Home Blog Page 131

Five municipal parties offer Laval a range of choices in election pledges

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Five municipal parties offer Laval a range of choices in election pledges

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.

Candidates for mayor

Running as party leaders:

Pierre Anthian

Ma ville maintenant – Équipe Pierre Anthian

Stéphane Boyer

Mouvement lavallois – Équipe Stéphane Boyer

Michel Poissant

Laval citoyens – Équipe Michel Poissant

Michel Trottier

Parti Laval – Équipe Michel Trottier

Sophie Trottier

Action Laval – Équipe Sophie Trottier

Running as independents:

Hélène Goupil

Nicolas Lemire

Redouane Yahmi

New Laval by-law banning plastic bags and covers starts Thursday

Laval News Contributor
-
0
New Laval by-law banning plastic bags and covers starts Thursday

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.

Laval gives $180,000 to consumer group dealing with Bel-Habitat fallout

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Laval gives $180,000 to consumer group dealing with Bel-Habitat fallout

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.

Ombudswoman wants Quebec to create a central database for CHSLDs and retirement homes

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Ombudswoman wants Quebec to create a central database for CHSLDs and retirement homes

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.

Seniors want to stay home, but can’t

Robert Vairo
-
0
Seniors want to stay home, but can’t

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.”

That’s what I’m Thinking.

Robert Vairo

robert@newsfirst.ca

Chomedey voter card error throws a wrench into Aglaia Revelakis campaign

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Chomedey voter card error throws a wrench into Aglaia Revelakis campaign

Incumbent Action Laval councillor fears mistake could mislead district’s electors

A misprint on a pre-election voter information card sent out to virtually every address in Chomedey threatens to sow confusion among the district’s electors about which candidate to support on Nov. 7 in the municipal elections.

Potentially costly mistake

On Chomedey (District 14) voter information cards published and distributed door-to-door by the office of the city’s chief electoral officer Valérie Tremblay, the first two out of four candidates listed are Laval Citoyens’ Marie-Josée Duval and incumbent Action Laval candidate Aglaia Revelakis.

The problem is that the chief electoral officer mistakenly listed Duval, whose name appears first in the list of council candidates, as running for Action Laval, even though the card simultaneously correctly states that she is affiliated with Équipe Michel Poissant (which is the alternate name for Laval Citoyens).

What will the impact be?

Just underneath, Revelakis is correctly identified as the candidate for Action Laval – Équipe Sophie Trottier. It is perhaps worth noting that the correct information has been available for weeks on the provincial government’s Élections Québec website.

The misprinted Chomedey voter information card.

Despite some acknowledgement of the error from the election director’s office, and a commitment on their part to see that the ballots are corrected by election day, the question now is whether some Chomedey voters will have been sufficiently misled by the error to mistakenly vote for a candidate they don’t actually support.

“Marie-Josée Duval is not with Action Laval and it’s going to cause confusion to the citizens, because they take this card and they go there and they vote,” Revelakis said in an interview with The Laval News this week.

Lucky to have caught error

“This is going to cause a confusion,” she said, while adding that she and her team were lucky to have caught the mistake and advise the electoral office almost immediately “and they’re fixing the problem.”

Revelakis said that when she spoke last week to Tremblay, who is Laval’s chief city clerk, “she called me and said not to worry, everything will be alright.”

She said she told Tremblay that she needed to see a copy of the corrected ballot in order to be able to confirm that corrections were made in time for the advance polls which took place last Saturday.

Legal action taken

“I asked her to send me a copy, she said no, she could not send me a copy,” Revelakis continued. “Finally, she agreed last Friday that I would go there and she would show me the ballot to assure me that everything was okay.

“But at the same time, I asked her to make a correction at each of the polling stations, and make a corrected sign with the names and the parties. But she refused to do that.”

As a result, according to Revelakis, her team’s legal counsel intervened, “because they have to correct this at the door,” she said. She said Tremblay was sent a lawyer’s letter informing her of the course of action Action Laval felt ought to be taken.

A first for everything

“People are taking this carte d’appel [voter information card] with them,” said Revelakis. “When they go and vote with this card, they look at the names. So, I don’t want confusion, because somebody who read the first card might get confused and end up voting for the wrong person.”

More than 6,000 erroneous voter information cards distributed to homes throughout Chomedey will not be replaced

Revelakis, who is seeking her third term as Chomedey’s city councillor, said it was the first time since her first victory in 2013 that she had run into this sort of problem.

“I never heard of this happening before,” she said. “And let’s say we hadn’t caught onto this, people would have gone there and on the voting ballots the problem might have continued the way it was on the carte d’appel. Because usually, whatever ends up being registered on the carte d’appel is also registered on the ballots.”

No new cards expected

Despite the damage, the elections office has no plans to distribute a corrected version of the voter information card to thousands of households in Chomedey. Revelakis said she asked for that, but was told it would not be possible.

