Getting to know the new Ward 8 councillor
Isabel Mosseler
Tribune
For many people in West Nipissing, even in Ward 8, the newly appointed councillor Georges Pharand is an unknown quantity. He presented very well at the council selection process to replace Jérôme Courchesne, enough to sway five council members, and he’s remarkably well-informed of issues in West Nipissing. Pharand recently retired, at age 63, and sold his interest in his former business, to settle full time in the area he’s been coming to since childhood.
Georges Pharand styles himself a “Northern Ontario boy”, who grew up in Hanmer, went to secondary school in Hanmer, and always kept ties to the North even while traveling the world and residing in Europe for many years, primarily in the United Kingdom. Pharand went to the University of Ottawa to obtain his business degree and then went to Paris to do a one-year MBA. “Then I came back and I started working in banking. I went to work in Montreal, for the Bank of Montreal. I didn’t stay in Montreal very long. I think I was there for maybe three years or something and, you know, the draw of going to live overseas kind of was very strong for me and I wanted to explore the world.” That was in his early 20s.
Pharand got a job in New York for awhile, and ended up in London, England. London was his home base from 1987 forward to 2007. He was only planning to come back to Canada for a week to visit his family, but then “something happened”. Pharand lives on Isle-aux-chênes (a.k.a Oak Island, a.k.a Hardwood Islands) on Lake Nipissing, Lavigne, which was at one time a nature-based summer camp for Francophone youth in Ontario. The camp was started by Jesuit priests in Sudbury in 1948. “It was a summer camp for kids from about 1950, roughly to the early 80s, and I started coming here in 1969. My parents would send me here for like 3 weeks every summer.”
The camp also became his summer job as a camp counselor when he was in high school, until 1979. Pharand recalls that he had deep ties. He knew the camp closed in the early 1980s. “It became derelict and in 2003 I was curious to see what happened to it. So on a trip to my parents’, I rented a boat in Lavigne and, to make a long story short, I found out who the owners were and bought it and I cleaned up the site because most of the buildings were collapsed. I built a house, and made it my home. From 2007, I started gravitating back here, in the beginning spending maybe a month, 2 months, every year, every summer (…) My brother actually built the house and when the house was finished in 2009, I was spending more like 5 months a year here in the summer.”
Pharand was still in business, but operating remotely. “I was running my business, which was in the UK, but in the summer from here. I had a business partner and you know it was a big company, so I could do my work from wherever I was. So that’s how I came back into this community.” After calling the island his part-time home for 20 years, he and his business partner sold the company and he officially retired in April of this year. “I officially came back home and within three days I found out that there was a vacancy on Council!”
Georges Pharand was the co-owner of Fragrance Factory Ltd (FFL), one of the leading fragrance and skincare distributors covering the UK, Eire and the Channel Islands. He and his partner, Howard Shaughnessy, directors and co-founders, had 29 successful years in the fragrance industry. Their brands included Police, Anna Sui, Jasper Conran, Nesti Dante, Evian and Esteban. Pharand says he was in banking when he fell into the business with his then partner, and it became very successful. “We exited the business last year and then we’re no longer partners, but we’re best friends (…) We’re quite proud of what we achieved but it was time to bow out.”
One of the rumours around Lavigne is that Sir Elton John once visited Pharand on his island. Asked to verify the rumour, Pharand laughs and says it’s fake news; he does not know and never has known Elton John. But he is aware of the rumour and it keeps coming up.
Pharand is very well traveled. He used to have an apartment in Gibraltar, and every winter he’d choose a place to go, and work from there. But, “I’m 63 now and I’ve decided that I’m now become a homebody again. I just want to stay at home and we intend on spending our winters here.” On the island? “The winter is not a problem. We have a snowmobile, a side-by-side with tracks, so we just cross the lake.” He has friends he can stay with if issues arise accessing the island from the mainland, or “We might just get enough food for six weeks and enough wine and just stay here.” Sounds about perfect. “The other thing is, my mom is 90, and although she’s in great health, she still lives in her house, she drives her car, but I’m conscious of the fact that at that age, you never know what can happen and (…) me being in London and not being able to get back immediately — so that’s why my place is now here.”
What made Georges Pharand decide to run for council? Well, he’s become increasingly invested in his community, he’s been observing groups such as the Sturgeon Falls Beautification Committee, and supports that civic commitment while at the same time hinting that there’s a bit of divide between engaged citizenry and administration. Pharand didn’t come right out and say it, but it seems he is motivated to get the municipality to play a larger role in activities that enhance the community. “We shouldn’t rely on volunteers. If we want a town that we’re proud of, I think everyone’s the champion, really. And so that’s why I want to look at, is the municipality doing enough? (…) A lot of people are saying before amalgamation, or just after amalgamation, we didn’t have that problem. The city spent money on flowers and beautification, they cleaned up more and they went around and cleaned up the ditches of plastic bottles. But now they don’t anymore.”
