Still, opposition party’s public consultation draws only a few Laval residents
While Mayor Stéphane Boyer’s administration appears to have decided once and for all to close the mini-zoo at Laval’s Centre de la nature, the Action Laval opposition is holding onto a faint hope the decision can be reversed and the facility, popular with children and parents, can be reopened with improvements.
Although initially scheduled to be closed in June, the city went ahead early and shut the hobby farm for domesticated animals in March, replacing some of the activities with a travelling petting zoo that will be operated by a sub-contractor at certain times of the year.
However, the closing of the mini-zoo sparked a strong grassroots reaction, with an online petition opposing the move being launched and circulated by Dennis Fiévèt with support from Action Laval, and eventually exceeding 20,000 signatures.
Run-down mini-zoo building
Despite this, the city stood by its decision, noting that the mini-zoo building was outdated and worn out, with reconstruction costs estimated at $15 to $20 million. The building itself had an immediate need for a new roof, with a cost for that alone being $325,000..
Although a public protest in February at the Centre de la nature against the closing, organized by Action Laval city councillor for Saint-François Isabelle Piché, drew up to 100 supporters, a public consultation held by Piché on April 30 at the Pavillon du Bois Papineau in Duvernay suggests that overall public interest in the issue may have gone down since.
Out of a dozen or so people on hand for the unveiling of the results of an Action Laval survey of residents on the mini-zoo issue, around half were Action Laval officials or volunteers.
Boyer’s majority on city council
In an interview with The Laval News, Piché said that she “didn’t want to let down those 20,000 people,” especially after the Boyer administration declined to accept a formal suggestion she made in city council that the city hold its own public consultation on the future of the animal shelter.
“For me, it’s important to listen to them and hear what they have to say,” said Piché. The mayor’s party, the Mouvement lavallois, holds an overwhelming majority on the City of Laval’s 22-seat municipal council.
In a broader sense, Action Laval sees the administration’s decision to close the mini-farm as an example of the Mouvement lavallois’s tendency to focus on big projects like Place Bell and the Aquatic Complex, while neglecting smaller more local projects in Laval’s neighbourhoods, the impending demolition of the Richard Trottier Arena in Fabreville being a possible example.
This leaves the four opposition councillors, with Action Laval and the Parti Laval. with little other choice but to vote against policies they disagree with – without being able to do much to change or stop things.
‘A hope of changing,’ says Piché
“We have maybe the ability to change people’s minds and make them realize that a mistake is being made, or maybe we can get the mayor to reflect on turning it around,” added Piché. “There’s always a hope of changing things around.”
According to some of the survey’s results, the mini-zoo, which had been operating for around 55 years, was receiving an estimated 180,000 individual visits per year before closing.
Some of the suggestions respondents made to reopen the facility and make it sustainable again included charging an admission fee, donations from local businesses and private donors, obtaining government subsidies, hosting events that charge fees, selling locally-sourced agricultural products or items, and co-sponsoring projects in conjunction with schools, colleges or universities.
Building’s uncertain future
In the meantime, no one, including Action Laval, is quite certain what the city plans to do with the building that was sheltering the animals. For some, this is seen as a positive indicator that city officials (who can change their minds as circumstances evolve) may decide to do something with the building other than demolishing it – as some fear the city may eventually do.
What the survey respondents suggested instead is a renovation of the building (rather than a demolition) to create something smaller and easier to manage, while introducing a different mix of animals, and carrying out a transformation into a resource that would serve more of an educational purpose.
