The union representing City of Laval public works employees is contesting a decision by the city to fire three employees after they were filmed by a resident while they were using marijuana on the job.
According a report last week by the TVA network, the resident spotted the employees in early March in a Laval neighbourhood where they were working.
While two of the workers were full-time and had 16 and eight years experience respectively, the third employee was part-time, said TVA.
The network said the three were initially suspended with pay while an investigation was undertaken, but were terminated permanently in April.
While the union hasn’t commented on whether the workers were using cannabis, they consider the punishment to be out of proportion, while noting that the employees themselves haven’t been allowed to view the video.
Following the federal government’s regularization of the sale and use of cannabis in 2018, many municipalities in Quebec adopted new by-laws which, among other things, established strict rules prohibiting the use of cannabis by employees while on the job.
The Laval Police Department says it is seeking the public’s help in identifying a woman suspected of having committed an assault last summer at a convenience store in Pont-Viau, injuring a victim.
According to the LPD, on Aug. 3 last year around 3:45 pm, the 60-year-old victim was making purchases at the convenience store.
The suspect was in line behind the victim after placing a container of milk on the counter and was visibly impatient.
After the two exchanged angry words inside the store, the suspect followed the victim outside while she was leaving and gave her a hard shove.
According to an account provided by the police, the victim fell forward down the store’s front stairs, after which the suspect taunted the victim, then returned inside to pay for purchases.
The suspect boarded a car, on the passenger side, that was waiting outside. The victim suffered an injury to the right leg and now has physical scars and suffers from a psychological trauma disorder resulting from the assault.
Description of the suspect:
Female, white, around 18-19 years old
Speaks French with québécois accent
Height: 1 m 57 (5’2” )
Slim build
Dark brown, mid-length hair
Description of vehicle:
Light-colored sedan
Anyone who thinks they may have useful information about the identity of this suspect can call the LPD’s confidential Info-Line at 450 662-INFO (4636), or dial 911. The dossier number is LVL 200807-030.
Chomedey city councillor Aglaia Revelakis says she is continuing to work behind the scenes to resolve a dispute between residents of Webb Ave. and the City of Laval over changes to the street the residents object to.
One of the the residents’ most significant complaints concerned the city’s plan to narrow Webb Ave.
According to Revelakis, officials at the city’s engineering deparment decided, after she met with them last Monday while the residents were staging a short demonstration on their street, that a public consultation will now be held.
“Just rest assured that I’m on top of this file,” she told the Laval News. “And everybody will be receiving a notice to participate in the meeting sometime in the future.”
All the same, she said that some of the work will be starting, including street excavation for the replacement of underground water and sewer infrastructure.
A 19-year-old man who fired off a pellet gun at some friends’ house, while also firing into the face of a young female acquaintance causing injury, was sentenced recently at the Laval courthouse to 26 months behind bars.
In his decision rendered against Gabriel Marion, Judge Serge Cimon recounted how the accused fired four times at one victim, hitting her in the forehead, while also shattering her eyeglasses and causing pieces of glass to enter one of her eyes.
Marion had just turned 18, reaching the age of a legal adult, when the act took place in January 2020. Although he was already subject to special conditions previously imposed by court order to not be in possession of firearms, he nonetheless got a hold of a pellet-firing gun, before turning up at his friends’ residence.
Fired pellets inside home
According to facts stated by the judge in his report, Marion had used marijuana beforehand, then started firing off the weapon inside the home.
Although the people he was visiting asked him to stop, he continued firing off rounds at them, according to the judge’s report.
At one point, one of them asked Marion to fire at her so that she could learn to control her fear. Happy to oblige, he followed through on her request, and a year after the incident she still has pain in the eye that was wounded by one of the pellets.
The accused was charged under criminal code sections concerning possession of firearms, even though the weapon he was using was a pellet-firing weapon. According to the Canadian criminal code, some pellet-firing weapons are classified as firearms.
Judge threw the book
Although Marion expressed regret for his actions and for having wounded a friend, the judge noted the seriousness of his acts given they were committed with dangerous weapons.
A psychiatrist’s report tabled during the trial noted that the accused had in recent years developed an increasing interest in firearms, and that he had expressed a desire to eventually acquire a real gun.
