Preparation of La Petite Nation began in early September. Since it went online, the site has been developed continuously, while in service. Here is what was accomplished, in order, with the actual numbers. The figures below are from October 22.
The reasons for creating it are set out in the previous article. This one is the project's logbook.
What was online on the first day?
From its first version online, the site included:
- 695 listings, 108 events and 49 articles, in French and English;
- a new identity: a crest with a Pegasus and fleurs-de-lis, in blue, gold and ivory;
- the weather for all 25 towns, from Open-Meteo, with a "Mon village" option and a small animation that follows the season and the weather;
- a Conditions page: fire danger from SOPFEU, roads from Québec 511, rivers, air quality, sunrise and sunset;
- a health section with 82 resources: CLSCs, the hospital, clinics, pharmacies, dentists, therapists, veterinarians;
- a page about the MRC de Papineau, along with articles on the local currency (La Petite-monnaie) and on the MRC's welcome passport;
- an installable app, a calendar you can subscribe to, and a weekly photo contest.
Thirty-one commits were made that day. The site is hosted on Cloudflare, with the code on GitHub and a small Supabase database for the forms.
What was added during the first week?
- October 7: 106 additional real business photos, taken from their own websites, and 111 official websites added to listings. Garbage, recycling and compost days for all 25 towns, based on the official 2026 calendars. An article explaining how to install the app on a phone or computer.
- October 8: a consent banner for Google Analytics, compliant with Québec's Law 25 (analytics load only after "Accept"). Audience measurement itself is not yet enabled.
- October 10: scheduled articles. An article dated in the future remains hidden until its publication date, and the site rebuilds automatically every morning.
- October 11: a busy day of 15 commits. A recap of the Québec election in Papineau, with riding maps from Élections Québec open data. Thirty-two contractors added, with their licences verified in the RBQ open-data registry. Separate pages for the weather and pickups in each town, a road conditions page, and an archive of 61 past editions of 13 recurring events. Winter overnight parking rules from each town's bylaws, for 24 of the 25 towns.
Why devote several days to sources and credits?
A regional guide is only as valuable as the trust readers place in it. On October 13, adding content gave way to verification.
- A legal notice, a source on every listing, and photo credits.
- A second, independent source for 166 items that relied solely on the tourism office's website.
- On October 15, 36 listing passages rewritten because they were too close to the tourism site's wording.
- The 12 ads for Petite Nation Numérique placed on the site on the first day were removed. Only the credit in the footer remains.
- On October 16, a line added at the bottom of every page: La Petite Nation is an independent site, not affiliated with Tourisme Petite Nation.
None of this work appears on a screenshot. It is nevertheless the work that was most important to complete early.
What is the back office for?
From October 14 to 16, the site acquired a private back office, the SAP, on its own subdomain. Contributors can use it to propose events, listings, groups and articles. Each submission goes through an automatic check, then a person approves it before publication.
The system expanded quickly:
- scheduled publishing, with a view of everything planned, day by day;
- an "Avis important" banner that can be displayed across every page in an emergency;
- an ad manager with campaigns, targeting by town or section, and statistics that collect no personal data;
- public alerts on the site: AMBER Alerts through the national alerting system and weather warnings from Environment Canada, with a history page.
What has been added since October 17?
- October 18: an article presenting the site, "Everything happening in La Petite Nation, in one place", with newsletter sign-up.
- October 19: the opening of Les Petites Annonces, a free, local classifieds service, protected against fake accounts from abroad. The new Help and services section: 24/7 helplines, food banks, daycares, public services, 150 resources for the 25 towns. The Display button, available at the top of every page, which lets readers enlarge the text, turn on dark mode, increase contrast and choose an easier font, and an Accessibility page that aims for WCAG 2.2 Level AA. SOPFEU fire danger, connected to its public data service and featured on the home page. Directory subcategories with their own pages, reviewed against real searches from the last 90 days.
- October 20: a discreet invitation to subscribe to the newsletter, shown only after a few pages of reading and never to subscribers. Halloween and fall events from several towns, taken from the official posters. Youth and sports groups: youth centres, speed skating, karate, badminton and pickleball.
- October 21: an RBQ licensed contractors category of 48 listings, each linked directly to its licence in the RBQ registry. A link check: 28 links corrected and 63 truly inactive links removed, each one verified individually in a browser. A complete review of the tone of every text on the site, in French and English.
- October 22: new Newsletter and Subscribers sections in the back office. The newsletter send is now triggered at the exact time by a Cloudflare timer.
Where does the site stand today?
As of October 22, after 186 commits:
- 964 business and service listings (695 on launch day);
- 173 groups and associations;
- more than 1,000 listings in all, counting the 25 towns;
- 122 events, including archived past editions;
- 65 articles in each language, with 5 more scheduled;
- 3,156 pages in total, 1,578 per language;
- 25 town pages, each with its weather, pickups and, since October 17, a transport and safety block (TAC Papineau and the Sûreté du Québec).
On the reader side, Cloudflare Web Analytics (cookieless, bots excluded) records 390 visits and 990 page views over the 30 days to October 18, 340 of those visits from Canada. A page loads in about a third of a second.
The site also offers a weekly newsletter. The system prepares a preview on Wednesday at noon and sends it to subscribers on Thursday at 10:00. The first two issues went out on October 15 and 22.
What are the next steps?
The rule remains the same: build the audience first. The back office and the alerts are ready. Other features remain on the waiting list until the site has regular readers. For now, the priorities are content, accuracy and the everyday pages: weather, roads, pickups and events.
For businesses in the region, these weeks confirm three practices: put useful content online early, name your sources, and make corrections openly. A live site teaches more than a perfect plan. If you would like help with your own site, contact us.
Frequently asked questions
How many businesses are listed?
As of October 22, 2026: 964 business and service listings and 173 groups and associations, more than 1,000 listings in all when the 25 towns of the MRC de Papineau are counted.
Where does the information come from?
From public sources: official websites, the towns, the MRC, government open data and the businesses themselves. Each listing names its sources and the date it was verified.