TLN

On Thursday November 8, the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction celebrated their 20^th anniversary of the Design Awards for Excellence in Steel Construction, at the “Salle des Spectacles” of the Casino de Montréal, offering a welcoming cocktail and a 4-course gourmet dinner coupled with music from a jazz-trio. The evening was animated by Stéphanie Levesque (tv host, columnist, author).

Hellen Christodoulou, Ph.D, B.L., LL.B, M.B.A, is the Director General of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction and in charge for the province of Quebec; the institute is the voice of all the steel construction industry in Canada, actively engaged in building a prosperous, sustainable and globally competitive construction sector with ability, vision and leadership to meet growing construction needs.

The 20^th Anniversary theme was “A TRIBUTE TO THE STEEL INDUSTRY – AN IMPORTANT LEGACY FOR QUEBEC”, showcasing the leadership and contribution of the steel industry to the Quebec and the Canadian economy, as well as its North American and International footprint. The steel construction industry is dynamic, and important to Quebec and is constantly evolving; the steel construction industry employs some 17,000 people in more than 1,300 fabrication and erection companies, representing more than 8% of the manufacturing sector.

At this annual event the Institute rewards Québec teams who carry out exceptional projects in steel, showcasing complex and innovative steel construction projects for their beauty, uniqueness and originality. Each year, professionals and key stakeholders in the world of steel construction submit their projects.

105 Nominations were received this year, out of which 38 finalists were picked and finally a distinguished jury of renown Architects and Engineers, selected by Dr. Christodoulou, selected 1 winner for each of the 12 categories. Magnificent videos of the 12 categories were shown during the evening, naming the winner at the end. Plaques were presented to the winning teams, as congratulations and special recognition by the industry.

The fabricator of the year, selected amongst peers was awarded a beautiful portrait representing this year’s theme, prepared by the talented artist Patricia Lagopatis. A donation was also made by the Institute to the Centre for handicap children “Petite Échelle” and the winner of the raffle took home a beautiful painting, donated by the renown artist Katerina Mertikas.

Martin C. Batty

The sound and fury of heavy metal and hard rock – with a dose of Alice Cooper-style theatrics tossed in – helped raise thousands of dollars worth of children’s Christmas toys for Saint Justine’s Hospital during a benefit event held last Saturday night at Juliano’s Resto Bar on Saint-Martin Blvd. in Chomedey.

Called called Rockin’ for Kids, it was a night of amazing rock talent and stars, filled with great talent such as tributes to the Tragically Hip, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, as well as the organizers’ favourite band, The Damn Truth.

The entry fee was simply a brand new toy. “I need help putting smiles on children’s faces,” said chief organizer Lora Di Mora, before inviting the Laval News to drop by to see for ourselves. This wasn’t the first time she’d organized a Christmas toys charitable event.

For St-Justine’s Hospital

While various charitable groups have benefited in the past, this year she decided to hold the event for Saint Justine’s so that the children confined there during the upcoming Christmas holidays will have toys all the same.

“I’ve been doing this for around 15 years now,” she said in an interview. “I just love seeing children happy.” It was the first time that Di Mora, who lives in Montreal’s Borough of Rivière-des-Prairies/Pointe-aux-Trembles, staged the drive in Laval.

Just after 6 pm last Saturday evening when the event was getting underway, more than 200 toys had been collected, with many more donations to be received as the night wore on. For anyone who would like to make a donation of new toys to the cause, Lora can be contacted by e-mail at ldimora@colonialelegance.com.

Martin C. Barry

Vimy Liberal MP Eva Nassif held a pre budget consultation meeting at Château Royal on the evening of Nov. 15 in preparation for the expected tabling of the Liberal government’s 2019-2020 budget in February.

“The government wants to hear from Canadians across the country and from all walks of life,” said Nassif. “We want your feedback on different issues related to Canada’s current and future economic situation.”

Suggestions for gov’t

During the meeting, constituents of Vimy shared their insights and suggestions on how the government could add to its current program, which consists significantly of assisting the middle class as well as helping those working hard to join it.

The meeting was just one of many that are taking place across the country in keeping with a nationwide consultation launched by Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Global Entrepreneurship

Nassif began the meeting by informing the participants it was Global Entrepreneurship Week and that the World Bank recently ranked Canada second in the world for starting a business through the programs offered and by lowering taxes for small businesses.

She also mentioned that the government has signed trade deals that provide access to 1.5 billion new customers overseas. Among them was the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), which Nassif said is an important step forward.

Recent trade agreement

“The USMCA preserves key elements of this trading relationship, makes it easier for Canadians to do business in a wide range of sectors and helps maintain the global competitiveness of the North American region,” she said.

