The City of Laval has announced that it has opened a special contact point dedicated to answering residents’ questions on how they can help the people of Ukraine who are currently under attack.
Residents and business owners who wish to do their part can send an e-mail to the following address: benevoles-mesures-urgence@laval.ca. The city says the purpose of the contact point is to centralize help offers for the Ukraine crisis.
Exterior lighting at Laval city hall has been set to show the colors of the flag of Ukraine.
The city also recently announced that Laval is donating $20,000 to the cause through the Canadian Red Cross. “I am proud to see the solidarity of the people of Laval, of whom there are many who are making themselves available to come to the assistance of the Ukrainian people,” Mayor Stéphane Boyer said.
“The city is working closely with its government counterparts, as well as our partners on the terrain. Everything is in place and the community is ready for the arrival of refugees from Ukraine.
“The situation in Ukraine makes me very sad,” Mayor Boyer added. “Today, we want to show our unwavering support towards the Ukrainian people through this donation. We are therefore inviting residents and businesses who wish to support the Ukrainian people through the Canadian Red Cross.
“The Ukrainian community in Laval, with its 2,300 members, is in itself a rich resource for our city, and we remain aware of the preoccupations that our residents no doubt have for their country of origin. Solidarity is what we owe them.”
Laval begins implementing First Responders at fire stations
From the left, top row: Laval fire chief Patrick Taillefer, president and executive-director of Urgences-santé Mathieu Campbell, Laval city councillor and executive-committee member for public security Sandra Desmeules, and Laval mayor Stéphane Boyer. Bottom row: Laval firefighters Capt. Jean-Claude Fillion, Nicolas Magnan, Alexandre Léonard and Étienne Pronovost-Riopel.
On March 1, firefighters at the Laval Fire Dept.’s firehall no. 5 in the district of Saint-François became the first firefighters in Laval to become qualified to level one (PR-1). As such, they are now equipped to answer priority emergency medical calls for cardiopulmonary arrest, anaphylactic shock and opioid overdoses.
Firehall by firehall, the city will be training all the firefighters so that First Responder service becomes available through the fire department across the island in conjunction with Urgences-santé.
Laval is the first major city (pop. 200,000 and above) in Quebec to offer level one First Responder service to its residents.
The city is implementing the service by starting at firehalls located in Laval’s most distant areas. After this, the service will be implemented in the centre of the city, since emergency medical response was already considered to be at least partly available in central Laval.
Beginning in the summer of 2022, firefighter crews can be expected to respond within three to seven minutes to calls concerning cardiorespiratory arrest, anaphylactic shock and opioid overdose. It is expected that around 1,700 such calls will be handled by First Responders annually through 9-1-1 for priority medical issues.
Environment Canada says a major weather system from Texas will reach Southern Quebec early Saturday morning and Eastern Quebec later in the day, bringing significant snowfall amounts, strong to high winds, and visibilities reduced to zero in snow and blowing snow conditions.
The weather service says there is currently still some uncertainty regarding the exact track of the low pressure system, and that forecast precipitation types and amounts will depend on this track.
However, “be prepared for changing and rapidly deteriorating driving conditions.”
The storm is expected to be centered on the Montreal Island area.
Quebec women have borne the brunt of pandemic’s consequences
Women asking for more government support to deal with its aftereffects
Two years ago this month, Premier François Legault declared a public health emergency, leading the province to close schools and non-essential businesses, ban visits to hospitals and long-term care homes and tell people to stay at home. It was the first of multiple circuit breaker shutdowns, which took an emotional toll on almost everyone, especially on women.
Newsfirst Multimedia correspondent in Quebec City Raquel Fletcher.
As March 8 is International Women’s Day, this week’s column is dedicated to bringing attention to how Quebec women, especially mothers, have borne the brunt of the consequences of both a global health crisis and public health measures put in place to curb contagion.
Women were twice as likely as men to lose their jobs as they tend to work in the tourism, food and culture sectors that were much more affected by health measures. They were also more likely to reduce their hours or quit work altogether to ensure childcare for kids learning from home or because of shortages of daycare spaces.
“For the past two years, we’ve seen a lot of fear,” said Johanne Pelletier, who works at the Centre des femmes de la Basse-Ville, a women’s centre in Quebec City. Since the start of the first wave, she has been accompanying women she describes as being “in distress.” Women forced to balance working from home with children also at home doing online learning, women thrown into poverty no longer able to make ends meet with the rising cost of food and women cut off from their social networks have all come to the centre for help.
“These women, when they come here, they cry a lot. They feel alone. The stress is sometimes so great they have the impression things will never get better,” Pelletier explained, adding many of her clients show signs of serious depression, anxiety and other mental health issues.
