But country ranks near bottom for number of doctors, hospital beds, MRIs and wait times
Despite spending more on health care than most other developed countries with universal health care coverage, Canada has some of the lowest numbers of doctors, hospital beds, and medical technologies and the longest wait times, concludes a new study released this month by an independent Canadian public policy think-tank.
We rank 21st out of 24
Among other things, the Fraser Instituite researchers found that Canada ranked 21st (out of 24) for the number of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, with 10.5 MRIs per million people, and 22nd (out of 26) for CT scanners, with 15.2 scanners per million people.
Among the 10 comparable universal health-care countries that measure wait times, the study found Canada ranked last with the lowest percentage (38 per cent) of patients who waited four weeks or less to see a specialist, and the lowest percentage of patients (62 per cent) who waited four months or less for elective surgery.
‘A clear imbalance’
“There is a clear imbalance between the high cost of Canada’s health-care system and the value Canadians receive in terms of availability of resources and timely access to care,” said Bacchus Barua, Director of health policy studies at the Vancouver-based institute.
With policy analyst Mackenzie Moir, he co-authored ‘Comparing Performance of Universal Health Care Countries 2021,’which was published by the Fraser Institute on Nov. 2.
“Canada’s relative lack of critical resources and struggle with long wait times for treatment precede the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Moir. “To improve Canada’s health-care system in the post-pandemic world, policymakers should learn from other successful universal health-care countries, for the benefit of Canadians and their families.”
Health systems compared
The study compared 28 universal health-care systems in developed countries, spotlighting several key areas including cost, availability and use of resources, access to care, clinical performance and quality, and the health of Canadians.
In 2019, the latest year of comparable data, Canada’s health-care spending as a share of GDP (11.3 per cent) ranked second highest (after adjusting for population age) behind only Switzerland.
But despite Canada’s high level of spending, availability and access to medical resources is generally worse than in comparable countries (its performance in terms of utilization and quality is mixed).
We rank 26th of 28 for doctors
For example, (out of 28 countries) Canada ranks 26th for the number of doctors (2.8 per 1,000 people), 25th (out of 26 countries) for the number of hospital beds (2.0 per 1,000 people), and 24th (out of 28 countries) for the number of psychiatric beds (0.37 per 1,000 people).
The study used a “value for money approach” to compare the cost and performance of 28 universal health-care systems in high-income countries. The level of health-care expenditure was measured using two indicators, while the performance of each country’s health-care system was measured using 40 indicators representing four broad categories: availability of resources, use of resources, access to resources, and quality and clinical performance.
Second highest for costs
“Canada spends more on health care than the majority of high-income OECD countries with universal health-care systems,” the study’s authors wrote in an executive summary. “After adjustment for ‘age,’ the percentage of the population over 65, it ranks second highest for expenditure on health care as a percentage of GDP and eighth highest for health-care expenditure per capita.”
The data suggested that Canada has substantially fewer human and capital medical resources than many peer jurisdictions that spend comparable amounts of money on health care. They said that after adjustment for age, the country has “significantly fewer physicians, acute-care beds, and psychiatric beds per capita compared to the average of OECD countries included in the study.”
Performance below average
They said the country ranks close to the average for nurses and ranked eighth for the number of long-term care beds (per 1,000 over the age of 65). While Canada has the third most Gamma cameras (per million population, age-adjusted), they found it has fewer other medical technologies than the average high-income OECD country with universal health care for which comparable inventory data are available.
“Although Canada ranks among the most expensive universal-access health-care systems in the OECD, its performance for availability and access to resources is generally below that of the average OECD country, while its performance for use of resources and quality and clinical performance is mixed,” wrote Moir and Barua.
The City of Laval announced last week that it is awarding more than $394,000 in subsidies to several community sports and leisure activities organizations in order to encourage physical fitness and artistic ventures among the region’s young people.
The organizations receiving the funds – Sports Laval, the Club cycliste Espoirs Laval, the Club de Football Bulldogs de Laval and the Théâtre Fêlé – will be sharing the sums which are coming out of the city-administered Fonds Place-du-Souvenir.
According to the city, the subsidies will be helping children and teenagers from disadvantaged households by allowing them to develop sports skills, to take up bicycling, and to play football, while attending school and taking part at the same time in creative activities.
In all, $88,260 over two years is being given to Sports Laval for its Ini-Sports project, which offers children ages 7 to 12 from disadvantaged households the possibility of discovering new sports disciplines while developing themselves physically. Lasting nine weeks in three weekly cycles, the project aims to incite youths to pursue sports.
