Agriculture
The agricultural industry is the number one employer in the MRC Pontiac, with over 1000 jobs (21%). The average farm revenue is $ 100,000 per farm, with 275 farms registered with MAPAQ within our boundaries, representing 27% of the Outaouais’ farms earning 31% of the region’s total farm revenue. Of those, 88% of the farm enterprises are self-declared to be English speaking.
The industry has recently enjoyed an increased diversification (sheep, market gardening, fish production, cider etc.), while still being noted as a beef and dairy area, with 50% of the Outaouais’ beef farms and 37% of the dairy farms.
The MRC is comprised of 1,282,408 hectares of which 44,182 are occupied by farms, with forage crops and pasture having the largest representations.
We are fortunate to have the only post-secondary education in the Pontiac focused on the Agricultural sector, CÉGEP Heritage College offers an Attestation of Collegial Studies at their campus in Shawville.
The MRC Pontiac was declared an MRC Ressource from 2003-2008 which was the catalyst for of our recent development. 53 files were developed, with investments of $16,775,000 whereby increasing the gross annual revenue (in addition to existing revenue) to $7,700,000. This will account for $47,000,000 of increase annual revenue over the course of the next decade.