In addition to the 26-month prison sentence, Marion also was given three years of probation, and he is now forbidden from owning certain types of firearms for the rest of his life.
Busy Chomedey intersection to be closed a month (at least) for water and sewer pipe work
It happened so fast, it was like night and day.
That’s how quickly the corner of Notre Dame and Curé Labelle – probably Chomedey’s busiest intersection – was transformed over the past week-and-a-half into an impassable no man’s land, as the City of Laval began work on a long-awaited storm drain and water main replacement project.
Water and sewer pipes
The work includes replacement of a 200-mm drinking water main with a pipe measuring 400 mm to allow better water flow in the neighbourhood, and the addition of a second sewer water drain to provide greater protection against sudden and extreme storm flooding.
According to l’Abord-à-Plouffe city councillor Vasilios Karidogiannis, the intersection could remain closed as late as June 24, or at least for the next month, he told the Laval News.
Once the intersection reopens, the epicentre of the project will shift a block west to the corner of Notre Dame and Jarry, which is expected to be at least partly closed over the coming summer.
This was waiting after return
For Ian Williams, the staff social worker at Agape social services on Notre Dame (a stone’s throw from the centre of the carnage), his first day back at work full-time following a pandemic-related furlough was a shock when he saw the transformation of the intersection.
“This is going to be problematic for us,” he said in an interview last Friday, noting that parents who bring their children to the daycare could have trouble getting in and out because of the numerous detours they’ll now have to navigate.
“A lot of them come in off Autoroute 15, and some from Autoroute 13, and this is definitely going to be a factor,” Williams added, noting that he and other people assumed the work was completed last year when the city carried out some preliminary aspects on the street outside the Senior Wellness Centre.
Making life complicated
He said staff at the Agape Senior Wellness Centre, located a block away on the east side of Curé Labelle, had recently been in the middle of a move, and the street closure would only complicate things for them further.
On a personal note, he said that driving his son to a nearby school is now much harder. “At a time of day when everyone is so busy, it just adds minutes to the drive in and creates more headaches,” said Williams.
A block east on Notre Dame, Giannoula Chinis, owner of the Oneiro II children’s wear boutique, had plenty of reason to be angry about the shutdown of the intersection, considering it’s just the latest of aggravations related to the sewer infrastructure.
A longstanding problem
As reported by the Laval News in February 2016, the boutique dealt with a series of floods since the late 1990s, which destroyed tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise stored in her business’s basement. And she wasn’t the only business on that stretch of Notre Dame that was impacted.
Despite efforts by the City of Laval to correct the situation, lakes of water continued to accumulate outside on Notre Dame whenever there was a heavy rainfall, because the sewer system was inadequate to deal with storm surges. The latest work that has shut the corner of Notre Dame and Curé Labelle will hopefully fix the problem permanently.
Still, she remains frustrated that the corrective work is taking so long. “What I don’t understand is that they fixed this side of the street, they closed it for so many months, and now they’re here again,” she said, pointing to the shut intersection.
Was promised five years ago
Saying that the city had promised to fix the situation five years ago, she was even less than impressed now given the delay. “They promised us that before 2016 the problem would be fixed because they had government funding,” she said, while acknowledging that the city probably did improve things by installing an underground storm water collector last year near the corner of Thomas Chapais St.
‘What I don’t understand is that they fixed this side of the street, they closed it for so many months, and now they’re here again,’ says one discouraged local business owner
At Pizza Morado, another nearby Notre Dame Blvd. business now partly cut off from the street by safety barriers, a long-time employee expressed overall displeasure with the situation. “This has been going on for such a long time – why is it taking so long?” he said, referring to last year’s disruptions as well as the latest ones.
Area growing, says Karidogiannis
In an interview, Councillor Karidogiannis said the purpose of the work is not only to address the existing floodwater problem, but also takes into account the fact that major demographic and economic growth is happening in the area.
This includes a large new multi-unit residential project now being built on the site of the former Récréathèque on the north-west side of Notre Dame and Curé Labelle, as well as dozens of units of new social housing being built at the Val-Martin housing project just east of 80th Ave.
It had to be done, says councillor
“That whole area is changing and growing,” he said. “And to accommodate all that new stuff we need to improve the underground plumbing.”
