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Laval City-Watch

Martin C. Barry
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Laval City-Watch

Members of the City of Laval’s executive-committee made several decisions during their Aug. 26 sitting, including awarding an almost $650,000 contract for the improvement of Firehall No. 3 in St-Vincent-de-Paul, awarding a contract for preliminary work on the Laval public library’s future central branch, and awarding a contract for sidewalk rehabilitation in various parts of the city.

The committee awarded a contract for $649,105.44 to Légaré Construction (including taxes) for the company to carry out expansion and enlargement work at Firehall No. 3 at 4411 de la Concorde Blvd. East. The work will involve creation of a new dressing room for firefighting apparel and gear.

Firehall improvements

According to the city, the work is being done following the publication in 2017 of guidelines by the provincial parity committee for health and security in the workplace, which highlighted illnesses endemic to certain professions. As such, Laval decided to take measures to ensure that firefighters’ suits and apparel would meet new standards for workplace well-being.

Laval city hall on Souvenir Blvd. in Chomedey.

According to new procedures to be implemented once the dressing area is completed, after each fire the firefighters will immediately have to wash their suits, which will be contaminated with residues and contaminants from the fires. Following this, they will place the suits in special lockers equipped with a ventilation system to dry them thoroughly.

A healthier environment

Particles washed off or vacuumed from the suits by the system will be exhausted outdoors by ventilation fans. It is believed that this new way of doing things at the firehall will significantly help reduce risks by the firefighters of contracting various forms of cancer, which have long been considered an inherent risk in the firefighting profession.

During the same meeting, the executive-committee members also awarded a contract for $313,074 (including taxes) to the architectural firm Hébert Zurita Danis Smith to create a functional and technical program (PFT) for a major culture infrastructure program – the central library and the Centre de création artistique professionnelle.

Central library building

As part of the City of Laval’s wide-ranging strategic vision looking forward to the year 2035, the city wants to encourage access to culture by all residents. As well, in conjunction with the cultural development plan adopted in 2019, the central library building, to be located in the Montmorency downtown core sector, is expected to be a magnet for future creative endeavours and projects.

In a statement, the city says that the new central library branch “will reinforce the library network through the elevation of a central and modern library that, while complementing the development of local library branches, will also fill the needs of all Laval residents.

Committed to culture

“The construction of this new crossroads of culture and learning will bear witness to the commitment by the municipality towards culture, the arts and social development. The infrastructure will become one of the richest collective legacies that will contribute to reinforcing the identity of Laval, while spreading word about the city.”

In another decision made on Aug. 26 by the executive-committee, the members decided to award a $109,325 contract (including taxes) for sidewalk construction to the firm FNX-INNOV. As part of a master plan adopted by the city in July last year for pedestrian infrastructure development, nearly 55 kilometres of additional sidewalks and other comfortable and secure pedestrian infrastructure were planned for the next three years.

New sidewalks to be built

According to the city, work in the above-mentioned contract will be fulfilled before this year is over in the following places: Place Alton-Goldbloom, Romain St., Maisonneuve St., 52nd St., 49th Ave., Edgar St. and Cléroux Blvd.

Finally, the executive-committee awarded a $2,595,976 contract (including taxes) to Construction G-NESIS for rehabilitation work of small bridges in the district of Sainte-Dorothée, more specifically on des Jardins St. and under the cycling path located in Couvrette Park.

Bike path improvements

The city says the work is needed to replace equipment that is at the end of its useful life on the bicycle path network, in order to assure the safety of users. The money being allotted for the work comes from a City of Laval fund used for the rehabilitation of structures, including bridges and overpasses, in the triennial capital works budget.

The City of Laval’s executive-committee meets each week to make decisions on a variety of issues. The executive-committee includes the following people: Mayor Marc Demers, vice-president Stéphane Boyer (also councillor for Duvernay–Pont-Viau) councillors Sandra Desmeules (Concorde–Bois-de-Boulogne), Ray Khalil (Sainte-Dorothée), Virginie Dufour (Sainte-Rose) and associate members Nicholas Borne (Laval-les-Îles) and Yannick Langlois (L’Orée-des-Bois).

