News from Laval city hall and the executive-committee
During meetings held by the City of Laval’s executive-committee on Jan. 13, 20 and 27, the members awarded subsidies to a Laval-based women’s group working on feminist issues, as well as to a local organization for the development of a community garden in Laval’s Auteuil neighbourhood.
The executive-committee awarded a $33,440 subsidy to the Table de concertation de Laval en condition féminine to develop a project involving monthly themes highlighting equality between men and women. The subsidy was granted in conjunction with a three-year agreement between the City of Laval and the federal Status of Women Ministry.
Highlighting equality
According to a statement issued by the executive-committee, the committee granted a second subsidy ($161,375) to the Table de concertation so that work from the above-mentioned project “can be integrated with the implementation of the regional policy for social developoment (PRDS).”
The agreement in question is between the City of Laval, the provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de Laval, with the added financial participation of the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon.
According to the executive-committee, the initiatives will allow the various partners involved in the development of a regional social development policy to apply the analysis developed by the Table de concertation, by making development tools available, as well as training.
Community gardens project
The executive-committee also granted a three-year subsidy of $6,000 in all to the organization Service des loisirs Ste-Béatrice for the launch of a community garden in Parc Des Saules in Auteuil. In March 2017, the executive-committee had adoped a reference policy for the launching of community gardens in Laval, with the goal of supporting a maximum of two gardens per year.
Although there was just one request for a community garden in 2020, the resulting new garden will be added to a growing inventory of community gardens that now includes five others. The city maintains that the community gardens are consistent with Laval’s long-term strategic vision, which acknowledges the benefits of community gardens for the population, as well as for maintaining agricultural activities within or near the city’s urbanized areas.
Committee members The City of Laval’s executive-committee meets regularly to make decisions on a variety of issues. The executive-committee includes the following people: Mayor Marc Demers, vice-president Stéphane Boyer (also councillor for Duvernay–Pont-Viau) councillors Sandra Desmeules (Concorde–Bois-de-Boulogne), Ray Khalil (Sainte-Dorothée), Virginie Dufour (Sainte-Rose) and associate members Nicholas Borne (Laval-les-Îles) and Yannick Langlois (L’Orée-des-Bois).
Council turns down Poissant’s downtown tree-planting idea
Independent Laval city councillor for Vimont Michel Poissant, who is running for mayor in the November municipal elections, says he is disappointed the Demers administration rejected a motion he tabled at the last city council meeting to motivate developers to plant more than 1,000 trees in Laval’s rapidly growing downtown sector.
While acknowledging that 1,000 trees would be little more than a symbolic gesture, Poissant, who has launched his own party (Laval citoyens), said in a statement that it would put pressure on private developers to follow the example and add trees of their own.
Poissant’s tree plan
Noting that the downtown area currently contains large parking lots with relatively little greenery, he suggested in his resolution that asphalt sections measuring 6 by 30 feet could be cut out, emptied of gravel and filled with earth, then surrounded by concrete borders and planted with trees, greenery and shrubs. According to Poissant, Trees Canada, a nation-wide non-profit group that promotes the planting of trees, had expressed an interest and was potentially ready to provide subsidies, he said. “Things can sometimes be done without affecting taxes,” said Poissant, while adding that “it just takes a little willingness.”
