Martin C. Barry

A year after the City of Laval`s decision to postpone construction of a new aquatic complex, the city’s unofficial but largest opposition group is denouncing the administration of Mayor Marc Demers for being without a coherent plan for the facility, even though Laval will be hosting part of the Jeux du Québec next year.

Calling the situation a “financial fiasco,” Action Laval councillors and supporters held a press conference last week to underscore the reality that the complex, initially slated to be built on Terry Fox Ave. near the Cosmodôme, will almost certainly not be built in time to host the 2020 Jeux du Québec. Instead, the City of Laval will be leasing space at the City of Saint-Eustache’s aquatic complex.

Foundations poured

While the City of Laval did some initial planning and had the concrete foundations for a future aquatics complex poured into place in advance for $10 million, the foundations had to be specially protected against the winter elements, while contract bids that were received by the city came in too high and were rejected.

While the former administration of Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt had estimated it would be a $36 million project, the Demers administration re-evaluated its cost as being closer to $61 million. However, when the first contractor bids came in, they were all for more than $80 million.

“Field of Dreams was a 1989 film in which a farmer heard a voice telling him, ‘If you build it he will come,’ said Action Laval councillor for Saint-Bruno David De Cotis. “The aquatic complex is not the Field of Dreams. Marc Demers should stop dreaming and face reality and get into action and solution mode.”

Examples of other projects

The Action Laval research team found aquatic complexes – one completed in Brossard, another in Mascouche – that according to the party were built for $39 million and $14 million respectively.

“The City of Laval can easily build an aquatic complex like the one in Brossard and save $40 million,” De Cotis maintained. “How can we trust this administration which does not respect established parameters and that throws away taxpayers’ money through the windows as if it was Monopoly money.”

De Cotis went on to say that “the bad management of public funds which we are seeing more and more often was one of the reasons I left the administration of Marc Demers.” He said the city should re-start the aquatic complex project over from scratch, bulldozing the foundations despite their $10 million cost.

Start over, says De Cotis

“The City of Laval, instead of having a $10 million cement hole, should start from zero, cut their losses, take the bulldozer, remove the foundation and build a brand new aquatic centre for $60 million,” added De Cotis, insisting that such a centre would meet residents’ requirements.

De Cotis said the situation is “embarrassing” for the City of Laval. “We’re hosting the Quebec Laval Games in 2020, and instead of having those games in Laval we have them in Saint Eustache,” he said. “This is very embarrassing for us all.”

Action Laval city councillor for Chomedey Aglaia Revelakis agrees it’s not appropriate for the Laval to be hosting something like the Jeux du Québec while using an athletic facility in a neighbouring municipality. “In other words, we’re hosting but we’re not hosting the games,” she said.

“This is an embarrassment to a city that is the third-largest in Quebec and for all its citizens,” she added. “Yes, we got the games, but in the end we’re not even hosting them properly because we were not able to build the aquatic centre as scheduled.”

Martin C. Barry

Royal Canadian Legion members from Branch 251 are out selling Remembrance Day poppies in preparation for the annual Remembrance Day commemorations taking place in Laval as well as across Canada on Nov. 11.

Legion members along with supporters, including Air Cadet program participants from Laval, held an official launch for the campaign at Branch 251 headquarters on Curé Labelle Blvd. on Oct. 24.

An annual tradition

“We hold this event every year for the kickoff of the poppy campaign which runs this year from Oct. 25 to the 10^th of November,” said Eric Larsen, Branch 251’s president.

According to Shannon Westlake, 2^nd Vice President for branch membership and the poppy campaign chairperson, Remembrance Day poppies are available at the branch or from branch members who will be stationed outside major retailers in western Laval including Maxi, Costco and Wal-Mart.

First poppy pinned

Among the guests at the campaign launch was Laval city councillor for L’Orée-des-Bois Yannick Langlois who was representing Mayor Marc Demers. “It’s a pleasure for me to be here to have the first poppy pinned on me,” he told the Laval News.

“This is something that is very meaningful. We all have a duty to remember our veterans and all those who fought in wars. It is something that we regard as very important for the city and that all Laval residents also consider important.”