Ouellette hopes his new book blows the lid off UPAC

Martin C. Barry
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0
Ouellette hopes his new book blows the lid off UPAC

Chomedey MNA still waiting for an apology for his arrest after info leak at UPAC

If it’s been a while since most people in Quebec heard news from the province’s Unité permanente anticorruption – better known as UPAC – Chomedey MNA Guy Ouellette – a former Securité du Québec police investigator who, ironically, is not a fan of the anti-collusion police – is drawing UPAC back into the spotlight with a new book-length exposé, as well as a lawsuit that got underway on the same day last week as the book launch.

An arduous task

Chomedey Independent MNA Guy Ouellette hopes his new book sheds light and vindicates him of wrongdoing in the controversy over his arrest by UPAC. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst)

“Today marks the end of some hard work that started 10 months ago,” Ouellette said in an interview with The Laval News during a media and by-invitation event held last week at the Château Royal convention centre in the heart of the riding he represents.

Ouellette, who spent a significant part of his three decades in the SQ investigating the Hell’s Angels and other criminal motorcycle gangs, says his new 336-page work, Qu’on accuse ou qu’on s’excuse: Les Dessous to mon arrestation illégale, could finally blow the lid over what’s left of UPAC.

The book’s foreword was written by former National Assembly Speaker Jacques Chagnon, who had previously come vigorously to Ouellette’s defence.

Facts for BEI inquest

Ouellette said the book focuses primarily on facts, which he hopes will be put to good use by the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), a Quebec agency that looks into police wrong-doing, to guide them in their investigation of the circumstances that led to Ouellette’s arrest by UPAC in October 2017 on suspicion he was involved in a leak of information at UPAC.

Despite the arrest, Ouellette was never charged.

First elected as a Quebec Liberal in 2007, Ouellette currently sits as an independent member of the National Assembly. He was expelled from the Quebec Liberal Party caucus shortly before the 2018 election, after news reports claimed he had leaked information about the Liberals to the Coalition Avenir Québec, who won the election. Premier François himself maintained that Ouellette furnished information to the CAQ.

Insight into UPAC

“It’s insight also,” Ouellette added regarding the book, noting that its conclusion raises serious questions as to whether UPAC is needed nine years after the department was created by the then-Liberal government. The other question Ouellette raises, as suggested in the book’s main title, is whether he will receive a formal apology from the province’s current Premier, François Legault.

‘I’m not the leak UPAC was looking for,’ says Ouellette

As Ouellette noted, the title, in fact, quotes word-for-word the phrase used by Jacques Chagnon in the National Assembly on Oct. 31 2017, during a response to Ouellette’s arrest. At that time, Chagnon said, “An MNA has suffered a serious blow and his reputation has been tarnished. […] May charges be brought, or may public apologies be made. May he be charged or may apologies be made.”

Chagnon’s remarks, as well as a unanimous standing ovation Ouellette received from members of all parties in the National Assembly, were viewed as a strong reaction by the province’s elected representatives to what they saw as an ominous threat posed by the police towards parliamentarians.

‘I’m not the leak,’ he says

Regarding the UPAC leak, Ouellette adamantly maintains he was not the source. “I’m not the leak UPAC was looking for,” he said. “I have nothing to reproach myself for.” In addition, Ouellette claims that because UPAC wants to safeguard the identity of the actual source, they are refusing, “But they know,” he said, while also claiming that some media outlets are also well aware of the source’s identity.

Further to this, Ouellette pointed out that in February 2018, when he was called to testify during court proceedings in Quebec City in a fraud and abuse of power case pending against former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Nathalie Normandeau, he swore under oath that he neither knew nor was he the leak’s source. He makes that specific claim again in his book.