As well, the Club cycliste Espoirs Laval will be receiving $53,435 over a one-year period to support its project, known as Ça roule Laval, to assist young residents also from disadvantaged households to take up cycling. According to the city, 500 youngsters ages 4 to 12 will receive equipment kits containing materials to be creative.
Meanwhile, the Club de Football Bulldogs de Laval will be receiving $88,000 over a two-year period for its project, Plan PSO2025 Football Bantam-Midget. The goal of the project is to encourage access to football for 100 youths ages 13 to 17 who are in vulnerable situations in the districts of Chomedey, Pont-Viau and Saint-François, with a leadership program designed to help with homework.
Finally, the amount of $165,000 over a three-year period was awarded to Théâtre Fêlé to allow for the support of their Q.G. Chomedey project, which seeks to offer help for juvenile delinquincy in the district through artistic creation for youths ages 12 to 17.
The Fonds Place-du-Souvenir was created on June 19, 2017 to:
Directly reach children and youths ages 0 to 17 who are from disadvantaged neighbourhoods and households in order to improve their lives;
Improve the quality of life of young Laval residents;
Be a lever for intervention in social development terms for youths across Laval;
Be a coherent part of the City of Laval long-range development policy, Laval 2035 : urbaine by nature, as well as the regional social-development plan (PRDS) for Laval.
STL receives coveted award for management excellence
The Société de transport de Laval was recently awarded the Canada Prize for Excellence-Platinum, for its excellence in overall management.
The distinction, regarded as one of the highest in the public transit sector, recognized the STL for the quality of its management and its overall performance.
STL general manager Guy Picard, along with STL president Éric Morasse accepted the award on Nov. 4.
“It is is a genuine pleasure for us to realize that our determined will to evolve and improve continuously has been recognized and that we are receiving today this prestigious prize,” said Morasse.
“Rigorous management and performance are exercised in all our organizational and we are proud to be able to harvest the fruit of all these efforts today.” “We believe in ourselves,” added Picard. “Being at the controls of an organization as innovative and motivated towards excellence is for me a great source of pride. The STL would not be what it is without the support of its 1,100 or so employees and its 9 directors on the administrative board, who have a common passion to see big while working for the common good.”
It wasn’t just the move from classrooms to computer screens. It tested basic ideas about instruction, attendance, testing, funding, the role of technology and the human connections that hold it all together. Nearly two years later, a rethinking is underway, with a growing sense that some changes may last.
This may be an opportunity to reimagine what schools will look like in the future. It’s always important to continue to think about how to evolve schooling so the kids get the most out of it. Others in education may see a similar opening. Learning loss is getting new attention. Schools with poor ventilation systems have been slotted for upgrades or have already installed the needed improvements. In the need for upgrades, can be cited the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board’s task of having to add about 600 air purifiers to the 200 already in place at end of the 2020-21 school year, to cover the 800 needed in its schools and centres. It would not be unusual to conclude that similar circumstances are prevalent in many other school boards across Québec.
Many teachers, in Laval and elsewhere, who made it through a crash course or self-taught learning to teach virtually, are finding lessons that endure. There are a lot of positives that happened because teachers have been forced into this uncomfortable and often awkward situation. The reality is that Covid has changed education and attitudes for both teachers and students. And, make no mistake, school systems in the world are not done with remote learning. They want more of it. However, this isn’t necessarily a shared opinion amongst educators in Laval and Québec.
After a year when some systems did nothing but teach by computer screen, it has become clear that learning virtually has a place in the schools, if simply as an option. It’s like a genie that is out of the bottle, and you can’t get it back in. In many respects, this was overdue. Few suggest that remote learning is for everyone. The pandemic showed, unmistakably, that most students learn best in person — in a three-dimensional world led by a teacher, surrounded by classmates, in a school environment. But school systems across the world are looking at remote learning as a way to meet diverse needs — for teenagers who have jobs, children with certain medical conditions, or kids who prefer learning virtually.
Distanced learning has also emerged as a way to expand access to less-common courses. If one high school offers classes in Italian, Greek, Spanish, students at another school could join remotely. In reality, this is nothing new; universities have been using remote learning for many years offering degrees which are accredited and valid in most provinces in Canada leading to a chosen career.
Teaching during the pandemic has meant having to make many adjustments, including learning at-distance instead of in schools, writes Renata Isopo.
Teachers, administrators, and school personnel are taking all that they have learned from the pandemic and going with it. The pandemic has helped school boards to see that it is possible and it can be done. Not everyone imagines the same path forward. In elementary and high school, remote learning is a supplement, not a substitute, for in-school instruction, emphasizing that classroom learning is best for most students and that remote school can mean intense isolation. Staring at a screen all day is not optimal and “Zoom” fatigue is real.
