Everything happening in La Petite-Nation Français
La Petite Nationlapetitenation.ca Ask

Living here

The Passeport d'accueil papinois, a welcome kit for newcomers to Papineau

Moved to the MRC in the last year? A free booklet gets you 31 discounts or freebies from local businesses, plus $15 in Petite-monnaie. Only 100 printed.

By La Petite Nation ·

Cover of the Passeport d'accueil papinois: icons for outdoors, wine and cheese, arts and nature
Photo: MRC de Papineau · Place aux jeunes Papineau, Visuel officiel du Passeport

Your first year in the country, you don't know where the good bread is, who fixes what, or which of three gravel roads actually gets you to the lake. You learn by getting it wrong. The MRC de Papineau decided to speed that up a little.

On August 18, 2026, at a 5 à 7 at the Coopérative Place du marché in Ripon, the MRC's welcome committee launched the first-ever Passeport d'accueil papinois. It's a small booklet for new residents with 31 discounts or freebies from local businesses, non-profits and towns. There's also $15 in Petite-monnaie tucked inside.

Who it's for

Not everyone, on purpose. To get one you need to:

  • have lived in the MRC de Papineau for less than a year;
  • have moved in from outside the MRC (Thurso to Ripon doesn't count);
  • fill out the sign-up form;
  • pick it up in person.

One passport per address, and the first print run is 100 copies. If you moved up this spring, don't sit on it.

A note for the detail-minded: when the MRC was recruiting partners back in January, it talked about people who'd arrived within the last two years. At launch, the rule announced was less than one year. Go with that.

How to get one

Fill out the MRC's online form. It's in French and asks a fair bit: where you came from, why you picked the area, what you do for work, what you'd like to discover. The MRC uses the answers to get a picture of who's moving here.

Then you get an appointment to pick up the passport in person, at a town hall, the Carrefour jeunesse-emploi or the MRC office. That's the point, really. A human being says welcome, instead of a flyer landing in your mailbox.

What's inside

Thirty-one offers. The MRC published the list of partners but not what each one is giving, so you find out when you open the booklet. We're not going to guess at percentages.

What we can tell you is that the list leans sweet. Chocomotive, Gaufre N'Go and La Belle Pâtissière in Montebello, Kîsisam pâtisserie in Saint-André-Avellin, Les Mignardises in Papineauville, Babine in Val-des-Bois. If you have kids, you just found your Saturday outings.

Shop

ChocoMotive

Montebello

A chocolate shop and economuseum in the old train station. Organic, fair-trade chocolate, made where you can watch.

Café

Gaufre N'Go

Montebello

Sweet and savoury Liège waffles to go.

Bakery

La Belle Pâtissière

Montebello

A Paris-style pastry shop and café. Sabrina Sigouin, who was on The Big Bake, also does custom wedding cakes.

Bakery

Kîsisam pâtisserie

Saint-André-Avellin

A café and bake shop where the pastry chef brings Indigenous culture into what comes out of the oven. Kîsisam means 'she who bakes with fire'.

Café

Les Mignardises

Papineauville

Café, pastry shop, ice cream and snack bar with a patio. Sweet or savoury, your call.

For getting out of the house, some big names: Parc Oméga, Fairmont Le Château Montebello, Kenauk Nature, the Centre touristique du Lac-Simon, Aquaventure Petite-Nation, the Air-Eau-Bois outdoor centre in Bowman and Domaine Mont-Vézeau in Ripon.

On the culture side, the Centre d'art populaire du Québec in Plaisance, Cinémaboule, La Plume and the Saint-André-Avellin western festival are in.

And for everyday life, which is honestly what helps most when you've just landed: Gagnon – La grande quincaillerie, Pièces d'auto Le Bon Choix, Wööl, emporium de laine, La Shed qui tourne, Friperie Montebello, Le Deuxième chapitre, the Coopérative Place du marché, Café des orties and Ferme Oréflore in Ripon.

To look after yourself: Massothérapie Fleur de lilas, Beauté holistique du Lac and EnraCyn Danse Fitness.

The municipalities of Montebello and Saint-André-Avellin chipped in an offer too.

The $15 in Petite-monnaie

The committee wanted the local currency in there. Six towns footed the bill: Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours, Montebello, Papineauville, Ripon, Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette and Fassett. So every passport holds $15 in Petite-monnaie, the MRC's own currency, worth one dollar apiece and spendable at participating shops.

It won't change your life. It'll cover a coffee at Café des orties, which takes it like cash, and it's a painless way to figure out how the Petite-monnaie works before you buy any yourself. We wrote a full explainer.

Who's behind it

The MRC's welcome committee has been at this since 2025. Around the table: Place aux jeunes, Carrefour jeunesse-emploi Papineau and Action Emploi Papineau, the MRC, Santé Québec Outaouais, Parc Oméga, the Table de développement social Papineau, the Municipality of Papineauville, the Corporation des loisirs de Papineau and CDC Rond Point. Federal MP Stéphane Lauzon, the Québec government and Imprimerie Papineauville also helped make it happen.

The first two passports went out on launch night. One to a young family who arrived last November and runs an old-fashioned doughnut stand, the other to a woman from Switzerland who spent ten years in Indonesia before choosing La Petite-Nation for the outdoors. That tells you something about who's moving here lately.

Know someone who just moved in? Send them the form link. A hundred copies won't last.

If you don't qualify

Been here more than a year, or just moved from one village to the next? The passport isn't for you, but the partners will be happy to see you anyway, full price. The list above makes a decent plan for a weekend around here, new or not. And if you've just arrived, read our guide to moving to La Petite-Nation: health care, schools, garbage day, internet, all the stuff we wish we'd known the first year.

RiponMontebelloPapineauvilleSaint-André-AvellinPlaisanceBowmanDuhamelNotre-Dame-de-BonsecoursVal-des-BoisNotre-Dame-de-la-SaletteFassett

Sources (20)

The facts in this story come from the linked listings, checked against these sources.

Read next