Cantley's 1889 Articles in The Echo of Cantley

Cantley 1889’s volunteers have written more than 150 monthly articles of local historical interest for publication in The Echo of Cantley, a non-profit bilingual organization that produces Cantley's only community newspaper.

The following article is reprinted here with permission from in The Echo of Cantley, Volume 37 no 2, August 2025.

Cantley’s Gatineau Satellite Station... how it came to be

Hubert McClelland

In 1983, Natural Resources Canada’s newly formed Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing was looking for a site to build a satellite tracking station in the greater Ottawa region. After Gatineau amalgamated seven municipalities in 1975, it was lobbying for construction of federal buildings within its new boundaries. It was determined that the new satellite station be built in its Cantley sector.

Remote sensing technology was developing rapidly. Canada had agreements with France to install a SPOT satellite (Satellite pour observation de la terre) in space. SPOT satellites circled the earth in a north to south orbit every one-and-a-half hour taking pictures synchronized to the sun when it was directly overhead. The ground receiving station read the transmission from the satellite the moment it came over the horizon in Canada’s north. It continued to receive communications until it passed over the over the Gulf of Mexico in the south. This meant the location of the station needed to have a horizontal sweep of 180° and a clear horizon 90° from the vertical.

The Canadian government found two sites meeting the criteria with mountains of about 245 to 275 metres above sea level with a clear horizon all around from north to south and east to west. Almonte, Ontario had low-cost access to a mountain top. Cantley’s site was on a forested hill of Precambrian rock with no access, and it happened to be on our McClelland bush lot, lot 12a Range 14.

Because Gatineau urgently wanted the satellite station, it offered to construct and pay for a road to access the top of Cantley’s forested hill where the satellite station and receiving antennae would be installed. This gave Gatineau the same economic advantage as the Almonte site. However, before all this could happen, the two owners of bush lots had to agree to sell their properties.

Coincidentally, my sister and I, acting for our mother Eirene McClelland, were in process of getting a right of access through neighbouring bush lots to our family’s bush lots and Halls Lake (lac des Méandres). Building a simple road through this rocky terrain was becoming exceedingly expensive. On a Friday evening in November 1984 good fortune came our way! We received an urgent request from Mayor Cousineau and our local MP Claudy Mailly begging our mother to sell 23 acres (9.3 hectares) on our hilltop for the satellite antenna dish. Our family countered the offer. In exchange for these 23 acres, Gatineau gave us the 41 acres (16.5 hectares) surrounding the bottom of the hill as well as road access to our northern bush lot at Halls Lake, at no cost to us. The other landowner sold his adjacent south lot to Gatineau on condition it was maintained in its forested state.

During the winter of 1984-1985, I ensured the road construction was done according to our agreement. The new road, Chemin McClelland, began at Chemin St.-Andrew then ascended 168 metres to the satellite station at its 230-metre elevation. The road cost Gatineau more than $1,000,000. Our family was involved with Cantley’s “battle for independence” in the 1980s. It was uncomfortable dealing with a Gatineau administration determined to increase our taxes for Gatineau’s new downtown infrastructure while refusing to provide Cantley basic services like a fire station. To my knowledge, even after Cantley’s independence in 1989, Gatineau continued to receive grants in lieu of taxes from the Canadian Government for the satellite station until the road loan of $1,000,000 was paid in full. Today, Cantley receives these grants in lieu of taxes.

When Cantley’s Gatineau Satellite Station opened in 1986, its two large dishes picked up images of the earth sent from 920 kilometres out in space. The satellite recorded the images which moved at six kilometres a second. Today Cantley remains an important site for Canada’s remote sensing technology.

For information see Government of Canada:
Gatineau Satellite Station