While remote education has worked for many families, most kids have struggled — and the toll on mental health and social well-being is hard to ignore. Could these almost two long pandemic years — when so many children fell so far behind, when students dropped off the radar, when teachers could hardly tell who understood what as they tried to teach from a distance — could this be the time that Québec education gets serious about understanding and helping kids.
Moreover, with remediation, the goal is to make up what a child missed the first time around. The problem is students may never catch up. Accelerated learning, by contrast, seeks to make grade-level work accessible to those who are behind through a combination of intensive help and modifications. Realistically, there is simply not enough time for teachers to make up all the lost time and material.
Undoubtedly, the mental health struggles of the school children will outlast the pandemic. Many teachers have stated that some days they didn’t see or hear anybody. There was no interaction at all. When they’re in the physical classroom, you can see if they’re struggling. You can push them and help them. You can check in on them. But this was crazy according to several teachers’ remarks.
“Crazy” is a word several Laval-area teachers have used to describe teaching during the pandemic. And frustrating. And exhausting. They had to become technology wizards, Zoom screen DJs, counselors, cheerleaders and teachers, all in one. Workloads doubled and stress levels quadrupled. Nothing in their training had prepared them for this. But as the end of the 2021 school year had approached, many looked at what they learned about teaching and about themselves during the pandemic and thinking about how they’ll incorporate that in their classes once some normality would return.
For many teachers, the past year has only confirmed the importance of their vocation. And being a present and encouraging educator for students has never been more necessary. They had to shift their thinking and shift the way they taught lessons when they went online. Even veteran teachers were back to being new first-year teachers in this whole new world.
Over the last year, by necessity, the vast majority of students have been connected. Millions of devices and hotspots have been purchased and distributed. The question now is: Will this new, more equitable arrangement persist? Most say yes. Time will tell. The days when out-ofschool learning required only paper and pencil are long gone. Today, students live their lives online and use Internet-based resources for so much of their modern education. Education does not only happen at school. Kids do homework at night and that’s education. For decades, students took their places at desks in classrooms, as teachers took attendance. But as schools shuttered and students began to learn remotely, the conventions of taking presence through “seat time” fell away.
Everywhere, school systems scrambled to come up with new ways to define attendance in remote school. Was it enough just to log in for the day or tune into a Zoom class? For many school leaders, the issue was a balancing act as they tried to support students who may be in crisis — as Covid-19 has claimed lives and left many workers strapped and jobless.
Parents, students, and teachers were hyper-focused during the pandemic on when closed schools would reopen. Some school boards began to consider permanent changes that would meet the changed and changing education landscape. Referring to remote learning that began during the pandemic and will last beyond the crisis, teachers will be doing a lot more of that now, and this emerging way of teaching kids through blended learning is not a butt-in-desks model of education. Not so easy. We’re still not out of the woods.
Laval’s Liberal MPs face a heavy workload, after being sworn into office last week
For several Liberal MPs from Laval who were sworn into office last week following the September general election, a full plate of parliamentary work lies ahead tying up loose ends for Covid-19 relief programs, while also setting the course for the post-pandemic economic recovery.
House resumes on Nov. 22
In Ottawa, the House of Commons is scheduled to resume sitting on Nov. 22. This follows the swearing-in of cabinet members and MPs from across the country, which took place in the nation’s capital in late October and early November.
Among the elected members from Laval who were sworn into office last week were Vimy Liberal MP Annie Koutrakis and Laval-Les Îles Liberal MP Fayçal El-Khoury.
According to Koutrakis, who is starting her second term, continuing concerns about COVID-19 meant that she and other MPs were allowed to invite only a minimal number of guests to the swearing-in ceremony which took place in a committee room in the West Block on Parliament Hill.
Re-elected Vimy Liberal MP Annie Koutrakis is seen here with family members, friends and volunteers immediately following her recent swearing-in as the riding’s elected representative in Ottawa.
Swearing-in ceremony
“I had my spouse there, my staff, people who helped during my campaign as volunteers,” she said in an interview with The Laval News, emphasizing that she made a special effort to invite as many of her campaign volunteers as possible.
With cabinet appointments already announced, the Prime Minister’s next move will be the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries, followed by the assignment of MPs to House of Commons committees working on a wide range of issues.
Koutrakis, who sat on the Standing Committee on Finance during the last term, said she asked to be reappointed to it, while also asking to be named onto committees dealing with medical assistance in dying (MAID), global affairs, industry/technology and transport.
