Laval City Hall Watch: June 25 2016
Early opening of outdoor swimming pools, wading pools and water games
To cool off during the summer the city provides public wading pools, water parks and swimming pools in numerous Laval parks. This year some pools have opened earlier than the school year end. The preseason schedule of activities began from the 18th and till the 23rd of June will operate at the following parks; swimming pools and wading pools of Du Moulin, Saint Vincent, Saint-Claude, Pius X, Couvrette, Roi-du-Nord and Willows will operate on Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 am to 8:00 pm as well as Mondays to Fridays from 3:00pm to 8:00 pm.
Water games facilities were also opened from the 13th of June and till the 26th the St. Vincent, Gabriel Pelletier, Rosaire-Gauthier, Saint-Claude, des Coccinelles, Champfleury, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin and Paradis are available every day from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
After that date all parks are open and the summer schedule is in force
Construction Work continues in Samson and Saint-François arenas
Major renovations are ongoing at the Samson and St. Francis ice rinks. The long awaited refurbishments are expected to be completed by December 2016. To ensure that local sports associations and the general public are not deprived of ice time during this period, an amount of $ 200,000 has been budgeted for 2016. The money will allow for the rental of eight hundred hours of ice time in private and adjacent municipal arenas in order to compensate for lost hours resulting from the temporary closure of the two Laval arenas.
In another related matter the executive committee has approved the issuance of a grant of $ 45,000 to the Hockey Laval sport association to help fund the renting of ice time at Guimond Sports Complex for the 2015-2016 season. The administration is reassuring local sport authorities that all inconveniences are temporary in nature as the scheduled opening of the Place Bell complex in the fall of 2017 will add two new rinks in Laval’s inventory greatly improving access to ice time in Laval.
The remarkable trees of Laval
The Executive Committee agreed to provide funding of $ 15,000 to the Regional Environmental Council of Laval for the printing and publication of the book “Remarkable Trees of Laval”. The publication marks the 20th anniversary of the organization and the 12th Canadian Conference on urban forest. Laval is host of the 2016 conference which lasts four days. More than three hundred participants are expected to attend. Foresters, urban planners, policy makers and specialists in the environment arriving from across Canada will take part in training workshops.
Discussions will center on the benefits and features of urban forests, new strategies and promote techniques aimed at preserving and managing the urban forests in our country.
The Regional Council of the Environment (CRE) of Laval was founded in January 1996 by citizens and environmental organizations in the region. Its mission is to improve the quality of the environment and promote sustainable development.
Renaming a park
The Executive Committee has approved a motion to put forth a recommendation to the city council to change the name of the ‘Roi-du-Nord’ (King of the North) park in St. Rose to that of Raymond Millar Park. This approval followed a endorsement received from the Urban Planning Advisory Committee. .
Virginie Dufour, councillor of Sainte-Rose tabled a petition signed by 615 Lavallers supporting this request at the April 5th regular city council meeting. According to councillor Dufour support for this name change is unanimous in the neighborhood.
It was Jean Roberge president of Football Laval who had initiated the request for the name change a few years ago. However upon the recent death of Raymond Millar this past January the efforts were renewed with great community support. Many residents of St. Rose felt the need to honor the memory of one of their community’s great volunteers. The Club Fabrose, Wolves of Curé-Antoine-Labelle and the Laval North Shore Vikings all supported the effort citing that it would be a fitting gesture to highlight the 50th anniversary of Laval North Vikings.
Raymond Millar was involved at some time or another in almost all sport and leisure associations of Sainte-Rose. His fifty five years of services began in 1961. From 1986 to 1994 he was Vice President of Football Laval and Vice President of the Vikings of Laval-Nord from 1995 to 2016.
Above ground pools in areas of mobile homes
The Executive Committee has approved a motion to be brought before the city council for the adoption of the bylaw L-2001-3662 draft regulation that amends the City’s Bylaw L-2000 to allow the installation of above ground pools in residential areas made up of mobile homes RM, RM-1 RM-3. This recommendation will be tabled for city council approval in a subsequent council meeting.
Grants awarded to local associations
The following is a list of grants approved by the executive in support of various associations organizing activities and services in local neighborhoods. Autism Society and TED received $3000 to help operate a summer camp program in 2016. The Laval School Board Foundation received a sum of $3000 and the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board Foundation was given a sum of $1500 to help support the organization of friendly sports matches between students and elected officials of the City of Laval as part of their staying in school initiatives.
The Special Olympics Québec Activity received $2500 to defray costs of their “The course of Heroes” activity held at Laval’s nature park Centre de la Nature. An amount of $1500 was given to the Opération Enfant Soleil / Fund Marie-Soleil Tougas fund raising effort and $1000 to Cycling Tour of Laval police whose efforts support children’s needs.
Also an amount of $1000 was allocated to the Volunteer Association of the residential and palliative care center Rose-de-Lima for their March for Dignity campaign.
More than half a million dollars approved for cultural organizations
The City of Laval approves financial grants each year to various cultural organizations of Laval which allows for their research, development and implementation of their activities. The administration views these nonprofit associations as important partners for delivering much appreciated services to the community at large. According to an executive spokesperson these organizations provide cultural offerings that contribute to the vitality and advancement of Laval culture.
The list of organizations receiving grants approved by the executive committee totaling $ 546 500 include: Arts et spectacles de Laval for $33,000; Bluff Productions $40,000; Centre d’archives de Laval $50,000; Chœur de Laval $12,000; Corporation de la Salle André-Mathieu
$140,000; Harpagon Théâtre $15,000; La Centrale des artistes $25,000; Lis avec moi $25,000;
Productions le P’tit monde $10,000; Rencontre Théâtre Ados $40,000; Réseau Arthist
$30,000; Réseau des organismes culturels et des artistes lavallois $15,000; Société des arts visuels de Laval $40,000; Société d’histoire et de généalogie de l’île Jésus $20,000; Société littéraire de Laval $40,000; Théâtre incliné $23,000 and Théâtre du P’tit Loup $8,500.
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