In all, more than 6,000 voter information cards were distributed to homes throughout the district. “This was a big error – not something small. And sometimes I wonder whether it was done on purpose. I don’t know. Usually, these kinds of things never happen. So, it’s kind of weird that it happened this time around.”

At Laval Citoyens, the party’s mayoralty candidate, Michel Poissant, told The Laval News he was aware of the error on the Chomedey voter information card, although he didn’t consider it a matter needing to be dealt with as urgently as Revelakis believed it should be.

‘Not important,’ says Poissant

“I’m not sure that it’s that important – Aglaia is much more concerned than us, honestly,” he said. When asked whether he thought the mistake could lead to voter confusion, Poissant tended to agree, but suggested it’s not something that impacts Laval Citoyens – leastways, not in the negative sense.

“To be honest with you, she [Revelakis] is there, she is known and she has a huge advantage, I would say, compared to the others who are unknown,” Poissant said.

According to official results of the City of Laval’s November 2017 municipal elections, Revelakis won Chomedey for Action Laval with the support of 2,083 voters, easily outdistancing her nearest rival, the Mouvement lavallois’s Grace Ghazal, by 863 votes.

Two Trottiers for mayor

In the meantime, the potential confusion caused by the voter card error in Chomedey may only add to a larger situation involving the mayoralty race. This could be the first time in the City of Laval (certainly in recent memory) that two candidates for the mayoralty from two different parties appear on the ballot with names that are as similar as they are in this race.

Indeed, there have been suggestions that some voters may find themselves confused by the fact that Action Laval’s mayoralty hopeful Sophie Trottier and the Parti Laval’s mayoralty candidate Michel Trottier have the same family name.

Revelakis agreed there could be some confusion as a consequence. She said that was why Action Laval had been making efforts in its campaign to emphasize their leader’s first name in order to identify her personally with Laval’s electors as Sophie, and so it would stand out more clearly on the ballot.

$7 million in fines and jail after three sentenced for tax fraud scheme

Martin C. Barry
-
0
$7 million in fines and jail after three sentenced for tax fraud scheme

Clients were given false receipts for charitable donation tax credits

Revenu Québec, the province’s tax-gathering agency, announced that two businesses and three people, one of whom was a financial consultant, were sentenced recently to pay fines of $7 million after being found guilty of taking part in a tax evasion scheme involving donations to charities.

Money-lending scheme

In addition to the fines, one of the three was sentenced to 90 days in jail to be served non-consecutively (probably on weekends). The charges had been pending since 2015 when they were first filed on behalf of the provincial tax ministry.

According to a statement issued by Revenu Québec, the perpetrators had worked out a money-lending strategy by which clients obtained false receipts for charitable donations for tax credits to which they were not entitled.

The following table identifies those found guilty along with other relevant information.

NameDate of judgementSentence
Luc Vallée 62 years Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot29 September 2021Fines totalling
$911,385.46 Prison sentence
of 90 days to be served non-consecutively
Daniel Duval 72 years Montreal13 November 2019Fines totalling $1,541,160.38
Jean-Claude Senécal 72 years Montreal13 November 2019Fines totalling
$1,541,160.38
Foncière Agroterre13 November 2019Fines totalling
$1,541,160.38
Fondation Agroterre13 November 2019Fines totalling
$1,541,160.38

According to Revenu Québec, Duval and Senécal were the architects of the scheme, which allowed investors they drew in to declare claim tax deductions for charitable donations six to seven times what they had actually paid.

Luc Vallée was said to have been the enabler of the scheme, taking advantage of his position as a financial consultant to persuade his clients to take part. In all, says Revenu Québec, he led 93 people to take part and get a total of $724,468.36 in unfairly obtained sums.

Investors not charged

In addition to the three individuals, the court also found two companies, Foncière Agroterre and Fondation Agroterre, guilty as charged. However, no criminal charges were brought against the investors drawn into the scheme, although Revenu Québec reassessed their tax situations to reflect the new information confirmed by the court.

The inquiry leading to the convictions was launched after Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) provided Revenu Québec with information on the scheme. This led to search warrants being executed at the homes of the accused, at the offices of several charitable organizations, and at an accountant’s office in Repentigny.

Weekend sentencing

In rendering the multiple-weekend jail sentence, Quebec Court Judge Salvatore Mascia quoted Canadian legal scholar Clayton Ruby (specializing in constitutional, criminal law and civil rights), who declared regarding the process of sentencing:

“One should not underestimate the impact of a weekend sentence as punishment. Forty-five weekends in prison … involves nearly all the weekends in an entire year and satisfies much of the need for exemplary sentences even in extremely serious cases.”

In his 56-page judgement, Mascia said the investors were led by the accused to believe that they were taking part in a legitimate tax shelter program, allowing them to reap enormous financial advantages through the two associated companies.

