For the second year in a row, the City of Laval’s communications and marketing division received a Gold Quill Award of Merit. This time it was for a campaign the city mounted last year to recruit summer employees.
The Gold Quills are awarded annually by the International Association of Business Communicators(IABC) to recognize excellence in strategic communications at the international level.
“All my congratulations to the teams for this global recognition,” said Mayor Stéphane Boyer. “Receiving this award the first time was a great honor. But getting it a second time shows without contradiction the expertise of the City of Laval’s communications and marketing service.
“Without doubt, everything is in place to get our citizens to contribute to their living space in order to turn it into an exceptional environment,” he added.
The goal of the 2023 recruiting campaign was to emphasize the attractiveness of the city’s seasonal jobs to a target audience of young people who are currently being sought by many employers, while also promoting the positions as valuable work experience on professional as well as personal levels.
“It was on this basis of a shortage of seasonal labour that the City of Laval decided to hire 500 seasonal employees,” said Nathalie Monette, the City of Laval’s chief of communications.
City reaches agreement in principle with itsrecreation workers
The City of Laval announced last week that it has reached an agreement in principle for a new collective agreement with 1,200 unionized employees working in the city’s recreation services department.
“After more than two years of negotiations, I am happy with the conclusion of this agreement which allows us to assure all citizens that they will be getting quality recreation services, all while respecting their capacity to pay,” said Mayor Stéphane Boyer.
“Our main goal was to be able to achieve gains in efficiency for the city, while also being able to offer working conditions comparable to bordering cities.”
According to the city, the agreement, which is for six years,has resulted in gains for the employer and the residents, especially as regards the simplification of salary scales, greater mobility by the employees between recreational disciplines, and improved staff planning.
Emergency sirens now installed all over Laval’s territory
The City of Laval reports that following the enactment of by-law L-12933 in the autumn of 2022, a significant number ofindustrial companies located in Laval have complied and have installed emergency sirens designed to go off to alert the public if industrial accidents happen.
Sirens in the network have been designed to go off for events such as accidental toxic fume releases or explosions at companies where hazardous materials are stored or used in manufacturing processes.
Should a major industrial accident occur, according to the city – one of that threatens to cause widespread harm beyond the actual site of the industry – the siren will go off.
Its purpose is to quickly warn the population of the need to seek shelter. Laval joins the cities of Montreal and Victoriaville in implementing this policy.
“The security of the population is a priority, but also a shared responsibility,” said Laval city councillor and executive committee member Sandra Desmeules, who is responsible for public safety dossiers.
“I salute the commitment of the industries involved here in this regard, and I invite all people in Laval to become informed on the right things to do in order to assure their security and that of those close to them in emergency situations.”
What to do if you hear the emergency siren
- Proceed to and get into the nearest building.
- Close the windows and doors and shut down the ventilation. Seal the doors and windows with caulking if possible.
- Get away from the doors and windows.
- Get information from theCity of Laval website as well as from emergency text messages.
Sirens have been installed at companies located in industrial parks around the centre of île Jésus (around the border of Chomedey and Vimont), as well as in another industrial zone in the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul district. The sirens have a distinctive sound, rising and falling in tone over a period of several minutes.