Committee appointments coming
“I chose those committees because they’re very important to Vimy in terms now of the economy and recovery,” she said. “It’s very gratifying to be able to sit on any one of those committees where studies are taken towards further policy-making. Whatever comes out of those committees is what is then presented and debated in the House of Commons, which is where policies are made.”
Among El-Khoury’s guests for his swearing-in were members of his family, some staff and a few friends who reside in the nation’s capital. A special guest was the ambassador for Lebanon in Canada, His Excellency Fadi Ziadeh.
El-Khoury, who is beginning his third term as Laval-Les Îles’s elected representative in Ottawa, said he and other MPs expect to probably be hearing an announcement on the parliamentary committee appointments this week.
Climate on agenda, says El-Khoury
He agreed that the Liberal government’s focus during the upcoming session will be measures to bring an end to the pandemic, after which the economy must be rebuilt. “It will require a lot of effort,” he said. “But the government, I am sure, will do whatever should be done so as to point our economy in the best direction.”
Re-elected Laval-Les Îles Liberal MP Fayçal El-Khoury is seen here with family, campaign volunteers and friends following his recent swearing-in in the nation’s capital.
El-Khoury pointed out that another major issue on the Trudeau government’s agenda over the coming term will be the environment and climate change. This will come following pledges made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow, Scotland, including an agreement to end deforestation by the year 2030.
Covid’s still on the radar
With the reconvening of Parliament, the re-elected minority Trudeau government will be delivering a new Throne Speech. It is expected that the government’s strategy during Parliament’s upcoming session will include taking final steps to top up efforts undertaken since early last year to deal with COVID-19, with some forward-looking economic measures added.
“One of the immediate areas of focus for the next Parliament will be the COVID-19 support benefits that many Canadians and businesses still rely on, and the government will work collaboratively with other parliamentarians to continue to have Canadians’ backs,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Vaccination commitments
The PMO maintains that over 82 per cent of eligible Canadians are now fully vaccinated, even though the fight against COVID-19 isn’t over. As such, the government outlined five vaccination commitments to take place during the first 100 days following the swearing-in of the new cabinet.
The Prime Minister previously provided details on the government’s plan to ensure everyone 12 or older travelling within Canada on a plane or train is fully vaccinated. He also outlined a plan to ensure all federal employees and people in federally-regulated workplaces are fully vaccinated.
National vaccine passport
At the same time, the government announced its commitment towards establishing a standardized proof of vaccination (vaccine passport) for Canadians travelling internationally, while supporting provincial and territorial proof of vaccination programs, and the introduction of legislation to make it a criminal offence to harass or threaten health care workers.
Some additional ideas of what is likely to be in the Throne Speech can be found in a list of early Liberal government priorities, including re-introducing legislation to ban conversion therapy, moving ahead with 10-day paid sick leave for all federally regulated workers and bringing the provinces and territories together to work on better sick leave for Canadians across the country.
The current issue of the Laval News volume 29-39 published November 10rd , 2021. Covering Laval local news, politics, sports and our new section Mature Life. (Click on the image to read the paper.)
Front page of the Laval News, November10th, 2021 issue.
Three independent candidates are also running to become city’s mayor
As a public service to the City of Laval’s nearly half-million residents, the Laval News is publishing a condensed listing of the four main municipal parties’ priorities and positions in this our last issue before election day on Nov. 7.
While this is not a comprehensive listing, we are including the principal platform statements of the four parties as set out on their websites and in their published campaign literature.
In addition to this, we are also publishing a short summary of the smaller Équipe Pierre Anthian’s platform, and a listing of all the candidates running for mayor, including those doing so as independents.
It should be noted that of the five municipal parties dealt with here, three (Mouvement lavallois, Action Laval and Parti Laval) opted to make their platforms available in French and English, while two (Laval Citoyens and Équipe Pierre Anthian) had information available online in French only when we went to press earlier this week.
Mouvement Lavallois (as stated on their website)
Quality Services in Neighbourhoods
“At Mouvement Lavallois, we believe that quality of life begins with quality services. In concrete terms, this means that we want to have well-maintained streets and parks, a sense of security in our neighbourhoods and quick and easy access to information and services from the municipality. In short, we need to strengthen the foundations upon which we want to build the home and neighbourhoods of our dreams.
Ambitious Action for the Environment
“Although the pandemic has received tremendous attention in recent months, we still believe that climate change remains the major challenge of the 21st century. Our parks, shorelines and wooded areas have been host to unprecedented levels of visitors. The COVID-19 crisis and resulting lockdowns have accentuated the need of our citizens to be more and more connected with nature. In the years to come, we wish to continue acquiring natural areas in order to protect them, to continue reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, to increase the urban canopy and to enhance our natural environments so that the population can fully enjoy them.
