A French studies professor at Trent University in Peterborough has won a 2025 Governor General’s Literary Award for the translation of a work of speculative fiction by American-born Canadian author and literary critic Larissa Lai.

Along with partner and long-time collaborator Suzanne Grenier, Peterborough’s Sylvie Bérard won the award for Les Soeurs de la Muée, the duo’s French translation of Lai’s 2018 novel The Tiger Flu.

“I feel like I am floating on a cloud,” says Bérard in a media release issued by Trent University. “To be seen and heard by peers at this level is profoundly affirming. It also gives this wonderful book and its ideas a new life and visibility in French. The universe created by Larissa Lai in The Tiger Flu is quite unique, so this is the kind of translation that really benefits from teamwork.”

The winners of the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Awards were announced on November 6, with the winning books chosen by the same 14 peer assessment committees that were convened to select the 35 English-language and 35 French-language finalists announced in October.

“In this captivating translation, Sylvie Bérard and Suzanne Grenier met the colossal challenge of recreating Larissa Lai’s biopunk thriller with their attention to detail and toe-curling inventiveness,” stated peer assessment committee members Arianne Des Rochers, Émilie Laramée, and Paul Ruban.

“By mixing pop culture references with imaginary elements, the translators offer up a living mosaic, a unique window into a dystopian world shot through with possibility. This work is a bold and remarkable exercise in adaptation and transcreation.”

Lai’s novel The Tiger Flu, her first in 16 years when it was published, tells the story of a community of parthenogenetic women 120 years in the future who, after being sent into exile by the patriarchal and corporate Salt Water City, go to war against disease, technology, and an economic system that threatens them with extinction. The novel won a 2019 winner of the Lambda Literary Awards, which celebrate the best in LGBTQ+ literature.

Bérard and Grenier’s translation, which was published by Montréal francophone publishing house Le Quartanier, required two years of both scholarly research and artistic creation, including the creation of new terms (such as the noun “muée” in the translation’s title) and cultural references that feel authentic to French readers while remaining faithful to the English original.

“When you translate science fiction, you don’t just translate the words — you translate the history of ideas, the imagined future, and the nuance of worlds that another writer has created,” Bérard says.

“Translation is about recreating an entire universe so that readers in another language can inhabit it naturally,” Bérard adds. “We don’t want people to feel like they are reading a translation. We want people to feel like they are reading a great book, and that requires a love for the work that you’re translating and needing to immerse yourself in the author’s original work.”

The translation was Bérard and Grenier eighth translated work together, and the second time they had been nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award for translating one of Lai’s novels. In 2022, they were nominated for Le fruit de la puanteur, their translation of Salt Fish Girl, Lai’s 2002 prequel to The Tiger Flu.

Bérard, who is an accomplished science fiction writer as well as a scholar, is also the recipient of a Trillium Book Award for Poetry in 2018 and a Trillium Book Award nomination in 2021.

The projected all-inclusive rate increase for Peterborough residents next year has climbed from 7.43 to 7.92 per cent, with city councillors still to deliberate on the city’s 2026 draft budget.

According to a media release issued by the city following city council’s general committee meeting on Monday (November 10), the additional increase is a result of council’s recent decision to award a contract to One City Peterborough to provide low-barrier shelter services in 2026.

The decision, made in a closed session of general committee on November 3 and endorsed at a regular city council meeting later that day, has added an additional $1.12 million to the 2026 draft budget.

An increase of 7.92 per cent to the all-inclusive rate, which consists of municipal property tax, education tax, and municipal sanitary sewer surcharge rates, would add around $409.92 in 2026 for a median residential property assessed at $260,000.

City council met as general committee on Monday afternoon to receive a presentation on the Peterborough Police Service’s 2026 budget request, and also received city staff reports on external organizations that receive city funding.

The general committee meeting was chaired by Northcrest Ward councillor Dave Haacke, who is co-chair of the finance and corporate support services portfolio co-chair along with fellow Northcrest Ward councillor Andrew Beamer.

After council received a presentation on the city’s actions to date towards advancing truth and reconciliation, police chief Stuart Betts presented the police service’s request for a 9.8 per cent increase to its 2026 budget — an increase of over $3.7 million resulting in a 2026 budget of over $41.5 million.

Chief Betts began by describing the “return on investment” of increases in the previous three police budgets by providing the number of arrests and charges in each year, including a four per cent budget increase in 2023 that saw the police make 2,825 arrests and lay 4,583 criminal charges, a 15.3 per cent budget increase in 2024 that saw the police make 3,500 arrests and lay 5,696 charges (a 24 per cent increase in arrests), and a 7.8 per cent budget increase in 2025 that, to date, has seen a 28 per cent increase in arrests over the same period in 2024.

