Laval city council, May 2nd

Laval city council’s meeting on May 2 was overrun by demonstrators forcefully demanding that elected officials break their contract with Berger Blanc, which is Laval’s official animal shelter.

While they had initially planned on demonstrating at the front doors of city hall, about 20 animal defence activists, reacting to a Radio-Canada report about Berger Blanc on April 21, took part in the council meeting, during which they vented their anger and discontent to see Laval doing business with the controversial shelter.
“I don’t want my taxes going towards this business and I would like the city to break its contract,” said Martin Laforge, the first citizen to get up at the microphone and address the topic. Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt said that the contract between the city and Berger Blanc expires at the end of this month and that the city has issued a call for tenders to replace the service.
“We are fortunate, since our contract expires in a few days, and we hope to receive offers from competent companies,” he added.

Weighing opinions
Several other residents got up at the microphone, including Danielle Doyon, who while noting the loss of confidence by Lavallers in Berger Blanc, questioned the council members about the efforts the city might make to find a satisfactory alternative should Berger Blanc end up being the only tender. “Have you considered taking things in hand and operating a municipal pound yourselves, as is done in Toronto and Calgary?” she said. “And if you had to renew the contract with Berger Blanc, will you also be checking in Montreal, something which hasn’t been done until now?”
“We do not wish to renew with Berger Blanc,” Vaillancourt replied, without committing. “Very few cities operate their own pound… Is it time for us to start thinking about it? Don’t presume that we’re going to give the contract [to Berger Blanc]. Should the alternative take a year to put in place, a temporary and satisfactory solution will have to be found before we reach that stage.” The mayor suggested he would meet with residents concerned about the well-being of pets in order to discuss the possibility of creating a consultative committee on that subject, as well as an awareness-raising campaign to make pet owners more responsible.

Staying active in Laval
Alexandre Duplessis, the councillor for Saint-Martin, announced the holding of a public consultation on physical activity in Laval on May 5. “We are doing the launch on Thursday because it’s the national day of sports and physical activity,” he said. The city, which is working towards drafting a policy on physical activity, hopes to receive the comments, reflections and suggestions of residents on this topic. To learn the ways to participate in the consultation, residents are invited to go to the City of Laval’s web site (www.ville.laval.qc.ca). Also, May 7 will be a special day for families to get physical, as the Centre de la Nature will be holding special sports activities free of charge for Laval residents.

Improving des Laurentides Blvd.’s image
In response to requests from a citizen for a visual improvement on des Laurentides Blvd. south of Autoroute 440, including even some greenery, Vaillancourt noted that the sector is currently the subject of a PPU and improvements will take place gradually in the coming years. “This isn’t just a possibility, but a necessity to beautify des Laurentides Blvd.,” he said. “But this cannot be done in six months. The layout of the street must be redone. When we are redoing sidewalks, we add planting trenches at the same time, and I guarantee that when we are redoing the infrastructure that we will be installing them. In the meantime, I will ask the public works department if their budget will allow some flower boxes to be installed in a temporary fashion.”

Zoning
The date for the next zoning meeting, where possible modifications to regulations concerning fences around swimming pools will be discussed, as well as one concerning the conditions for issuing permits for the installation and protection of pools, has been set for Thursday May 19.