A supportive and Secure City
“We want to continue to build a Laval where everyone can find their place and feel that they can contribute to their community. With the pandemic, the last few months have allowed many different groups and social movements to open up and show us all what collective efforts can be made to support this inclusion. In order for Laval to thrive, it is important to build a strong social fabric. At Mouvement Lavallois, we strive to live in a united city where everyone’s strengths are recognized and valued.
A Prosperous and Attractive City
“In recent years, the population of Laval has regained pride in its city and community. We have been one of the most economically dynamic cities in Quebec and have been resilient to the shock of the pandemic. We want to build upon this movement and continue to make Laval a city where people want to come to work, study, raise their families, play, grow old, get involved in their community or start a business. This entails sound governance of our public institutions along with the continued economic vitality of our region, including by improving communications in Laval to strengthen the feeling of community.”
Action Laval (as stated on their website)
“Values are what unite members of a political party. It is therefore essential to define these values in order to justify the party’s priorities. This is a task that Action Laval has taken on over the past few years to prepare the platform that is presented to you today. Each of the choices and projects that our team wants to defend finds its justification in these fundamental values.”
Action Laval states the following are part of its values:
• Establish sound management and accountability practices.
• Consult citizens on issue that concern them (a bottom-up approach).
• Decentralize the administration to bring it closer to citizens.
• Develop the city in a responsible, eco-responsible, intelligent, and innovative manner.
• Find a balance between economic development and the environment.
• Establish district citizen advisory committees.
In addition to this, Action Laval has established a list of more than a dozen important areas of focus for the City of Laval’s future development, including the environment, agriculture, management, taxation, the business community, the post-Covid economy, transportation, family, seniors, public security, sports and cultural facilities, promotion of arts and culture, animal protection and support for community organizations.
In its platform, Action Laval has also established a list of large scale projects the party says would be on the AL agenda if they form the next city administration. These include the International Trade Centre project, revitalization of the Old Penitentiary in St-Vincent-de-Paul, and a new hospital to be located in Laval’s west end (to supplement Cité de la Santé in the east).
From a list of “solutions” the party offers for the improvement of Laval’s Chomedey district, they pledge to set up stations dedicated to seniors in Sablon park, revitalize Kennedey and Campeau parks, install speed control bumps in residential areas, set up water games in Montcalm park and generally improve security in the district.
In Sainte-Dorothée, they pledge to invest in existing infrastructures, including streets and sidewalks, review the management of snow removal in the district, create a sports complex nearby, regularly sponsor activities and festivities in the neighborhood, develop the entrance to the Bois Sainte-Dorothée, add a water feature in Robitaille park. set up speed control mechanisms on the streets while enforcing pedestrian crossings, lobby the provincial government to resolve the traffic problem at the entrance to autoroute 13, increase police presence and surveillance in the district, build a dog park with all the needed equipment, and ensure intelligent development of bike paths to ensure they are safe.
Parti Laval (as stated on their website)
Vision, Missions and Values
“Vision: To make Laval a contemporary and vibrant city, rich in the diversity of its living environments and communities. Laval will be a model city where friendly neighbourhoods, a rich cultural life, successful businesses, fertile farmland, and numerous natural environments provide opportunities for its residents to flourish. Laval will be dynamic and stimulating and its residents will be proud to work, study, play and live here.
Missions:
• Implement innovative and bold initiatives to develop our City and its neighbourhoods by meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
• To inform, consult and involve our residents in the major changes being considered.
• Create a favourable business climate that allows our entrepreneurs to prosper.
• Establish Laval’s leadership among the major cities of Quebec.
Values:
Sound management:
“A fundamental value of political exercise, sound management encompasses the principles of transparency, integrity, sustainability, efficiency, equity, balance, and responsibility.
Innovation:
“Today’s policies must meet tomorrow’s needs. With respect for the past, we will develop innovative practices that take into account the principles of sustainable development.
Proximity:
“The accessibility and availability of municipal services, infrastructure, green spaces and elected officials are essential to the well-being and needs of residents.
Conducive Environments:
“Enable Laval residents to develop their full potential by having access to all the necessary resources in diversified, safe and attractive environments where beauty and nature have place of choice. These favourable environments are the cornerstone of our community life and pride in living in Laval.”
The Parti Laval fleshes out its platform in eight distinct themes dealing with issues that include neighbourhood life, mobility, citizen services, the environment, sound management, economic development, urban development and community issues.
