Mayor pays homage to former councillors St-Jean and Beldié, who recently passed away
In his opening remarks at the start of the August 12 meeting of Laval city council, Mayor Stéphane Boyer noted that it was nearly a year to the day since the worst weather-related disaster Laval residents ever experienced – Tropical Storm Debby.
After-storm cleanup
The remnant of Hurricane Debby peaked in the Laval region on August 9 last year, impacting up to 15,000 families whose homes in many cases were flooded, forcing a massive cleanup over the following weeks that left piles of debris stacked along streets in neighbourhoods all over Laval.
The mayor maintained that progress has been made towards developing a more effective municipal contingency plan for future weather disasters and that several studies and reports have been issued to help make Laval a safer place to live.
New climate reality
“We also have many infrastructure construction and investment projects underway so that the city can become increasingly resilient,” said Boyer, while noting that it took Laval six decades to develop its infrastructure to the level it’s at now.
“So, it’s going to take a certain amount of time before our infrastructure can be adapted to the new climate reality.”
He said that one of the city’s new projects, along Saint-Martin Blvd., is being designed to absorb rainwater directly from the heavily-trafficked street into the soil, so that the equivalent of two Olympic-size swimming pools of water will be kept out of the stormwater sewer system whenever it rains.
As well, according to Boyer, the city is building a new rainfall reservoir around the Metro station at the intersection of Cartier and des Laurentides boulevards.
Making Laval more resilient
“These are some of the projects that are underway at this time,” he continued. “And we know that worksites can cause momentary inconveniences. But the idea is to make a city that will be more resilient and that can ensure peace and well-being for our residents.”
As August 6 was the official date of the merger 60 years ago of more than a dozen previously independent municipalities on Île Jésus into the City of Laval, Mayor Boyer noted that the main issues in the beginning were better fire protection and better water and sewer infrastructure.
“Thankfully, we have made a lot of headway since then,” he said. “We are now at the stage where we have good services for the population and today Laval is an example among municipalities 60 years after merger.”
Former councillors eulogized
In passing, Mayor Boyer pointed out the recent deaths of two former Laval city councillors: former Laval-les-Îles councillor Jean-Jacques Beldié and former Saint-François councillor Jacques St-Jean, both of whom served for nearly a quarter-century each.
“Being in politics isn’t always easy,” added the mayor, without being specific. (Beldié and St-Jean were both longstanding members of the administration under former Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.)
“We often face criticism, we are often confronted by many problems and issues,” he said. “But I think we should always point out the involvement of people who devoted years of their lives to public service. Especially people like Mr. Beldié and Mr. St-Jean who served for around 25 years each.”
