2 N.B. regions compete to host the 2029 Acadian World Congress
Both the Chaleur and Bouctouche regions are candidates for the next event
Every five years, Acadians gather from around the world to celebrate their history and culture. The Acadian World Congress, the Congrès mondial acadien, is taking place this summer in Nova Scotia. And two regions in New Brunswick are already competing to host the next celebration in 2029.
Greater Bouctouche has applied to host in 2029, and the Chaleur region — teaming up with Quebec municipalities Avignon and Bonaventure — has also applied.
The host community will be announced before Christmas.
Bouctouche Mayor Aldéo Saulnier said the community will be celebrating many of its own milestones in 2029, such as the 100th birthday of the award-winning novelist Antonine Maillet, and it also has experience hosting major events, including hockey tournaments and, most recently, the Acadian Games finals this summer.
"We're going to have a good chance," Saulnier said.
While Bouctouche on its own does not have the capacity to accommodate the crowds drawn by the Acadian Congress, Saulnier said there are hotels throughout the region, including in Shediac, Dieppe and Moncton.
"We also have a lot of campsites in the Bouctouche area," he said.
Pascal Bujold is the mayor of Pointe-à-la-Croix in Quebec, which is just across the Restigouche River from Campbellton, and chair of the application committee for the Chaleur region. He said the community has an advantage because it submitted an application to host the 2024 event.
"So we just have small things to change, small numbers here and there. ... We just have to modify it and bring it up to date," he told Radio-Canada in French.
Bujold said even if the community does not win the bid, the application process has benefited the relationship between Chaleur and the Quebec communities it's teamed up with.
"It was so beautiful to see, the union of the municipalities of the two bays. I think that even if we did not have the Congress, the legacy of that was so important, we want to build on that," he said.
National Acadian Society president Martin Théberge called it a "good competition."
"We're always happy to see more than one community come forward because it creates that healthy competition."
It's a long process to choose the winning community, Théberge said. The first step is to declare intent, which both communities have done. Now, the National Acadian Society needs to make sure each community is capable of hosting such a large event.
In the fall, the communities will have to fill out an extensive application. They'll be judged on whether they have viable budgets for the event and their plans for programming will be reviewed. They must include a youth aspect and a family reunion, with a modern and inclusive definition of family.
How the event will affect the environment in each community will also be looked at and whether there's enough lodging to handle the capacity.
"It's the only time we have as a people — people without a government, right — it's the only time that we have that we can live Acadie on a geographical standpoint, on a timely standpoint, where we actually celebrate Acadie as it should be," Théberge said.
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With files from Radio-Canada and Nicola Seguin