Students taking part

Helen Kalipolidis, principal of Souvenir Elementary School, was on hand to represent the school’s young students at the campaign launch. “The opening of the annual poppy campaign is always a big occasion for us,” she said.

According to Kalipolidis, Souvenir Elementary will be holding several events on Remembrance Day. “We have assemblies planned for 3K all the way up to grade six,” said Kalipolidis.

Martin C. Barry

With the release last week of a new statistical report on Laval’s ever-growing immigrant population, the city is setting higher standards for itself and hopes to be more welcoming, while being more inclusive and integrating newly arrived immigrants.

According to the report which was unveiled during a gathering of Laval-area immigration issue stakeholders at Collège Montmorency’s André Mathieu auditorium, 28.5 per cent of the City of Laval’s population consists of people who immigrated to Canada and Quebec from other countries.

Some startling stats

Perhaps more startlingly, from 2001 to 2016 the immigrant population of Laval increased by an astonishing 122.8 per cent. With a 13. 5 per cent share each of the city’s population, Syria and Haiti rank highest as the countries of birth for immigrants to Laval.

In all, 44 per cent of families in Laval are regarded as having immigrant origins. The report, based on statistics from the last national census, also reveals that more than 60 per cent of immigrants are employed, although the rate varies from 54.7 per cent for women to 66.1 per cent for males.

Immigrant employment

In addition to these facts, the report also states that 15.1 per cent of immigrants living in Laval are self-employed, compared to a 10 per cent rate for non-immigrants. As well, 74.3 per cent of immigrants are homeowners, compared to 66.8 per cent of non-immigrants.

Laval city councillor Jocelyne Frédéric-Gauthier, who is responsible for immigration and multicultural issues, said the report comes following a pledge made by the city to improve its methods for overseeing the integration of the immigrant population.

Window on immigration

“The statistical portrait of the immigrant population of Laval allows us to see the specific realities lived by people who are immigrants,” she said. “It will also allow the city, as well as institutions and local as well as regional organizations working with the immigration population to have a better knowledge of the sociological, linguistic and economic characteristics of the different groups arriving to live in Laval.”

The rate of growth for the immigrant population in Laval is four times that on the Island of Montreal, where it was only 31 per cent during the same period. Creation and finalization of the report was overseen by a team of officials from the Carrefour d’Intercultures de Laval, the CISSS de Laval, Services Québec Laval, the Table de concertation de Laval en condition féminine and the City of Laval.

Every three out of 10

The report estimates that three Laval residents out of 10 have immigrant roots. Between 2001 and 2016, the number of people in Laval who are immigrants or whose roots stem from recent immigration rose from 52,495 to 116,935.

And perhaps not surprisingly, the researchers found that Chomedey, the Laval district most often associated with high levels of immigrant population, actually has Laval’s highest percentage of immigrants, with 42.8 per cent of its population – or four out of 10 people – being able to trace their direct roots to immigration.

(TLN) Groupe Sélection and Tornatech were two Laval-based businesses which were awarded prizes during the 2019 Prix Créateurs d’emplois du Québec awards ceremony held in Quebec City recently.

Two awards for firms

The two companies won the “Champion” and “People’s Choice” awards respectively for the Laval region after taking part in this competition sponsored by Fondaction, the Conseil de patronat du Québec and the Corporation des parcs industriels du Québec.
Groupe Sélection is a well-known developer of real-estate projects, most notably of retirement residences for senior citizens. Established 30 years ago, the company now has 50 retirement residences that are operational or under development and employ a staff of more than 5,000 people across Quebec.

Job creation honoured

Groupe Sélection was recognized in particular for the fact it created 351 new jobs in the Laval region in 2018. The company currently employs 2,356 workers in Laval.
The year 2018 was a big one for Tornatech, which specializes in the design and manufacture of controls for firefighting pumps. To support its growth, the company adopted special measures last year.

Innovative measures

After moving into a new factory containing ultramodern equipment with LEED certification to meet the company’s ecological values, Tornatech created 43 new positions last year, raising its number of employees to 171.
Faced with a lack of public transit service access to its factory, the company created a shuttle bus route for its employees, while also paying some of the cost of their workers’ Opus public transit payment cards.