phantom election” and an unofficial referendum that proved 97 percent of its voters favoured autonomy. This resulted in “un conseil fantôme,” with Michel Charbonneau as mayor and six councillors: Jean Alain, Bernard Bouthillette, Jocelyne Carriére, Steve Harris, Louise Lemieux/Denis Charron⁹ and Nora Prud’homme.

In 1987, “phantom mayor” Charbonneau commissioned the tugboat logo to symbolize Cantley’s heritage. The small, sturdy boat represented the powerful force of Cantley’s citizens pushing together against all obstacles for Cantley’s future. The tugboat logo appeared everywhere in Cantley, including on the shirts residents wore at public gatherings. Here are the original sketches of the tugboat logo, designed by Pierre Meilleur. On the right is Cantley’s most recent variation of the original logo, with its green hills and forests. Courtesy of Cantley 1889.

The last straw came when Gatineau selected sites in Cantley as the ideal locations for at least two new landfills. Phantom Mayor Charbonneau issued a notice to citizens saying, “We have the pride in Cantley to refuse to become the garbage dump for the Outaouais .... Once more, let’s link arms and contribute whatever we can to this fight against pollution of our home environment.¹⁰ And they did.

After filling green garbage bags with letters opposing dumps in Cantley, many protestors gathered on the steps of Gatineau City Hall before a council meeting began, demanding to be heard. When denied, they left, leaving their garbage bags piled on the steps to block the doorway of City Hall, to the delight of news media covering the story.

Cantley citizens ramped up their protests, attracting wide media attention. The national media covered Cantley’s many “parades”—convoys of at least 200 vehicles driving a slow five to 10 kilometres per hour in the southbound lane at the northern end of Cantley’s main road, Highway 307. The parades were strategically planned for late Sunday afternoons, when cottagers from north of Cantley were driving home to Ottawa.

Finally, in the autumn of 1987, the provincial government appointed Jérémie Giles, a non-biased outsider, to head a three-member commission to make recommendations on the future of Cantley. In February 1988 they published “The Giles Report” Giles understood Cantley's concerns, declaring, “L'autonomie de Cantley, un cas unique en son genre.¹¹ [“Cantley’s autonomy, a unique case of its kind."]

The next month, Municipal Affairs Minister André Bourbeau and MNA Michel Gratton held a public meeting to discuss the report's recommendations. The room was packed to over-capacity with anxious Cantley citizens. They shouted in jubilation when Minister Bourbeau announced that Cantley's rural community of 4,200 would separate from La Ville de Gatineau'’s 86,000 population, pending the results of an official referendum. He said if the vote was “OUI," then Jérémie Giles would “head up the divorce talks” enabling Cantley to become autonomous once again. Citizens predicted results would be an overwhelming “OUI."

The official referendum was held on September 18, 1988, with a resulting 84.8 percent of votes in favour of autonomy. That evening, three hundred residents crowded into Sainte-Elisabeth Parish Hall for a great celebration.

Regional newspapers had fun photographing images such as these between September 10 and 14, 1988. These were published in both The Montreal Gazette and The Ottawa Citizen. From the Heinz Pilz clippings collection.

Bertrand Boily told reporters, “To change a no to a yes, you must have energy, information and convictions. If the people of Cantley had stayed in their homes ... we wouldn’t have changed anything.¹²

The Quebec government passed legislation that made Cantley an independent municipality effective January 1, 1989. Touraine and its urban sectors remained in Gatineau. Cantley’s territory was reduced to 134 square kilometres (compared with its original 154). Its southern border is now near the Chelsea Dam, and its eastern boundary borders Gatineau’s Montée Paiement and Avenue Gatineau.

“Mayoral candidates began their friendly election campaign by attending the community’s independence celebration in the Parish Hall of SainteElisabeth’s Church on January 14, 1989. From left: Bertrand Boily, Michel Charbonneau, Bernard Bouthillette. From Le Droit, January 16, 1989.

Bernard Bouthillette was elected mayor and served until 1992. Other mayoral candidates were Bertrand Boily and Michel Charbonneau (who later served as mayor from 1996 to 2005). Council meetings were held in the Sainte- Elisabeth Parish Hall until a temporary town hall was built on Chemin River near the site of Cantley’s original town hall.

Recent citizen campaigns in Cantley are reminiscent of the passion and tremendous community spirit during the battles for independence. Volunteers have successfully saved the historic Pomeroy farm from expropriation, the Parc écologique Ginns from nearby commercial development, and the historic Milks and Maloney farm buildings from demolition. Citizens advocated to protect Cantley's geologically significant sculpted rocks site, and petitioned to save the environmentally vulnerable Mont Lorne from development. Most recently, citizens founded the non-profit volunteer organization Conservation Cantley to protect its natural areas.

“Saving Cantley”: Cantley residents, young and old, anglophone and francophone, worked together to oppose immediate zoning changes for increased densification. They held demonstrations with home-made placards such as this one (held by France Guertin), organized letter-writing campaigns and social media posts. Another favourite slogan was “Vive le Cantley Rural!” Their protests were reminiscent of those in the 1980s. 2025. Credit: Patrick Hannan, Cantley 1889. GVHS 3074.57/61.

In winter 2025, anglophone and francophone citizens worked together to oppose proposed municipal zoning changes to allow increased densification. Citizens demanded environmental studies be done first to test the sustainability of future infrastructure and building development. After a very short but intense campaign, with demonstrations, wide media coverage, and a municipal register showing 2,872 signatures of support, an official referendum on this subject was agreed to and held. The results meant that citizens achieved their goal of protecting Cantley’s environment and its rural identity. In the 2025 election, they brought in an entirely new set of council members and a new mayor.

“Saving Cantley” has been an ongoing theme since the 1880s. Cantley’s saviours have always been its citizens who have successfully fought, and continue to fight, for the protection of the municipality’s vulnerable rural heritage and its environment.

Hope for our future lies in knowing our past

Acknowledgments

Cantley’s autonomy today is due to the determination of its residents, and especially to Bertrand Boily. His invaluable “Boily papers” include documentation of meetings, budgets, background material and the Giles Report. I am most grateful for the stories he shared with me when we met.

Special thanks to Bob McClelland for his memories and articles, my father, the late Bob Phillips, for his writings, and the late Heinz Pilz for his newspaper clippings. Thank you Cantley 1889 volunteers for your help and support with this important story, especially Steve Harris, Patricia Lawlor, Cindy Bouchard, Hubert McClelland, Valérie Crevier and Murray Bell.

Bertrand Boily, father of modern Cantley, led Cantley’s fight for separation from Gatineau amalgamation. He is a fisherman, gardener, wood carver and cabinetmaker and owns a portable sawmill. In 2025, at age 85, he tapped 360 maple trees behind his Cantley home. He is shown here in his solarium, holding the ARC logo he carved when the association was founded in 1979. 2026. Credit: M. Phillips. GVHS 3074.59/61.

Up the Gatineau! Articles

Saving Cantley

Margaret Phillips

Acknowledgments

Further Reading