According to Karidogiannis, the work will also be helping to alleviate sewer and water supply issues elsewhere in l’Abord-à-Plouffe. “So, it’s not just for that particular area. It affects an area probably all the way down to 100th Ave. plumbing-wise.”
While admitting that the disruptions are regrettable, he said the city had no choice but to proceed, since the beginning of the work last year was disrupted by the accelerating COVID-19 pandemic.
“While I understand the frustrations of people in the neighbourhood, this is something that’s got to be done,” said Karidogiannis.
Municipality’s financial situation is solid, claim city officials
In a report on its most recent financial situation, the City of Laval says it has a surplus of $85.6 million, including $42.3 million granted by Quebec to deal locally with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Putting money aside
According to a statement issued by the city, $24 million of the surplus will be placed directly in reserve funds for future financial obligations, including employee pensions, as well as contingency for unexpected natural disasters and other events such as flooding.
The city says the $42.3 million will be placed in the 2021 operating budget, which is paying for measures to relaunch Laval’s economy and to maintain a tax freeze. After that, $20 million will be used to top up other funds.
Breakdown of surplus
The city said the $85.6 million could be broken down this way:
$42.3 million in COVID-19 assistance from Quebec will be used over the course of 2021;
$22.9 million comes from “welcome tax” charged when houses are bought and sold and change owners;
$10 million from a one-time financial occurrence arising from an out-of-court settlement;
‘We lived up to our commitments, despite the pandemic,’ says Mayor Marc Demers
$4.8 million from tax revenues and compensation in lieu of taxes due to strong recent urban growth.
“In 2020, we pledged to improve services for citizens,” said Mayor Marc Demers. “We lived up to our commitments, despite the pandemic. Thanks to our rigorous approach to finances, Laval has known how to control its expenses while continuing to be able to offer quality services to its residents, notably in snow removal and the planting of greenery.”
Forging ahead, says Boyer
Deputy mayor and executive-committee vice-president Stéphane Boyer added, “The margins to maneuver will allow us to pursue our efforts to realize various relaunch operations, for the economy, the environment, culture and social solidarity. A consultation with all the players that is currently underway is sure to be a source of many fertile ideas.”
According to the city, more than 90 per cent of the current surplus was because of the growth of the city’s finances, with support provided by the province. The city said that the healthy real estate market in Laval also contributed. As such, the city took in $23 million in transfer taxes last year.
Impact of the pandemic
The city estimates the financial impact of the pandemic over the course of 2020-2021 at $52.4 million, not counting sums accorded to the Société de transport de Laval for maintenance of its services. However, snow removal costs rose with larger snow falls, while the city also spent more on snow removal as it had previously pledged to improve the service.
The City of Laval’s 2020 finance report paints an optimistic picture of the city’s financial situation.
As well, the city spent more on the development of social housing. Through its special Place-du-Souvenir Fund, the city also allotted more funding to non-profit groups throughout Laval. The city handed out more subsidies to residents who wished to buy electric bicycles, registering a 54 per cent increase over the previous year for this.
Electric vehicle purchase
During this same time, Laval acquired 56 electric vehicles for $2.7 million ($2.2 million after subsidies from higher governments were applied). And the city planted 51,000 shrubs and trees, compared to 4,500 in 2019.
Taking into account 2020 was a pandemic year, the city says it managed all the same to carry out 74.2 per cent of its $336.1 million in PTI budget investments for 2020, which was even better in terms of performance than previous years.
These disbursements were on infrastructure such as roads, bike paths, walking paths, as well as sewers and water. The city says that despite the pandemic, it’s in a good position to face the unforeseen.
‘No one was aware that the city was going to modify and make major changes’
After tabling a petition in Laval city council last week, at least 40 residents of Webb Ave. in Chomedey gathered in the middle of their street earlier this week to say they are serious about demanding the city’s engineering department reverse a plan to narrow their street’s width.
Gathered a petition
“Everyone on the street has signed,” said Nick Batzios, a Webb Ave. resident who helped gather the petition with the help of a neighbour.
Indeed, the size of the crowd that came out last Monday morning to express their opposition to the city’s proposed changes confirmed that feelings are running high on Webb Ave.
According to Batzios, many people on the street knew some repairs to the street were planned, but none expected the radical changes the city is proposing. He said the work is scheduled to begin in less than two weeks.