He said that documents created by the accused and given to the investors to ostensibly certify the scheme’s legitimacy had no actual legal meaning. He said their purpose was in fact to mislead the investors and ultimately also government tax collection authorities.

A baseless tax scheme

On Duval’s and Senécal’s culpability for masterminding the scheme, Mascia said they wrote the template for the contracts, payment schedules, information sessions and documentation for potential investors. He concluded that they must have known that their use of tax shelter registration numbers was no more than an administrative formality “which didn’t confer in any way a right to tax advantages ensuing from tax shelters.”

He continued, “The defendants decided to ignore the law and improvised a system for arranging donations founded on the abuse of documentation without purpose. While they had no authorization or decision from the AMF to issue financial titles and they didn’t even have enough money to rent a truck, they created from one day to the next a bank capable of issuing securities in the millions of dollars.”

Preliminary inquest into death of Chomedey girl will start next May

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Preliminary inquest into death of Chomedey girl will start next May

The case of a 7-year-old girl from Chomedey who died under unexplained circumstances last January will be the object of a preliminary inquiry beginning at the end of May 2022.

Up to a dozen witnesses are expected to provide testimony during the hearing that will be taking place from May 30 to June 10.

The girl’s mother is currently facing charges of assault and criminal negligence causing death.

While the woman made a court appearance last January, when she required the help of an interpreter, she is not being held in custody although she has to abide by special conditions while waiting for the legal proceedings to move forward.

As there is currently a publication ban on any information that might identify the victim, the mother’s identify also cannot be revealed.

The incidents leading to the charges are alleged to have taken place sometime between Dec. 30 last year and Jan. 3 2021. Some of the charges also related to incidents alleged to have taken place as early as June 1 last year.

The home on Le Boutillier St. in Chomedey where investigators from the Laval Police Department scrutinized evidence last January following the death of a 7-year-old girl. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Laval News)

According to news reports, the girl, when found by ambulance attendants, had second-degree burns over 80 per cent of her body. The reports said she had either been scalded by boiling water or placed in a bath with water that was much too hot.

She had a plaster cast on one arm from an injury sustained and treated in hospital a few days before she died. The girl was reported to have not been attending school for several months before. She was also said to suffer from serious behavioral problems.

The accused speaks the Afghani language Dari and required an interpreter during an appearance at the Laval courthouse last January.

The bail conditions, which were agreed upon by the defence and the prosecution, required, among other things, that the accused post a $1,000 bail bond and surrender her passport to court officials.

The conditions also required her to live at her current address on Le Boutillier St. in Chomedey. She is also not allowed to communicate with certain people (including her other children), unless it becomes necessary to prepare her legal case with the assistance of a lawyer.

SWLSB excels with its graduation and qualification rate results

Martin C. Barry
-
0
SWLSB excels with its graduation and qualification rate results

With the latest graduation and qualification rates published by the Ministry of Education (MEQ) on Oct. 29, the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board (SWLSB) says it surpassed an ambitious goal set by the MEQ with flying colours.

This SWLSB says its 88.1 per cent result exceeds the objective that had been set for 2022.

“Thanks to the hard work accomplished by our employees, families and partners, SWLSB ranks among the best school boards/school service centres in the province,” the board said in a statement, adding that the new results place the SWLSB 9.5 per cent above the provincial public-school average.

“This accomplishment could not have been achieved without our amazing teachers and dedicated staff who work tirelessly, day in and day out to offer quality services to our students,” said the board’s chairman, Paolo Galati.

The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board says it has reason to celebrate with the latest provincial performance ratings and results.

“Over the past years, we have been focused on our Commitment-to-Success plan, which is our roadmap to success. Our efforts have paid off,” said Galati.

The SWLSB said all SWLSB stakeholders played a key role in the collective success, by helping to prepare and implement the board’s “Commitment-to-Success Plan,” which was the result of an extensive public consultation.

“We are absolutely excited about this result which is a true testament to the importance of teamwork,” added Galati. “When we work together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish. ENGAGE-BUILD-ACHIEVE certainly takes on its full meaning with this impressive outcome.”

 Comparative results:2021 Report*2020 Report*2019 Report*
Provincial (public and private)81.8%81.7%80.9%
Public schools78.6%78.6%77.7%
SWLSB 88.1%87.7%84.5%
SWLSB Target 202288%  

  * Results based on a seven-year cohort

Laval News Volume 29-38

Laval News Staff
-
0
Laval News Volume 29-38

The current issue of the Laval News volume 29-38 published November 3rd , 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.
Front page of the Laval News, November 3rd, 2021 issue.
1...130131132...309Page 131 of 309

Weather

Laval
light rain
8.4 ° C
8.4 °
8.4 °
44 %
3kmh
94 %
Sun
8 °
Mon
14 °
Tue
14 °
Wed
14 °
Thu
12 °

Popular Categories