In an added twist, the first court date for a libel suit Ouellette launched two years ago in conjunction with the UPAC arrest, naming the Quebec Solicitor General as defendant, was delayed until the very day of his book launch last week.

Registration underway for public consultations on Laval Police Department

Martin C. Barry
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0
Registration underway for public consultations on Laval Police Department

In preparation for the creation of a new master plan to provide guidelines for operating the Laval Police Department, the City of Laval has announced the opening of registration for residents and community leaders who would like to take part in a public consultation.

The city says that an important goal following the consultation may be to take measures, as deemed necessary, to deal with systemic racial discrimination.

Focus groups, led by the Institut du Nouveau Monde, will be taking place online on Sept 17 at 6:30 pm, and on Sept. 18 at 3:30 pm. To take part, residents must have access to a computer, a computer tablet or a smartphone equipped with a microphone and (ideally) also a camera.

Additional information and registration: www.repensonslaval.ca/dialogue-police

https://www.laval.ca/Pages/Fr/Nouvelles/microsite-police/consultationscitoyennes.aspx

CISSS de Laval gears up screening for wave two of COVID-19

Martin C. Barry
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0
CISSS de Laval gears up screening for wave two of COVID-19

Faced with a resurgence in demand for testing to be done for COVID-19, the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) de Laval has announced that five screening clinics will be offering service in Laval and that their hours of operation will increase. 

Locations for the screening clinics: 

► Pierre-Creamer Arena, 1160 Pie lX Blvd., Laval.

► 34D, Cartier Blvd. Ouest, Laval (beginning September 11).

► Mobile unit (located in the parking lot at Cartier Arena at 100 Montée Major, Laval).

► 1200 Chomedey Blvd., Laval.

► 3400 Dagenais Blvd., Laval.

CISSS de Laval is also inviting everyone who wants to be screened to visit their web site to find out the waiting times that can be expected: https://www.lavalensante.com/soins-et-services/information-pratique/info-covid-19/#c14731

Laval’s Claude-Ferragne Athletics Stadium now open in Auteuil

Martin C. Barry
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0
Laval’s Claude-Ferragne Athletics Stadium now open in Auteuil

Thursday will be remembered as an important date for Laval residents who are into competing in athletics or track-and-field sports.

Officials from the City of Laval, as well as from the Club d’athlétisme Dynamique de Laval, were on hand at the Odyssée-des-Jeunes school park in Auteuil for the official opening of the new $6.6 million Claude-Ferragne Athletics Stadium.

The new facility, which is open to athletes from Laval or any other resident who wants to train in a first-class setting, has been created by the city for the Jeux du Québec, part of which are scheduled to be taking place in Laval during the summer next year.

From the left: Lyne Carry, president of the Club d’Athlétisme Dynamique de Laval, Annie Potvin, head coach Club d’Athlétisme Dynamique de Laval, and Stéphane Boyer, vice-president of the Laval executive-committee are seen here on the surface of the running track at the new Claude-Ferragne Athletics Stadium in Auteuil.

Until next summer, according to the city, the facility is available to any resident who wishes to use it. It’s named after Claude Ferragne, a world-class high-jumper who took part as a Canadian athlete in the 1976 Montreal Olympics where he finished 12th in his sport. He won a gold medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games. He coached and taught high-jump at Collège Ahuntsic.

Among other things, the stadium includes a 400-metre 8-lane running track, a 100-metre section with 10 lanes, two long-jump runways, several zones for pole-vault and high-jump, zones for disc, hammer, weight and javelin throw, a triple-jump corridor, a judges’ tower, four light towers and bleachers to accommodate up to 600 spectators.

“We can be very proud of these additional facilities, confirming Laval’s leadership with regards to sports,” said Mayor Marc Demers.