“Neighborhoods are the soul of our city,” the party states in the segment concerning this issue. “They are one of the reasons people move to Laval and stay. Working to make neighbourhoods more dynamic is an ingredient that not only keeps Laval residents happy and together, but also encourages people to grow, study, work and play here. Improving the quality of life in neighbourhoods contributes to human, social and economic development.”
In a different segment regarding cultural diversity, the party pledges to “support the creation of Laval festivities and to provide support so that Laval’s diversity can express itself and participate in the festivities and cultural activities of our different neighbourhoods.”
Laval Citoyens
The party being led by city councillor and mayoralty candidate Michel Poissant has published a platform consisting of nine general commitments, which are in turn sub-divided into a wide range of detailed pledges.
The commitments are: 1. Respect and support for the Declaration of Services to Residents; 2. Towards a green and sustainable city; 3. A loud voice for Laval, a special place in Greater Montreal; 4. Development of infrastructures and improvement of quality of life; 5. Security of citizens and social safety net; 6. Improving community and cultural initiatives; 7. Active mobility with harmony; 8. Ethics and governance; 9. Economic development.
Among other things, the party promises to freeze residential, business and agricultural taxes in 2022-2023, to increase the efficiency of Laval’s 3-1-1 public works helpline service, to establish annual garage sales on fixed dates in May and September, to subsidize the planting of 1,000 trees in major parking lots throughout the city, to complete the link between the Montmorency and Côte Vertu Metro stations along the Orange line while getting the REM train extended to Laval, and to build a new skatepark somewhere in central Laval (with Chomedey being one place Laval Citoyens had announced previously).
In a vision statement Laval Citoyens makes on the front page of its website, the party declares, “All Laval residents deserve a city in their image, a city to be proud of. The municipal elected officials thus have a duty to make decisions in conjunction with the interests of the citizens.
The party lists six key words as instrumental in formulating its philosophy: proactivity, efficiency, integrity, thoroughness, cooperation and innovation. In a key phrase displayed prominently, they say, “Service to citizens is at the heart of our priorities and our team is listening and present on the ground with a humane approach.”
The party says that re-greening Laval’s downtown area “is also a priority, while maintaining that a Poissant administration will show strong leadership towards positioning Laval and its projects in a high profile within the Greater Montreal region to attract the provincial government’s attention. “The Michel Poissant team is determined to get rolling productive projects that will be in the image of a city that is modern, innovative and green.”
Équipe Pierre Anthian
This party, which was created only a few months before this election and also goes by the name Ma Ville maintenant, is much smaller than the other four parties, but is no less ambitious.
It is led by a former Laval city councillor from Laval-des-Rapides Pierre Anthian who is also a highly-idealistic community activist. However, at our deadline earlier this week, Équipe Pierre Anthian had managed to announce just 14 candidates for Laval city council’s 21 seats.
The party lists up to 16 areas of concern on the front page of their website, including a focus on the well-being of children and senior citizens, housing security, food security, flood management, automobiles in the city, free ridership on STL buses, mini-animal services centres, a tax freeze, and police body cameras.
Retailers and take-out restaurants will be most impacted by new municipal law
The City of Laval is reminding residents that a ban on the use of plastic bags in retail stores and by take-out restaurants comes into effect Thursday Nov. 4.
Beginning on that date, it will no longer be possible for retail store operators to offer, sell, distribute or make available to consumers single-use plastic bags.
According to the city, there are exceptions to the ban, including plastic bags used for hygienic or bulk storage, dry-cleaning plastic bags, and plastic bags used for industrial purposes and for marketing pre-packaged products.
Plastic covers out
In addition to these rules, the by-law forbids restaurants, as well as businesses providing take-out food, from distributing or being party to the distribution of single-use plastic covers, because they can only end up in landfill afterwards.
The city says the new by-law confirms its determination to make the people of Laval more aware of the importance of sustainable development, protection of the environment and the conservation of limited resources.
House builder’s insolvency left many home buyers penniless and without a roof
The City of Laval says it has come to an agreement with a provincial consumer rights group to provide financial assistance to house buyers from Laval who were victimized by the bankruptcy of the Bel-Habitat homes company last summer.
Help coming
The agreement with the Association des consommateurs pour la qualité dans la construction (ACQC) will allow for the implementation of a program by the ACQC to assist the home buyers who were cast adrift, so that hopefully they will finally be able to complete the purchase of their homes.
According to a statement from the city, Laval will be giving an amount up to $180,000 to the ACQC, based on terms in the agreement.