Conjugal violence on the rise
And then there are women for whom stay-at-home orders and curfews have meant months of isolation with a controlling or abusive partner. Conjugal violence and other forms of violence against women is on the rise. Last year Quebec recorded the highest number of murders in a decade: 26 women were killed, most of them by current or former partners.
Calls have escalated for the government to do something to thwart this frightening trend. Last month, Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault announced Quebec would become the first jurisdiction in Canada to implement electronic monitoring bracelets for past offenders. Using geolocation technology, police officers are alerted if an offender comes within the bounds of an established perimeter of his victim.
Rare moment of collaboration from MNAs
The initiative is just one put forward by a transpartisan committee, which, thanks to the combined efforts of female MNAs from all four parties, made 190 recommendations to combat violence against women. Last November, the National Assembly also adopted Bill 92 to create specialized courts for victims of sexual assault.
In today’s political climate, elected officials seem to spend most of their time criticizing their rivals. However, in this case, they’ve the collaborated on the report and on implementing its recommendations. It marks one of the rare moments Quebecers have seen MNAs from all the parties seated side by side at press conferences.
Maintaining this common front is also one motivation for the province’s committing more dollars to the cause. Last year the CAQ government was taken to task for setting aside a measly $22.5 million over five years to fight domestic violence. Women’s shelters made it loud and clear that the sum was simply not enough. Weeks later, Guilbault announced the government would increase its investment ten-fold, by $223 million.
Community groups say more is needed in this year’s budget, which will be tabled on March 22.
“If we had one more social worker, if we had more financial resources, we could do more,” Pelletier said. “We always try to respond to all the needs, but sometimes we just burn out.”
The aftereffects of the pandemic are still being felt. Women are asking for more support – to take care of themselves and to continue taking care of others.
Newsfirst Multimedia political columnist Robert Vairo.
I’m hearing a lot of whining about high energy costs from so called environmentalists. Gee I wonder why that is? Oil and gas heating bills are higher they say, as well as electricity. Gassing up at the pumps has never been this expensive.
You hear them say, “if we would be all green none of this would happen.” What a simplistic comment mired in ignorance. The answer is this. We need only look at Germany. In the name of “saving the planet” it recently celebrated the closing of all its coal mines, shut down its nuclear plants, and decided to rely on Russia for its heating and energy supplies. Not in Canada you say? Even though Canada can be self-sufficient in energy, we have also chosen to rely on others to stoke our furnaces and fill our tanks, like Germany and other European countries. Half of the oil (heating and gas) consumed by us in Québec and the Maritimes comes from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. Some refined products originating in Russia, apparently scheduled to stop. We are handing over cash to ruthless, evil, and barbaric thugs. Why? Because we have not been able to get past foreign funded enviro warriors and some Canadian natives’ groups, who are fighting against Canada, to build a proper infrastructure. We have to get our landlocked resources to everyone in this country and beyond.
In fact, if we had, we would be shipping liquified natural gas to Europe and supplying several countries, instead of allowing Russia to hold Europe hostage. Just last month, our environment minister Steven Guilbeault officially cancelled a natural gas pipeline through Québec, that would have taken LNG from the Saguenay port on the St Laurent River to Europe. If we had an east-west pipeline, we would not have to import, but would have plenty to export to Europe and any other country that does not want to be held hostage by a brutal dictator. This is happening in Canada, a country with the fourth largest reserve on the globe, with an industry that produces the most ethical and environmentally responsible oil and gas in the world. Does it all make sense? Absolutely not. There are much more important issues today than an exclusive focus on climate change. We must continue to forge ahead with expediting the deployment of solar and wind energy sources. If anything, this has taught Europe, (Germany in particular) to move concretely towards green energy. In the meantime, we had better re-think how to achieve net zero emissions without fossil fuels. Anyone who thinks they can, had better prepare for an extremely expensive and painful future, the signs of which are already here. Some regions of Canada topped 200.9 on the weekend. Premium 217.9 Very simply put, Canada needs a new energy policy and strategy.
Misinformation on media has never been so apparent and is being used as a weapon of war. Watching this unfold on Russian TV and on screens in North America, there are two completely different narratives being played out. In Russia, studio news readers say the war is actually a “special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine.” No mention of the reckless and most dangerous bombing of a nuclear plant. And still another government TV network says that it is Ukrainian forces bombing residential areas and warehouses with ammonia, “in acts of provocation against civilians and Russian forces.” Not all Russians are buying it, thankfully. There are thousands who continue to protest in the streets of Moscow, under threat of up to 15 years of jail time. Western reporters have been forced to leave for spreading what Putin calls “misinformation.”