“Let there be no doubt: our southern neighbours will always be important to us. But have to look to new markets too. That’s why Canada has embarked on an ambitious trade diversification strategy.”

During another part of the meeting, she provided participants with an overview of the economic outlook for 2019, while outlining measures the government has already put in place, including the Middle Class Tax Cut, the Canada Child Benefit and the strengthening of the Canada Pension Plan.

To transform the economy

Nassif pointed out that “the challenge and the opportunity is to build on this momentum and focus on the long term, transforming the economy to strengthen the middle class and position Canada for the global economy of tomorrow.”

According to Nassif, all of the input from the meeting will be sent directly to Minister Morneau. He will be working with all Members of Parliament to build on the foundations that we will be put in place in the government’s budget for 2019, so that middle class families can help drive the economy forward over the next year and into the long term.

Constituents’ suggestions

Among the individuals and organizations making statements during the meeting was Patricia Lagopatis, past president of the Hellenic Women’s Federation of Laval (Electra). She said she became aware of grants offered by the federal government through newsletters Nassif distributed to constituents.

“I know that there are many programs and solutions being offered to help entrepreneurs, but we don’t always know everything about them,” she said, asking whether there is a way to improve communications about them. Nassif suggested additional means for obtaining more information.

Prioritize pensions rights

Presenting a list of a half dozen suggestions to Nassif, Jean Robitaille of the Table régionale de concertation des aînés de Laval told her that federal law should be changed to recognize employees’ pension funds as being first in line to be compensated when companies go out of business.

Robitaille was also critical of “oveseas tax havens,” which allow wealthy Canadians to avoid paying income tax by keeping savings in accounts registered in low-tax nations around the world. “We hear about them, but nothing gets done,” he said, adding that the unpaid income taxes “are sums which are due to the Canadian population.”

 Martin C. Barry

Has Canada’s Ministry for International Development been losing some of its past moxie in recent years? Or has the ministry simply undergone a redifinition of its mandate?

During a recent interview with Newsfirst Multimedia, Marie-Claude Bibeau, who is the current International Development Minister in the Trudeau Liberal cabinet, rolled her eyes upwards at the first suggestion, while agreeing immediately afterwards that her ministry has indeed changed.

Mandate’s been changing

Some background. Beginning in 1968 when Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau first created the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as a department of the Ministry for International Cooperation, international development remained a significant priority for subsequent governments.

However, in 2013 Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper essentially shut CIDA when he made its functions part of Global Affairs Canada’s overall mandate. Bibeau has held the portfolio since 2015 when Trudeau appointed his new cabinet following the election that swept the Liberals into power with their current mandate.

Refocusing global assistance

“When I came into office, the Prime Minister gave me the mandate of refocusing our international assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable and all fragile states,” said Bibeau. “So I had an opportunity to review completely the policies.”

That review, according to Bibeau, included a consultation with up to 15,000 people in 65 countries around the globe, with the ministry’s goal being to decide which of those countries deserved most to be supported.

“We came to the conclusion that if we want to end poverty, we have to empower women,” she continued. “So really this why we launched in June 2017 our feminist international assistance policy. So everything we do in our six areas of priorities there must be a women in power component.

Seeking to empower women

“It could be in education, health, agriculture, environment, good governance, peace and security. Each and every one of our partners must demonstrate that they have listened to women locally, that they are part of the decision-making process, and that they will be empowered in the way we implement the project.”

Bibeau and the Liberal government maintain that the policy is grounded in sound economics. “It’s based on experience, but it’s also based on evidence that when women participate this grows the economy,” she said.

Decision-making process

“It improves the peace processes, as well. So there are many values here from having women involved in decision-making. And obviously at the same time we want to be sure that for every dollar we spend we walk the talk while empowering women in many types of project. So it’s not only for women. It’s really being inclusive for the benefit of the whole community.”

According to Bibeau, most of her ministry’s funding for foreign development projects is now directed with this women’s empowerment theme in mind. While some might associate the gender-based approach with Justin Trudeau’s administration, Bibeau, who spend years working for the defunct CIDA, said the agency was already starting to make gender-based analyses as early as 1990.

Move towards private sector

Bibeau said another way the Ministry for International Development is changing is by moving towards a model for financing foreign development that relies more on the private sector. The Liberal government’s March 2017 budget confirmed their intention to create a development finance institution (DFI), to be housed within Export Development Canada and capitalized with $300 million. EDC is Canada’s export credit agency and a state-owned enterprise wholly owned by the Ottawa.

“If we finance such companies it will be because they have a real impact on development itself – and especially on women in economic empowerment and in the green or blue economy,” Bibeau said, referring in the latter instance to a type of economic approach relating to the exploitation and preservation of the marine environment. “These are the main orientations of our Canadian DFI.”