“The City of Laval is continuing to take all the measures necessary within our municipal abilities by deploying resources to come to the assistance to the citizens impacted so that they can turn the page on this unfortunate situation,” said Mayor Marc Demers.
‘An ordeal,’ says Demers
“We know the extent to which these families are preoccupied with this and we hope to offer them the maximum assistance in order to support them during this ordeal,” he added.
Some of the houses in Laval left partly completed following the bankruptcy of Bel-Habitat. (Photo: Courtesy of TVA)
“Since the bankruptcy of Bel-Habitat, the ACQC has received a number of calls from concerned consumers,” said Marc-André Harnois, the ACQC’s executive-director. “The information that we were prepared to give was, nonetheless, limited taking into accounts the needs.
“With the financial assistance from the City of Laval, we will soon be able to offer an assistance that is much more comprehensive to consumers who wish to pursue their housing project in spite of the somewhat significant sums they risk not being able to recuperate.
Surviving the crisis
“This is useful help which, I have no doubt, will lighten the burden for those who are struggling so that their project can survive this bankruptcy,” said Harnois.
The city says the assistance program to Bel-Habitat victims will take place in two stages. The first will provide orientation to Bel-Habitat clients in order to determine if they are admissible to the program.
A second stage will provide them with help to make requests from the City of Laval and to understand the replies and how they should respond to the city or to other professional authorities who will also be involved in the processes.
Actions taken by Laval
Since the beginning of the Bel-Habitat bankruptcy crisis last June, the city has provided some assistance to the victims. This includes:
The creation of a single service point to accompany the victims in their requests for permits and authorizations;
An agreement for financial aid with Juripop, an organization that offers consultations with lawyers towards finding legal solutions;
A tripartite agreement aimed at paying sums due to a sub-contractor and bringing to completion the house building projects started by the buyers of lots on des Abeilles St., while allowing the affected families to acquire the lots on which they made deposits for the construction of their homes.
Some additional facts
Persons eligible for the program are those who gave money to Bel-Habitat or Bel-Habitat 2 in conjunction with a property on the territory of the City of Laval and as part of a residential project that was not completed.
The subsidy provided by the city must be mostly used by the ACQC towards the implementation of the assistance program, and cannot be used to defray the costs of professional fees and honorariums of eligible program participants.
Bel-Habitat declared bankruptcy last June, disrupting the lives of hundreds of families in Laval who had handed over large sums of money to the company for homes which were supposed to be built.
Up to 21,000 people face an unnecessarily complicated access process, says Marie Rinfret
A special report released last week by the Quebec Ombudswoman’s office on access to provincial retirement and long-term care residences recommends the government develop by September next year a centralized data base allowing information on vacancies and available rooms to be shared across Quebec.
The report documents the reality of elderly people who are waiting for a place in a substitute environment and spells out what needs to take place immediately to correct the access process.
Complicated access
At the end of a systemic investigation into the rules and practices surrounding access, the Quebec ombudswoman made 14 recommendations to the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), under four orientations corresponding to the main findings.
“Every year in Quebec, 21,000 people who can’t remain safely at home come up against a complicated access machine that is hard to understand, that involves lengthy wait times and is discouraging,” said Quebec ombudsperson Marie Rinfret.
“These people, who are experiencing a crucial stage of their life, suddenly find themselves in complete disarray, uprooted and forced to move to a new environment which is often not the one they expected,” she added.
The report’s four orientations were as follows:
Show consideration to would-be residents
As part of the access process, various practices seen in CISSSs and CIUSSSs result in the denial of rights or needless upheaval.
The right to choose a resource (in keeping with available resources) is regularly breached or denied would-be residents, as is the right to be adequately informed.
Forced moves within 48 hours, in all likelihood hasty, are a recurrent source of distress.
Cancellation of an application if a person refuses the place offered violates the elderly person’s rights.
Frequent and extended recourse to temporary placement causes a form of homelessness at the end of life.
Standardize practices Quebec-wide
Because the access mechanism is not standard, there are sizable disparities from one region to another regarding the access process itself and average wait times. In addition to yielding a misleading portrait of access, the lack of uniform practices creates inequalities between regions.
Review application prioritization
Elderly people’s social and emotional needs are scarcely considered in prioritizing applications. This means that it may be difficult for informal caregivers to help residents, spouses may end up at different residential resources, or significant persons may live far away.
The network’s limited resources and the imperatives of the hospital-care system have created a fast track to placement – hospitalization. The upshot is that people at home wait longer for a place in a residential resource.
Produce an exhaustive portrait
The MSSS’s management of access data is inefficient: some data are not collated the same way by different institutions, other data are ignored or made inaccessible, while some are only partly distributed.