Opposition questions ‘transparency’ of Laval’s ‘Grande Bibliothèque’ project

Martin C. Barry
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0
Opposition questions ‘transparency’ of Laval’s ‘Grande Bibliothèque’ project

Demers and Boyer say too little information available yet to share with council

Although construction work on a new central branch for the City of Laval’s public library network is still far from underway, the opposition on Laval city council is already raising questions about “transparency” and questionable costs for a project slated to be built in Laval’s downtown core.

No transparency: Opposition

Seen here in a file photo, Laval executive-committee vice-president Stéphane Boyer says the city hasn’t enough information gathered on the Grande Bibliothèque project yet to reveal any preliminary planning.

During the Sept. 1 webcast of Laval city council, objections were voiced from several opposition councillors to an agenda item calling for the awarding of a 12-month contract worth a little over $313,074 to an architectural firm to produce a preliminary technical study for the future “Grande Bibliothèque.”

“There is a shortage of information,” said opposition councillor for Saint-Bruno David De Cotis. “It leaves the impression that there is a lack of transparency. Because I can understand that studies have to be done. But I am convinced that the committee members who worked on this were given a presentation and they know where the Grande Bibliothéque is going to be built.

Team work, suggests De Cotis

“They know the needs,” added De Cotis. “So we don’t need an outside consultant to tell us the functioning or technical needs. What I am asking managers at city hall is to give us a presentation with all the information that is available today. After that it will be easier for us all as a team to vote on budgets.”

De Cotis and fellow opposition councillor Isabella Tassoni, who represents Laval-des-Rapides, agreed that athough she’s the councillor for the district, even she is being kept in the dark by the Demers administration as to the details of the project.

While Tassoni, De Cotis and others said they agreed that a central library building is needed – “I want to see it in my district more than anybody,” Tassoni said at one point – she added that she found it impossible to vote even on a preliminary part of a project when the administration hadn’t provided any information on it.

Tassoni voted No

“At the end of the day, I don’t know how we can vote on something that we have no idea how it’s going to take place,” she said, adding that even though she understood the points being made by Mayor Marc Demers and executive-committee vice-president Stéphane Boyer, she saw no option but to vote against the library project contract.

St-Vincent-de-Paul city councillor Paolo Galati said he, too, supported the Grande Bibliothèque project, “except that for me there is a lack of transparency,” he added, citing the City of Laval auditor-general’s most recent annual report which noted an absence of transparency in a number of the administration’s dealings. For that reason, Galati said he would vote against the contract.

Info not ready yet, said Demers

Responding to the criticism that the project lacks transparency, Stéphane Boyer said that because planning is still in the early stages there wasn’t enough information to share at this point. Mayor Demers said the city is currently seeking subsidies from the provincial government to help pay for the project. He said that when further studies have been completed, the administration will be in a position to present an outline to all the city council members.

During the public question period, Laval resident Mélanie Guimond said that following the vandalism committed against the statue of John A. MacDonald in downtown Montreal, the City of Laval might consider denouncing such acts as they could end up also taking place in Laval. She suggested a resolution should be tabled at the council meeting to denounce all forms of vandalism being used to stifle constructive debate.

No monuments here, said mayor

While agreeing that the violent upheavals and events recently in the U.S. as well as the vandalism in Montreal shouldn’t be ignored, Mayor Demers said Laval has little in common with those incidents. “In the City of Laval, we have very few monuments honoring historic figures and so we are perhaps not as vulnerable to the type of situation that took place in Montreal,” said Demers.

“But I can assure you that all of the elected officials here tonight heard you and we oppose any manifestation of violence whether it is verbal, physical or otherwise to meet a goal. I think that the best way to win people over is by speaking and letting the facts be known.”

Chomedey U18 AAA pays homage to ‘Black Lives Matter’

Martin C. Barry
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0
Chomedey U18 AAA pays homage to ‘Black Lives Matter’

Provincial league team beats Longueuil 3 – 1 in semi-final match

Wearing “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts as a gesture of solidarity with the growing anti-racism movement, members of the U18 AAA Chomedey soccer team won a semi-final match by a score of 3 – 1 last Saturday against Longueuil at Berthiaume-Du Tremblay Park.

