Martin C. Barry

With some of the richest agricultural soil in Quebec located on a large swath of its territory, the City of Laval plans to expand a marketing program for locally-grown produce to large grocery stores, according to a member of the executive-committee at city hall.

Focus on local

While many Laval residents were on vacation in mid-July, officials from the city as well as from grassroots community groups gathered in a green space near the Cartier Metro station to mark the opening of a small open-air market that will be selling locally-grown fruits and vegetables there for the rest of the summer.

This is the second year for the Halte du marché, although the first time that it’s located near the Cartier Metro stop. In its first year, it was set up temporarily in a spot along des Prairies Blvd. near des Laurentides Blvd.

Open until October

The concept was developed with financial assistance from Saveurs de Laval and additional support from several community groups including the Association des popotes roulantes de Laval, Enfant d’Abord and Au panier.

The outdoor space was set up by the city in conjunction with La Pépinière Espaces collectifs and will be open until Oct. 18 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 2:30 pm to 7 pm.

Expansion foreseen

Operated by Écomarché Cartier, the outdoor market will be selling fresh fruits and vegetables as well as artisanal baked goods, organic honey and other products. Small shows and events are also scheduled to take place there at various times over the remainder of the summer.

“We want to try to enlarge this project so as to take it to other areas of Laval also near Metro stations and transit hubs,” said Alexandre Sicard-Roche, a community organizer who has been overseeing the progress of the project. He said that in the coming years they hope to expand with additional outlets.

Prime farm territory

“One of the big advantages we have in Laval is that we have some of the most fertile land in Quebec,” said Sainte-Dorothée city councillor Ray Khalil, who sits on the executive-committee, while also chairing the city’s Agricultural Consultative Committee (CCA).

“There are different factors to our initiatives, and one of them is bringing agriculture closer to the people,” he added. “At the same time we have very strong economic and urban development in Laval, we have the advantage of being able to combine both.

Close to the land

“The farmers of Laval have the advantage of being so close to the people who live here,” said Khalil. “A lot of them have kiosks right in front of their farms where you can go and buy fresh strawberries and raspberries. People love it. It’s one of the beautiful things about living in Laval and we have to maximize this advantage.”

Although produce grown in Laval has always been available from roadside kiosks, Khalil said the city is working on a strategy to see local fruits and vegetables distributed and sold in the region’s grocery stores as well. “It’s something we’ve been working on for a couple of years and we hope to make an announcement in due time,” he said.

A place to socialize

Laval city councillor for Duvernay/Pont-Viau Stéphane Boyer, who also sits on the executive-committee, said he is pleased with the way the Halte du marché project has been developing.

“This project is in response to a need that was expressed by citizens of the sector,” he said. “The Halte du marché, in addition to offering fresh foods, will also encourage gatherings, discussions and sharing, all of which are good for the revitalization of the neighbourhood.”

(TLN) Mayor Marc Demers, accompanied by several members of city council and staffers from Laval’s economic development team, spent some time last week at Dynacare, a diagnostic and medical tracking company that has branches all over Canada.

Dynacare Laval general manager Yvan Côté and Scott Hickey from Headquarters in Brampton, ON gave the mayor and his entourage a tour of Dynacare’s facilities, including the laboratories and the client service centre.

Discussions were also held on issues concerning the business and innovation in the field of sciences in Laval. Dynacare employs more than 60 people in its Laval lab, as well as at its three testing facilities.

The company evolved into its current incorporation partly as a result of its acquisition of Warnex, another company that started in Laval thanks to the support of the centre québécois d’innovation en biotechnologie (CQIB), located at the Cité de la Biotech.

On June 20th 2019, Agape Executive Director Kevin McLeod was happy to receive a cheque from Chomedey MNA Guy Oullette in the amount of $10,000.

This money goes towards Agape’s 2019-2020 efforts in offering various services to vulnerable families including Quebec newcomers. 

Among it’s many mandates, projects and services, the non-profit organization offers over 1,500 food baskets to Laval residents each year along with much furniture, toy and clothing distribution.

“Thanks to the ongoing support of people like Mr. Ouellette, Agape can continue to offer it’s services across Laval.” McLeod said.

Martin C. Barry

Was it déjà vu? Or, perhaps more ominously, a foreshadowing of something that stands to become a lot more common in Laval in this era of global warming?

Whatever, there was an eerie sense of having seen it all before last week when officials from the Quebec government were in Laval for a public information meeting with property owners who were seriously impacted by the flooding in April.

Panel answered questions

After all, the last time this happened was in 2017 and the drill then was pretty much the same: a panel of bureaucrats facing hundreds of sometimes irate Laval residents (albeit fewer than last time) at the Château Royal.

The residents were addressed in a way they had more or less come to expect of governmental consultants and employees: responses couched in departmental codes, ciphers and technospeak, with bureaucrats replying as best they could to traumatized people who probably would have much preferred hearing plain language.

Towns and cities affected

According to a summary of the government’s post-flood plans for establishing new flood zones, 813 of the province’s municipalities are affected as new zones are set up for zero to 20-year risks as well as all sectors which suffered flooding this past year and two years ago.

For properties within these zones, there will be no possibility of constructing or reconstructing a building that has lost more than half its value, and there will be no expansion of buildings or outbuildings in such zones. Getting permission to rebuild flood-damaged properties will depend on whether the cost of reconstruction amounts to 50 per cent or more of the value of the house.

Municipalities, including the City of Laval, will be issuing renovation and construction permits within these zones based on criteria set down in new provincial legislation that was drafted taking into account the impact of past and potential future flooding.

Venting their anger

During a question period, several Laval residents from areas seriously affected by flooding this spring (including Laval-sur-le-Lac, Île Verte, Laval-Ouest, Fabreville and Sainte-Rose) expressed their disillusionment – or in some cases outrage – over the way municipal and provincial authorities have dealt with the aftermath.

Unhappy with a proposed new flood zone map the provincial government has developed, Eli Chakieh of Laval-sur-le-Lac said the chart is designed to cover the entire area. “This is inaccurate,” he said. “None of the houses in Laval-sur-le-Lac were flooded. I’ve been there for forty years and I lived through two floods before.

“You are mixing up houses with land,” he continued. “The land had flooded on the riverside. The houses never flooded. And you’re amalgamating all the problems for the houses and the land and you’re preventing the citizens of Laval-sur-le-Lac from doing improvements.”

Improvements forbidden

Chakieh said that according to the new flood-zone law, he’s being prevented from installing a new pool in his back yard because it falls under a definition of prohibited construction. Marc Mongeon, a spokesman for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Habitation who answered most questions during the meeting, told him that the government hasn’t finished the final draft of the legislation and that there will still be time to iron out details involving those sorts of situations.

Another resident, Rose-Lise Arrelle of Chomedey, complained that the government’s proposed new flood-zone map includes her property, even though her street has never been flooded. “We deplore the fact that someone – we don’t know who – coloured the map red in such a way as to cause a lot of people concern,” she said. “This is needless anxiety that you are encouraging. The map does not correspond to our reality.”

Some officials attended

At the same time, Arrelle noted the absence of virtually all provincially-elected representatives at the meeting. (A few members of Laval city council, including Laval-Les Îles councillor Nicholas Borne, Sainte-Rose councillor Virginie Dufour and Auteuil councillor Jocelyne Frédéric-Gauthier, did attend the meeting as observers and interveners.)

Guylaine Riendeau of Fabreville complained about a shortage of information and a lack of transparency regarding the official response to the floods. Like many of the other residents, she complained of being subjected to severe flood-zone restrictions in the new chart, even though her property had never suffered flooding.