In her report’s recommendations, Rinfret also said the provincial government should develop by March 31 2022 all the resources necessary to process the centralized data on vacancies at the establishments, especially with regards to admission processes, temporary users and interterritorial requests.
She said the ministry should implement, no later than Sept. 1 2022, a single and centralized system for assigning, managing and sharing relevant data throughout the MSSS and all its retirement, long-term care and other public housing establishments.
Wants recommendations followed
As well, she said the health and social services ministry should be able to verify by Dec. 31 next year that all the establishments are using the new system to centralize and coordinate all of their data.
Finally, Rinfret’s office asks the MSSS to provide, no later than Dec. 10 this year, a work plan indicating the actions to be taken and the schedule that will be followed for the implementation of each of her recommendations.
Growing old isn’t fun. How often have you heard that? In Quebec, add insult to injury, literally, because we call it ‘l’age d’or’. The golden age. Really? What is golden about it? Oh, I guess they mean retirement, not having to work every day, reaping the benefits of your investments, company and government pensions.
But that is not everyone’s situation, because depending on the province, many only have their OAS (Old Age Security) and a government pension. No RRSPs much less TFSAs (Tax Free Savings Accounts) to add, and scarce returns, if any, on real estate investments, stock market, savings accounts, none of which took place during their life- time.
Here is the saddest part. All statistics are not available, but we can say that Canada leads in or has one of the highest majority of its citizens who die in hospitals, 61.5%. That compares to England at 51%, 31% for the Netherlands, and, unbelievably only 20% in the United States (perhaps because of the high cost of U.S. hospital stay). That is not our wish. 87% of us do not want to die in a hospital, but in our home. Sadly, only 20% of Canadians do die where they reside. Because such a large majority of us take our last breath in a hospital, we spend more on “end-of-life care and medication than other high-income countries.” What’s wrong?
For starters, we are not getting anywhere near full value for our investment in Health Care in Canada. Don’t blame our caring health workers. We should be reducing suffering, and improving quality of life through Palliative Care. The C.D. Howe Institute has released a most enlightening study. It states the reason for these high medical costs is an insufficient number of palliative care beds, where we could substantially reduce costs avoiding sending the patient to a hospital’s acute care unit, and most often die in the hospital.
Palliative does not necessarily mean it is for those whose death is imminent, but often includes curative intent, recovering from serious illness and requiring assistance in relieving suffering.
If that is missing in the chain of our public health system, the end-oflife costs in acute care are going to be exorbitant, and they are. Authors Kieran Quinn, Sarina Isenberg and James Downar, (palliative care administrators) point out that because we spend so much more on costly acute care in our hospitals, we are not getting a good bang for our buck, not even close. Solution? The authors say this. “A major avenue to cost saving is greater use of palliative care, rather than more costly acute care, in end-of- life treatment. Palliative care primarily focuses on improving comfort and quality of life, often avoiding hospital-based, invasive, costly and potentially inappropriate care”.
The C.D. Howe report also includes the fact Canada has even fewer hospice beds where patients receive end- of- life care. An increase would free costly hospital beds and provide patients with the appropriate end- of- life care.
Canada’s senior citizens like living at home, according to Newsfirst columnist Robert Vairo.
Please excuse the bluntness of these statistics on such a sensitive topic, but the facts are these. It costs 36 thousand dollars to die in a hospital versus 16 thousand to die at home. But the cost is not the issue, at least not the intent of this column. It’s the patient’s comfort, and home life, that are important rather than “invasive, often inappropriate acute care” in a facility. All the more reason to want to stay at home.
“Dad, the Dutch have attitude” my daughter once told me, and they do. The latest example from the Netherlands is the realization that “the greatest potential for improving the lives of the elderly lies in technology built for the young”. The home of an 87-year-old Dutch near the city of Rotterdam has been transformed into a cyber house, by his sons and daughters.
Rather than have health workers watch over him in a long-term facility, Dolf Honée is at home ‘watched’ when he gets up, walks around, makes breakfast, turns the range on and off, shaves, perhaps stumbles, and leaves the house. A smart stove switches itself off if it detects a fire hazard, and smart pipes turn off a tap left running. When the doorbell rings, his smart watch tells him who has arrived.
A tech company called Sensara has an app that pings on the kids’ phones if anything goes wrong or seems out of place. What else can it do? “Sleep is monitored via a device in his ear, his fridge suggests what he might eat, and a pill dispenser can give him tailored medication,” says Mr. Honée. “They’re always watching me but I feel safe, and I’m where I want to be at my age. Home.”