“Our boys were very proud to wear the Black lives matter shirt and be part of the movement and we’re proud of them,” said Maria Kyrtatas, manager of U18 AAA Chomedey, a provincial league team.

Since Chomedey is home to many nationalities and cultures, the team members felt strongly that they wanted to make a statement on their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, she added.

“We thought that this would be a really good way, through sport, and since the team members have become so close, to voice their feelings about Black Lives Matter,” said Kyrtatas.

City of Laval employees, retirees and others donate $112,302 to the Red Cross

Martin C. Barry
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0
City of Laval employees, retirees and others donate $112,302 to the Red Cross

Marking the close of their 32nd annual workplace fundraising campaign, representatives of current and former employees of the City of Laval announced the donation of $112,302.60 on Wednesday to the Red Cross Québec.

The money will be going towards the Canadian Red Cross’s emergency fund which is used to meet the needs of victims of major catastrophes who need lodging, food, clothing and other necessities on quick notice.

From the end of June to early August, employees, retirees and elected officials of the City of Laval took part in the campaign, which was conducted “virtually” this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the donation each year is normally done formally with a ceremony taking place at Laval city hall, this year it took place over the internet, the city said.

Over the past 10 years, more than $943,968 has been collected during these fundraisers for the Red Cross by the City of Laval’s elected officials, current employees and past employees.

“What with the pandemic, we had to improvise a little bit,” said Mayor Marc Demers. “Since holding a fundraising event wasn’t possible, the ambassadors for the campaign decided to be creative in their fundraising, while everyone else answered the call by being generous despite the uncertainty of the current times. I would like to thank them with all my heart.”

Demers tests negative for COVID-19, but will stay in isolation for a week

Martin C. Barry
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0
Demers tests negative for COVID-19, but will stay in isolation for a week

Laval mayor Marc Demers, who went into self-isolation on Tuesday after coming into contact with someone who was a carrier of the COVID-19 virus, said on Wednesday morning that a screening test has determined he is not infected.

Seen in this file photo from an event last year, Mayor Marc Demers says he will work in isolation for a week, although his test for COVID-19 came back negative. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

“Just got my screening test results following my contact with the Mayor of Longueuil and I’m relieved to hear that I’m negative,” Demers said on his Facebook page.

“I will remain in preventive isolation until September 16th to follow the instructions of the Public Health Department.

“During this time, I will continue to assume my functions in telework. This situation is another proof that this virus is still very present and that we must continue to protect ourselves.”

Demers was part of a group of provincial government and municipal officials who were in contact with each other last week while at least one of the group was infected with the coronavirus.

Three provincial government ministers, François Bonnardel, Simon Jolin-Barrette and Chantal Rouleau, were also affected, as was Montreal mayor Valérie Plante.

Mayor Marc Demers in isolation after attending event where COVID-19 may have spread

Martin C. Barry
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0
Mayor Marc Demers in isolation after attending event where COVID-19 may have spread
Laval mayor Marc Demers, seen in this file photo at a city council meeting, is in self-isolation after attending an event where someone with COVID-19 is known to have been present. (File photo: Newsfirst)

Laval mayor Marc Demers has gone into self-isolation for a potential COVID-19 infection after it was revealed on Tuesday that he was part of a group of provincial government and municipal officials who attended an event last week where they were exposed to the coronavirus.

According to the Montreal daily La Presse, three provincial government ministers, François Bonnardel, Simon Jolin-Barrette and Chantal Rouleau, are also in self-isolation now, as is Longueuil mayor Sylvie Parent, pending tests to determine if they became infected.

“My thoughts are with my colleague Sylvie Parent, to whom I wish a speedy recovery,” Demers said on his Facebook page Tuesday morning. “Since we were all present at the same activity, I am placing myself in isolation and I will submit to a screening test today. Together, let us continue to respect the sanitary requirements set by the government.”

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