In the West, there is a totally different story line. Some spectacular coverage by reporters with explosions in the background, interviews with mothers and children taking cover in underground shelters, bombs shaking the ground above them. Some never-before-seen footage. The fathers have been armed and are on the front lines. Reporters and their camera crews have been stationed near the war zone and at times in it, as well as on the borders where Ukrainians have fled to adjacent countries. Except for Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He is everyone’s hero. “I need ammunition not a ride” is a phrase from the Ukrainian president that will last eternally.
It’s really spectacular viewing, and gut wrenching to see fear and hardship from hell for these victims of a needless war, with civilians shot dead while trying to flee. Are sanctions really all we have? Why did Europe renege on its decision to supply Ukraine with jet fighters, and why has it not recognized this democracy as part of NATO?
Watching this unfold, often live, the International Criminal Court is on alert for evidence. Russia is not a member, and so even if Putin were found guilty, he would have to leave the country to be arrested. This murderous devil should be deprived of living for causing chaos, destruction, and butchery. As American senator Lindsey Graham put it, perhaps there is a “Brutus in Russia who will do us all a big favour.”
‘Citizens of Laval are unmistakably overtaxed,’ says Val-des-Arbres councillor Cifelli
Action Laval city councillors for Saint-Bruno David De Cotis and for Val-des-Arbres Achille Cifelli say they were stupefied to learn during the March city council meeting that a restructuring of the administration would save the city $200 million in taxes paid by residents.
Action Laval city councillor for Saint-Bruno David De Cotis. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)(
“In this context known by the mayor for a long time, how could he have decided to again increase taxes?” the two said in a statement released to the media.
‘He knew,’ says De Cotis
“How did the mayor dare increase the tax bills of Laval residents in the current context, when he knew that the administration would be proposing a restructuring plan that would save the city $200 million?” said De Cotis.
Questioned by Action Laval, Mayor Boyer acknowledged that the day after the last municipal election, he was informed by the city manager that the administration was undertaking a plan to restructure.
“This puts an end to the debate, we were right during the election campaign,” Cifelli maintained. “The citizens of Laval are unmistakably overtaxed, and with the services they receive, it would be largely possible to freeze taxes for the next four years.”
Wanted 4-year tax freeze
Action Laval maintains that during the last election campaign, it was the only party that made a commitment to freeze property taxes for four years.
Based on currently available information, they calculate there would have been enough leeway to carry it off. The party maintains that the new information suggests the mayor and the administration were intent on raising taxes with little or no concern for municipal expenses.
Mayor admits STL hired more administrators, leading to 20 per cent higher costs
With the resumption of in-person Laval city council meetings following two years of televised webcasts during the pandemic, perhaps one of the biggest signs of things returning to normalcy last week was a noisy demonstration by angry STL bus drivers who’ve been more than two years without a collective contract.
Just as angry unionized city workers held many noisy demos outside Laval city hall in the years before the pandemic, the STL drivers gathered on the evening of March 1 in the rear parking lot at 3131 Saint Martin Blvd. West, where city council currently meets while city hall on Souvenir Blvd. is being renovated.
STL drivers’ grievances
In a statement Canadian Union of Public Employees #5959 released to the media last week, union local president Patrick Lafleur said the union local obtained a strike mandate with 99 per cent support from its members following a vote held in January last year.
STL bus drivers, who are members of CUPE local 5959, demonstrated outside the Laval city council meeting on March 1. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)
The drivers’ union maintains that from 2020 to 2022, in the midst of a pandemic, administrative costs at the STL rose by almost 20 per cent. He claims the STL has trouble retaining employees at a time when there are labour shortages, yet administrative costs have increased while the STL provides less service to clients.
Mayor Stéphane Boyer, answering as union members could be heard yelling loudly outside, said the union reps were “asking that I put myself in their shoes, and I sympathize. And in any case, I think we all in one way or another would like to see you having good work conditions while developing public transit in Laval.”
More administrators hired
Regarding the STL’s higher administrative costs, Boyer said he was aware the transit agency hired several people for projects involving major investments, including a new garage for the growing electric bus fleet, which he said is the largest project the STL had ever undertaken.
“A good number of the hirings in recent years were people for projects like these,” he added, referring to other STL undertakings in recent years whose aim is to help reduce the transit agency’s greenhouse gas output.
Laval mayor Stéphane Boyer speaks during the March 1 city council meeting. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)
Boyer noted that revenues from passenger fares at the STL fell by 52 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic, while a special transfer payment, based on provincial revenues from gasoline taxes and SAAQ licensing fees, dropped by 21 per cent during the same period. As well, revenues from advertising on STL buses fell by 22 per cent.
“So, all this to say that there was a drastic fall, greatly related to the pandemic, in the revenues received by public transit systems, including the STL.”
Boyer tried to reassure drivers
He said the amounts the City of Laval and the provincial government pour into the STL, to supplement the transit agency’s current operating costs including salaries, increased from $189 million in 2019 to $249 million in 2020.