The chief noted that the growth in the proposed 2026 budget is mainly driven by personnel costs related to legislative and regulatory requirements of the province’s Community Safety and Policing Act, such as court security, requiring the addition of 10 new full-time equivalent positions, including two new officers, six full-time civilian positions, and four part-time civilian positions, as well as non-personnel costs including training and information technology.

Council also received reports on the 2026 budgets of external organizations that receive city funding, including Fairhaven long-term care home, the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority, Lakelands Public Health, the Peterborough Humane Society, and the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA).

Councillors reconvened on Monday evening for a public meeting on the 2026 draft budget, hearing from 13 delegations who spoke a range of topics, including ideas for new revenue sources, addictions treatment, policing, transit, library services, arts and culture, and the downtown core.

Lawrence Macdonald suggested the city raise additional revenue by charging non-city residents who visit Riverview Park and Zoo a parking fee.

Peggy Shaughnessy of RedPath proposed the city provide $250,000 in funding for a proposed day program for people with addictions, along with a $2.5 million capital investment so RedPath could purchase and renovate a property that would provide supportive housing for people with addictions.

Roy Brady raised several items, including the size of the police’s operating and capital budget and potential savings from city operational efficiencies and staff restructuring.

Teresa MacDonald raised concerns about an increase to transit user fees and issues with transit service, including a lack of accessibility at some bus shelters.

Laurianne Gruzas, a member of the Peterborugh Public Library board, raised the issue of the reduction of the library’s collections and acquisitions budget. A city staff report will be presented to council on November 17 about a request from the board to increase the budget.

Bill Kimball, president of the Electric City Culture Council (EC3), asked council to increase budget for the city’s grants for individual artists program from $25,000 to $50,000 as per the original agreement for the program.

Peterborough DBIA Nour Mazloum, who spoke to council earlier in the afternoon about the Peterborough DBIA budget, asked the city to continue its support of the DBIA, noting the success of events held downtown, additional businesses opening in the downtown core, and the East City Village Business Improvement Area (VBIA) joining the DBIA.

Peterborough DBIA chair Sacha Lai-Svirk then addressed council, also describing the success of the DBIA’s recent initiatives and asking city council to continue to support the DBIA.

Poet, editor, and publisher Laurie Graham spoke in support of the city’s grants for individual artists program.

Musician Sarah van den Berg, who has received a grant for individual artists, also spoke in support of the program and told council how the grant helped her band Babe Chorus get invited to perform at the 2025 Peterborough Folk Festival. At the request of Chair Haacke, she sang a short excerpt of one of her songs.

Real estate agent Jo Pillon spoke in support of EC3, urging council to maintain their funding and maintain their contract “as is.”

Pillon was referring to a city staff report on EC3 funding that will be presented to council during its budget deliberations on November 17. While the report recommends that the city provide $150,000 in funding for EC3 in 2026, it also includes a detailed “alternate option for council’s consideration” that the city establish a “arts and culture granting program operated internally” by the cultural services department, which would eliminate all city funding for EC3.

Violinist Victoria Yeh, who is a member of the EC3 board, spoke to council remotely and urged councillors to reject the option to eliminate funding to EC3..

“The staff report may make it seem like absorbing EC3 is an easy way to stop the gravy train, but it is not,” Yeh said. “Destroying EC3 is blowing up the tracks — it’s the path that artists must travel to become the city builders you rely on.”

The final delegation of the evening was Rob Hailman, who raised concerns about several issues, including the use of strong mayor powers when it comes to the city’s budget, the police budget, an increase to transit fares, and the importance of the capital budget to support essential infrastructure.

Leslie Menagh of Artspace, who was also on the public delegations list, did not appear.

General committee will meet again on Monday and Tuesday (November 17 and 18) to begin budget deliberations. While public delegations will not be heard, the meetings are open to the public.

During the meetings, councillors will receive a presentation on the Peterborough County/City Paramedics Service 2026 budget request as well as a number of city staff reports that have budget implications.

The reports include the budget for the renovation and expansion of the city’s police stations, insufficient capital program funding for road maintenance, suspension of the neighbourhood traffic calming program, installation of permanent traffic calming measures in specific neighbourhoods, a recommendation not to extend of the county/city waste management facility’s hours of operation, EC3 funding, a request from the library board to increase the collections and acquisition budget, and a request to council for direction on insurance requirements for renting the mobile stage used in Del Crary Park by Peterborough Musicfest.