Renewal—with respect for the past—is an important theme in the life of Newport today, one of the smallest municipalities in the Haut Saint-François region.

Small demographically, but in terms of territory Newport is as large as Cookshire-Eaton, with 270 square kilometres, which is the equivalent of about 675 one-hundred-acre farms.
Some of that renewal is demographic, mayor Robert Asselin and municipal councillor Anne-Marie Dubeau told us in July. The municipality is not seeing much in the way of development—most of the land is protected against it under green zoning—but some older residents have sold and moved to town, and younger families bought from them.

“It’s nice to see the young families,” Dubeau said, while also expressing her appreciation of the community’s history and older residents. “People here have a lot of stories to tell,” she said.
Many of those stories echo in the walls of Town Hall and its community centre upstairs, a large old wood-panelled room whose 2023 renovation hardly shows.
That renewal involved replacing the room’s stage with kitchen and storage space to better serve the community’s needs. But the mayor and council wanted to preserve the building’s heritage while doing so.

It took two years before they found the right contractor, who would carefully remove the aged diagonal tongue-and-groove panelling from behind the stage to move it forward as finishing on the new wall separating the kitchen and storage from the large, cathedral-ceiling main hall. The renovation cost $70,000 and took over a month.

Now, across Route 212, the municipality’s public park is going through its own renewal, with new playground facilities, a walking trail, and a soccer pitch all in the works. “I would like to see more families here,” said Mayor Asselin.

He and councillor Dubeau would also like to see more gatherings of community members, in places like the park, the community hall, and other community centres in St. Mathias and on the Lawrence Road.

“It’s part of my vision to have more community gatherings,” Asselin said.