“The will is here,” said Boyer, trying to reassure the STL drivers of the city’s good intentions, after he had cited more statistics and information. “This is the challenge, really, to figure out where we’re going to find the money.”
While the mayor expressed his willingness to sit down and talk public transit management issues with union representatives, one of the union leaders who addressed the mayor and council noted that Boyer’s office had previously declined an opportunity to meet and failed to acknowledge a letter from the union.
Traffic lights at 100th Ave.
In other business dealt with during the council meeting, the councillors approved the allotment of an additional $43,506.87 as a contingency for extra work to implement a new traffic lights system erected at the corner of 100th Ave. and Saint-Martin Blvd. in Chomedey. The contract in question, awarded in 2021 to Laurin/Laurin (1991) Inc. of Mirabel, was for $319,024,00.
Front row, the five Action Laval opposition members who sit on city council: Isabelle Piché (Saint-François), Archie Cifelli (Val-des-Arbres), Aglaia Revelakis (Chomedey), Paolo Galati (Saint-Vincent-de-Paul), and David De Cotis (Saint-Bruno).
As well, council authorized the release of more than $310,000 in contingency sums for additional work on the rehabilitation of water pipes, sewer conducts and other underground infrastructure beneath the intersection of Notre Dame and Jarry boulevards and eastward to 75th Ave. This is a late phase of a large project that closed the heavily-trafficked intersection from May last year into the summer months.
Commission appointments
City council also approved the appointment of several members to council commissions. Marjory Bernier was named an independent member on the Consultative Council for Intercultural Relations for two years.
Aissa Zebiri was named an alternate member should a position become available in the next two years on the commission. As well, council renewed the nomination of Chaïma Ben Miloud as an independent member of the same commission, also for two years.
Appointments were also made to the commission that oversees the city’s Fonds Place-du-Souvenir, which doles out sums to worthy children’s causes from a fund established with money paid back to Laval by former contractors found to have overbilled the city.
Ève Dalphond, Gabrièle Guay, Claude Cartier and Raymond Rochette were named as independent members of the Fonds Place-du-Souvenir Committee. Dalphond was also named president of the committee.
The Laval Police Department is seeking the public’s help to locate a 17-year-old girl who has been missing from her home in Laval for more than two weeks.
According to the LPD, Ruby Lisbeth Pénélope Nunez-Correa left her home on Feb. 22 and hasn’t been seen by those close to her since then.
The Laval Police are seeking the public’s help to locate Ruby Lisbeth Pénélope Nunez-Correa, age 17.
The LPD says her family is concerned about her safety and they believe she could still be in the Laval or Montreal areas.
She is described as French-speaking, 5’2″ tall, and weighing 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.
When she left her home, she was wearing grey sweatpants, a grey hooded jacket, a dark blue coat, pink shoes, a fluorescent pink balaclava and a black scarf.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Laval Police’s Info Line at 450 662-INFO (4636), or call 9-1-1. The file number is LVL 220222-060.
The current issue of the Laval News volume 30-09 published March 9th, 2022. Covering Laval local news, politics, sports and our new section Mature Life. (Click on the image to read the paper.)
Environment Canada issued a warning Saturday morning that a few hours of freezing rain can be expected overnight and into Sunday morning in an area just north of the Laval region.
The freezing precipitation is expected to mainly affect the North Shore of Montreal, said the weather service, but also communities surrounding it, and is expected to continue until after 3 am Sunday.
The War Amps began its 2022 key tag mailing to Laval residents last week with the theme ‘You Make Our Programs Possible.’
Antoine Doan, 23, of Laval, is a left leg amputee, and he grew up with help from The War Amps Child Amputee (CHAMP) Program, which provides financial assistance for artificial limbs and adaptive devices, as well as peer support.
Antoine Doan of Laval received help from The War Amps Child Amputee (CHAMP) Program, which is supported by the War Amps Key Tag Service.
“The War Amps has been an important part of my life since I was a toddler,” says Antoine. “Growing up, I had the opportunity to meet kids just like me at the seminars. Thanks to the association’s support, I have learned to be confident and overcome challenges with a positive attitude.”
The Key Tag Service was launched in 1946 so that returning Canadian war amputee veterans could not only work for competitive wages, but also provide a service to Canadians that would generate funds for the association’s many programs, including CHAMP.
The Key Tag Service continues to employ amputees and people with disabilities, and has returned more than 1.5 million sets of lost keys to their owners. Each key tag has a confidentially coded number.
If you lose your keys, the finder can call the toll-free number on the back of the tag or place them in any mailbox in Canada, and The War Amps will return them to you by courier, free of charge.
The War Amps receives no government grants and its programs are possible through public support of the Key Tag and Address Label Service. For more information, or to order key tags, visit waramps.ca or call toll-free 514 398-0759.