Unpopular changes
“No one was aware that the city was going to modify and make major changes to Webb Ave.,” he added. “They want to make the roadway smaller and nobody knew anything about this. We want our street to remain as is.”
Danny Pascal, a resident of Webb for the past 45 years, said 36 homes on Webb between Souvenir Blvd. and de Normandie Blvd. are affected.
We only found out about two weeks ago that they’re making all these changes to our street,’ says a Webb Ave. resident
“We sent our petition into city hall, the director-general, city council and the engineering department with the help of Aglaia Revelakis,” he said, referring to the city councillor for the Chomedey district.
Weren’t told, they say
“We only found out about two weeks ago that they’re making all these changes to our street,” he continued. “We had no notice. And when we say that we’re very upset, it’s because this is a very unique street.
“People buy houses on this street because of the unique character of the street – because of its width. We have no problem with some of the infrastructure changes they’re proposing, but not to narrow it where there’s only going to be room for a couple of cars.”
According to Pascal, the city plans to narrow Webb Ave. by up to six metres, part of which will be achieved by widening the sidewalks, followed by planting of trees and installing park benches. “This isn’t a new street where there were no sidewalks already,” said Angie Patsios.
Street width appreciated
“We already have the greenery. It’s a mature area. I don’t understand why we need more. It’s not an area where there are duplexes and triplexes and multi-unit homes. This is a street with single-family homes. And the reason people purchase on this street is mainly because it’s such a beautiful wide street.”
According to Lona Pascal, Danny’s spouse, there are things the residents would like to see on the street. “Our street tends to be very fast,” she said, suggesting speeding is sometimes a problem. “We want speed bumps; we want them to consult with us. We want an extra stop. And we want better lighting.”
‘What is the city doing to protect its citizens from this situation?’
In question period during the May 4 webcast of Laval city council’s monthly meeting, there was a followup to the rat infestation issue on Emerson St. in Chomedey, which was first raised in the Laval News’s April 7 issue.
A breeding ground
As reported in our article (‘Neighbours of vermin-infested duplex plead for help’), a multi-unit house on Emerson became an ideal place for roaches and rats to breed, while pests made their way through walls into neighbors’ homes.
Garbage was piled to the ceiling, while books, magazines, food trays, decaying food, discarded packages and more filled chairs, tables, beds, and some rooms were so stuffed you couldn’t walk through them.
“Imagine having to live next to a place full of trash. That’s what we have had to deal with,” said Vicky Zannis, who lives in the adjacent duplex whose apartment was infested with vermin.
City did little, said Zannis
Zannis had told the Laval News that city officials had done little, while the home next door deteriorated, overflowing with junk and mice since a call she made to 311 in December 2020, followed by a second call in January 2021.
During the May 4 council meeting, a member of the Zannis family questioned the administration about its less than satisfactory response to the situation. They said that only city councillor Michel Poissant (Vimont) had responded satisfactorily and tried to meet their needs.
Why no action taken?
“No action has been taken except for two visits by the exterminator,” they said. “When will the place be clean? My question again: What is the city doing to protect its citizens from this situation? Why is the city not addressing this situation which has affected three families? Do we not matter as human beings?”
‘Do we not matter as human beings?,’ says neighbour impacted by infestation in neighbour’s dwelling
Poissant said, “This is a very touching and human situation that these people are going through.” While a court has ruled that the Quebec Public Curator needs to intervene because part of the problem involves a person with diminished mental capacities, Poissant suggested that the city should go back before the judge and get permission to enter the dwelling to clean and disinfect it so that the matter can be settled.
She’s pleading for help: Poissant
“What Mme Zannis is doing today is a plea to the mayor from the heart, a cry for humanity,” he said. “As for myself as a member of council, I am saying to the administration to please make superhuman efforts – it’s nearly a year that this situation is going on.”
Deputy mayor Stéphane Boyer said, “Of course, it’s a very sad situation. I think nobody should be living through that. It’s deeply unfortunate. From what I understand of this file, the city would like to help, but cannot do it on legal grounds.”
City powerless, says Boyer
According to Boyer, city inspectors visited the dwelling in question to conduct a cleanliness inspection and wanted to intervene to force the occupant to make the premises clean. “Unfortunately, Superior Court prevented the city from intervening, judging that the person there was incompetent. And so, it is the Public Curator of Quebec which protects people judged incompetent that has taken over the dossier.”