Philanthropic contributions

Bibeau said that recently she launched a “call for action” to philanthropists involved with companies across Canada, saying that the federal government was ready to invest money in foreign development from the DFI capital fund if donations were coming in from the private sector. In return, the private investors would receive charitable donation receipts for tax purposes.

“We are talking about this and consulting on it right now,” she added. “We believe this will be something very innovative. We are creating something new. We want it to be effective. We want the private sector to invest in it, so we want to build the mechanism with them.”

(TLN) Laval mayor Marc Demers had the opportunity recently to meet face-to-face with Minister Delegated for Transport Chantal Rouleau, as well as Minister of Finance and Minister for the Metropolitan Region Éric Girard and Sainte-Rose MNA Christopher Skeete.

Accompanied by Duvernay-Pont Viau city councillor and executive-committee vice-president Stéphane Boyer, and Marc-Aurèle-Fortin city councillor Gilbert Dumas who oversees mass transit issues in the region, the officials discussed the priorities for Laval with regards to transportation, as well as the financing of sports and cultural activities infrastructures in Laval.

Renata Isopo

At the November meeting of Laval City Council, Mayor Marc Demers made a special announcement in recognition of the 75^th anniversary of the independence of Lebanon from France, an event which dates back to 1943.

.  Noting that 20,000 people of Lebanese origin call Laval home, Demers emphasized the important contributions in business, finance,  technology, education, culture, entertainment, and politics made by this community to the vibrant life of Quebec’s third largest city.

The mayor proudly acknowledged, in particular, the presence on Council of Aram Elagoz, Sandra El Helou, and Ray Khalil, all three of Lebanese origin. The Lebanese community will be celebrating its Independence Day on November 22 at the Lebanese Festival.

Apparently, you can fight city hall

On the ‘more of the same’ side of the council session, citizens voiced the usual complaints and objections over ridiculous and inconvenient bicycle paths, excessive parking issues, and  extending the pink line of the metro system to St. Vincent de Paul (Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante’s plan).

The environment once again took center stage, drawing ire and anger from concerned citizens demanding explanations, solutions, and resolutions to ecological issues that have been put on the back burner, in the opinion residents.

.  Problems of traffic management, reduced road safety, and severely restricted parking  were brought to Council by angry residents of Louis Payette Avenue, in Chomedey. The complaints specifically came down hard on bicycle paths situated on both sides, creating a narrow and dangerous street for vehicles and for snow removal. Pointing to severely reduced parking, residents were fit to be tied.

Mayor Demers explained that the paths were conceived and developed, taking safety into consideration. With the anger of residents threatening to rise to a crescendo, Demers exercised suitable prudence and discretion in promising to launch an investigation of the bicycle paths and the surrounding issues presented by the numerous residents of Louis Payette in attendance at the meeting.

To the mayor’s credit, action on this problem was swift, considering how slowly move the wheels of politicians when it comes to solving problems raised by taxpayers. On Friday, November 16, 2018 residents of Louis-Payette Avenue received a public notice from Philippe A. Guilbeault, Chef de division, Relations avec le milieu, announcing the simultaneous closing, for the winter (November 15 – April 14) of the bicycle path and reopening of parking on both sides of the Avenue between Curé Labelle Boulevard and 100^th Avenue. New signs for alternate parking will be installed in the next couple of days, says Guilbeault in his public notice. It is stipulated that on the respective north and south sides of the Avenue, vehicles will have to park within the bicycle path limits on days when it is allowed. Kudos for citizens who spoke up and congratulations to city hall for responding to their legitimate concerns.

A clean environment and green Infrastructure

Vimont resident Yannick Langlois raised several environmental issues, addressing  questions to Vimont councilor  Michel Poissant.  In his response Poissant stated that there are recommendations to take action to make the city of Laval a healthier, cleaner, and more vibrant place to live.

Mayor Demers disclosed that an array of sensible strategies and goals to improve the environment and livability were already under discussion. These include lowering energy costs through energy efficiency improvements, expanding mobility with more public transportation, and the continuation of free transportation for senior citizens which is already in effect.

Ste-Rose councilor Virginie Dufour addressed the issue of climate change and reminded everyone of the Montreal demonstration planned for November 10^th.  Of major interest to all municipalities and their mayors, the Montreal march was to set out a series of potential short-term/long term actions for municipalities to take to improve the environment.  Laval residents were expected to join the demonstration.

The goals consist of improving air and water quality, ensure responsible use of land and green space, increase resource efficiency, and promote awareness to save the community and the planet from pollution and global warming.

Mayor Demers described the plan as an integrated approach to recognizing the strong  dependency of the environment, the economy, and society on each other.