Mr. Speaker, this weekend I will be in my riding enjoying a sweet treat at the annual sugar shack spring event in Verdun, the seventh Cabane Panache et Bois Rond.
For four days, 80,000 hungry visitors will be on Wellington Street, know to the people of Verdun as “the Well”, sampling the maple treats and celebrating our Quebec producers and local merchants.
The history of the maple syrup season precedes the arrival of the settlers in Quebec. The first nations discovered maple sap, a sort of sugar water that flowed from these trees. Centuries later, the sugaring tradition in Verdun is celebrated by the largest urban sugar shack in Montreal and perhaps the world.
Families, friends, and visitors, I will see you on “the Well”.