Petition of 400 names in hand, their intervention forced the city of Gatineau to investigate the phenomenon. The leisure, sports and community development service presented elected officials on Wednesday, the fruit of their observations.
Result: criticism would be more from perception than facts.
This will not prevent the city of Gatineau from tightening the screw to Ontario players, in particular by reviewing the pricing of its Gatineau+ access card during the 2026 budget and by prohibiting, in September, the possibility of reserving a badminton or pickleball field by directly paying a right of play.
In fact, the Ontarians who cross the Outaouais river to come and play badminton and pickleball at the Gatineau sports center.
A sampling carried out over 59 different days made it possible that 2043 players listed, only 99 were non-residents of Gatineau, 23 of whom were Ontarians.
Data as to holders of the Gatineau+ access card follow the same trend. Of the 70,275 holders, 326 are non-residents of Gatineau and only 55 are Ontarians.
Despite statistics which indicate that the situation is not problematic, several elected officials from the municipal council have shown themselves in favor of a tightening of the rules to ensure that the Gatineois taxpayers can have better access to the sports infrastructure they finance.
At the end of the presentation, the mayor of Gatineau, Maude Marquis-Bissonnette, believed that he became impossible for Ontario residents to come and play badminton and pickleball at the sports center. In fact, it is not. His team had to correct the shot at the end of the press scrum.
However, it will become impossible for anyone to pay a playing right. It cost $ 10 for an hour of play for residents and non-residents of Gatineau. To have access to the field, a player must obtain a Gatineau+access card. Pricing for non-residents must go from $ 198.75 currently to $ 300 as soon as the 2026 budget adopted.
The problem is the lack of land
Advisor Daniel Champagne believes that the city of Gatineau does not have to be embarrassed to increase the pricing of the Gatineau+ access card for non-residents. According to him, they are, and several of his colleagues from the Council, a measure of equity for all the Gatineois taxpayers who finance municipal public infrastructure in their tax accounts.
The fact remains that what this dossier highlights is the lack of sports fields in Gatineau, particularly of pickleball fields, a sport whose popularity is exploded throughout North America. “We know that we have active citizens, so we have to find ways to be able to offer alternatives that allow people to remain so,” he said.
Mr. Champagne cited as an example an external skating rink in his neighborhood which, according to him, could easily be transformed into pickleball terrain during the summer. Asked to know why such a simple solution seems complicated to implement, Mr. Champagne admitted that he did not have the answer.
“There are opportunities to seize,” he said. I should have been more vocal in the past, but here I am going to be. […] Is it as simple as we think of making lines and installing a net? It remains to be seen. “
Asked about the same subject, the mayor Marquis-Bissonnette said that she did not have enough details to offer a response to this purpose. However, his office said that by mid-July, 22 pickleball fields will be made available in five different parks in Gatineau, namely Lucerne-Nord, Jack-Eyamie, Beauchampville, Gérard-Marchand and Woods.