Boyer said the city can’t take legal action against someone “that has mental issues or that is incompetent to make their own decisions. Effectively, it is a situation that is very unfortunate and that shouldn’t happen. We would like to intervene, we have tried. But unfortunately, it is the Superior Court of Quebec that is stopping us.”
Laval spent $1.092 million on program that ended two years ago
Two years after the City of Laval ended a subsidy that provided residents with up to $2,000 to help pay for the purchase of an electrically-powered motor vehicle, opposition forces at city hall are still deriding the Demers administration for underwriting a program the opposition claims was wasteful and that tended to be used by persons who are better off financially.
The criticism was renewed during the May 4 city council webcast, when the administration tabled and passed a resolution to create a regular reserve fund of $3 million to pay for efforts aimed at reducing Laval’s greenhouse gas emission imprint on its territory.
Investing in the future
The city maintains that subsidies like the one provided to residents for the purchase of electric vehicles ultimately pay off because they help reduce the presence of greenhouse gases, which will be subject to increasing taxation or penalties by higher levels of government in the not-too-distant future.
Still, Parti Laval leader Michel Trottier remains sceptical of how the city is going about dealing with the greenhouse gas issue.
“Since the creation of the subsidy for electric vehicles, the opposition has been denouncing the absence of objective criteria to pay for greenhouse gas reduction programs,” said Trottier. Still, he said new criteria established by the city will help avoid questionable decisions.
546 residents got subsidy
According to information provided by Trottier, the city spent $1.092 million providing the electric vehicle subsidies. He said that in all, 546 people (0.12 per cent of Laval’s population) received the $2,000 subsidy, including two elected members of the Mouvement lavallois (15 per cent of the ML caucus, Trottier said).
City of Laval deputy mayor Stéphane Boyer defended the city’s $2,000 subsidy for electric vehicle purchases by residents.
He maintained that the electric vehicle subsidy program used up most of the funds the City of Laval had put aside for the overall purpose of dealing with the greenhouse gas issue. He also claimed that no city except Laval had set up a program to provide subsidies for electric cars.
Vimont city councillor Michel Poissant, who leads the newly-formed Laval Citoyens party, said he had nothing against electric cars, although he could see the ways some opportunists might improperly take advantage of the situation.
Doubts over subsidy
“I don’t think it’s a municipality’s business to be involved with this type of thing,” he said. “As well, somebody could be living in Montreal, change their address for his brother-in-law’s in Laval, come to collect the $2,000, then change the address. We have no way of controlling this.”
The city has created a new $3 million reserve fund to pay for efforts aimed at reducing Laval’s greenhouse gas emissions
Deputy mayor Stéphane Boyer said he found it “very unfortunate” to hear councillors with the Parti Laval, “who speak of themselves as being more green than green, opposing subsidies for the electrification of vehicles.”
Boyer defends subsidy
Boyer said that even if not all residents of Laval were able to receive the subsidy to buy an electric car, “all people in Laval benefit from being able to have better air quality and less greenhouse gas to reduce our environmental impacts.”
He said the federal government filled the vacuum left when Laval’s subsidy ended, since Ottawa created a subsidy of its own that was even more generous, and which he said allowed the City of Laval to redirect sums into other projects.
“But listen, we’re one of the very few cities in Canada to have this kind of program and we should be proud of it, rather than denigrating it. What we’ve been doing here today is restructuring our approach. I see only good coming from tonight’s resolution.”
ML councillors got subsidy
City councillor for Renaud Aram Elagoz acknowledged that he was one of the two ML councillors identified by Trottier as having received the city’s electric vehicle subsidy. (The other was council president Christiane Yoakim).
“Yes, I bought an electric vehicle,” he said. “I am a citizen of Laval and, like everybody, I am entitled to this subsidy. It was not voted in so that we could buy electric vehicles. I find these comments extremely inappropriate.”
Note: Due to a typographical error, an earlier version of this article misstated the total amount spent by the City of Laval on electric vehicle grants as $1.92 million. The correct sum is, in fact, $1.092 million. We apologize for the error.
The current issue of the Laval News volume 29-13 published May 12th, 2021. Covering Laval local news, politics, sports and our new section Mature Life. (Click on the image to read the paper.)
