Martin C. Barry

The head of the province’s largest association of retail merchants issued a stark warning to cities last week, saying they could end up becoming the biggest losers in the growing shift to online sales when property and business tax revenues bottom out.

Tax revenue losses

“As I’ve said before and as I say everywhere I go, the first losers in the shift towards the web if they don’t join forces is going to be the cities,” said Léopold Turgeon, president of the Conseil québécois du commerce de détail.

Speaking at the City of Laval’s first annual Forum Innovation Commerce at the Château Royal on Feb. 15, Turgeon pointed out that “the less there are businesses, the less there will be fiscal revenue” for municipal governments.

Go with e-commerce

While most people are aware by now of the impact that web and online marketing are having on the real-world retail landscape, this is the first year that the City of Laval decided to organize a half-day seminar dealing specifically with the problem.

“The new wave in the future is really e-commerce,” Laval executive-committee vice-president David De Cotis, who gave the opening address, said in an interview with the Laval News.

Get on the web

“In order to succeed, they will have to become increasingly aware of the e-commerce concept, get on the web and to do business on the web as well,” he added. “It’s fine to have a retail store, but you have to start thinking at the same time beyond those borders and go on the web.”

According to De Cotis, there are 38,000 small and medium-size businesses in Laval, “and we want to encourage them all to have an online presence,” he said. De Cotis was asked by the Laval News about the extent to which online retailing is affecting the retail presence in Laval.

Small business suffers

“It’s not only affecting Laval, it’s also affecting the greater Montreal region,” he said. “The Amazons and the Alibabas of this world are taking, like it or not, business away from small business entrepreneurs whether it’s in Laval or Montreal and so forth. And, you know, when there are empty businesses there is less employment. And that’s why we want to encourage as much as possible our businesses to stay in business and employ people while being successful at what they’re doing.”

In his speech, De Cotis noted that retailing and wholesaling today account for a quarter of all jobs in the Laval region. Last year, that number equalled 38,292 jobs. Many of these are in key locations throughout Laval, such as the Carrefour Laval, the Centre Laval or any of the eight other major retail malls on the territory. In addition, there are many hundreds of other retail hubs all over Laval.

The need to go digital

In 2016, there were 1,669 retail businesses in Laval, he continued, and 830 wholesale enterprises. He pointed out that from this perspective, Laval is increasingly a magnet for businesses of this type seeking to set up in proximity to the Montreal region’s international airport (which is only a short distance from Laval).

“As deputy mayor and being responsible for economic dossiers with the City of Laval, I can only insist on the importance, even the urgency, of doing digital,” said De Cotis. “The numbers demonstrate it clearly.”

Consumers headed online

While studies suggest that the retail sector is holding up on its own, De Cotis noted that they also indicate that more and more consumers are buying online, and these are local economic losses which are going to the advantage of major online retailers such as Amazon and Alibaba.

“There is no question of giving up,” he continued. “To the contrary, we must face up to this challenge with confidence and by rallying four forces. We are convinced that the capacity to adapt and to innovate by the players involved in commerce in Laval and their partners will make all the difference.”

Martin C. Barry

Mary Kay Cosmetics, a company that has become famous for (among other things) awarding pink Cadillacs to high performing sales representatives, presented its latest “Trophy on Wheels” last week to a Lorraine woman who is one of the U.S.-based cosmetics firm’s top Canadian performers.

Although it was the seventh time that independent national sales director for Mary Kay Caroline Sarrouf won the honour, it was just her second time winning the right to use a customized pink Mary Kay Cadillac Escalade for a leased time period.

Trophy on Wheels

As part of the deal, Mary Kay Cosmetics leases the high-end vehicles from GM. In this case, a representative of Cadillac Laval on Chomedey Blvd. had the honour of handing the Escalade’s keys to Sarrouf.

For opulence and comfort, Sarrouf’s new Escalade is virtually unequalled by most other vehicles. With a retail value somewhere in the $100,000 range, it will offer a lot of room for her family, consisting of her husband and three daughters.

Choose your Cadillac

“When you first earn this as a national sales director, you do keep it for three years,” she said in an interview with the Laval News. “So once reach you this level, you get to choose whatever Cadillac you want, and this was my choice – the top one. And every three years they will change it for me.”

Caroline Pelletier, Cadillac Laval’s director of new vehicle sales, said the dealership always considers it an honour to be able to officiate when Mary Kay awards a Cadillac. For her, it was a special honour to hand over the keys to Sarrouf.

A Mary Kay tradition

The Mary Kay Cadillac tradition dates back to the late 1960s when company founder, Mary Kay Ash, purchased the first pink Cadillac from a Dallas dealership, where it was repainted to match the “Mountain Laurel Blush” in a powder compact she carried. In the following years, Ash began rewarding the company’s top salespeople with similarly painted Cadillacs and the tradition continues.

For her part, Caroline Sarrouf first signed a Beauty Consultant Agreement with Mary Kay in February 2008. She then started her ascent on the career path when she debuted as an Independent Sales Director in January 2009. She represented her team in the company’s Circle of Achievement twice. She debuted as an Independent National Sales Director in December 2013, beating the Canadian record.

(TLN)

The members of Laval city council voted unanimously on Feb. 7 to adopt a new by-law containing a code of ethics and professional conduct. According to provincial law, every municipality is expected to have such a by-law on its books by March 1.

“This is a good habit that the legislators have just added to our political ways of doing things and which adds to the various other gestures meant to guarantee our commitments for integrity, transparency and probity towards our citizens,” said Mayor Marc Demers.

Declaring gratuities

Prior to the adoption of the new code of ethics, the city’s Bureau d’intégrité et d’éthique de Laval (BIEL) carried out an analysis of Laval’s existing ethics controls and measures and proposed modifications.

As an example of what sort of thing will now have to be reported under the new ethics regulations, any city official who receives a gratuity or gift worth more than $100 will now have to file a written declaration with the City of Laval’s public clerk’s office.

“The principal modification we are bringing to this is that the code will henceforth apply to political employees in addition to the elected officials,” added the mayor. “We are in fact going further than we are legally obliged to and on this we have been unanimous.”

Right direction: Opposition

“Despite the fact that these control mechanisms applying this new code don’t apply legally to the political employees of the offices of the mayor or of the opposition, were are today taking a step in the right direction,” said Fabreville city councillor Claude Larochelle, the sole member of the official opposition.

“It was necessary to adopt this new code of ethics and professional conduct with unanimity and with a spirit of consensus,” added Chomedey city councillor Aglaia Revelakis. “I am very happy to have had the opportunity to add to this new code with my experiences and ideas, in order to better serve the citizens of Laval and Chomedey.”

Martin C. Barry

Senator Leo Housakos is taking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to task over some recent comments Trudeau made that compared the experience of Canadian immigrants to ISIS pro-Islamic militants returning to Canada after taking part abroad in terrorist activities.

Troubling response

Following an exchange on the matter in the Senate in Ottawa on Feb. 7, Senator Housakos said he felt “very troubled” by the response given by the Leader of the Government in the Upper Chamber, Senator Peter Harder.

Sen. Housakos said he thought it was his responsibility “on behalf of Canada’s Hellenic community, to ask Mr. Trudeau’s Government Leader in the Senate for clarification of the Prime Minister’s comparison.”

A curious comparison

“At a town hall meeting in Edmonton last week, Prime Minister Trudeau was asked a question from a member of the audience who raised concern about ISIS fighters returning to Canada and the long-term impact of their terrorist ideology on our country’s safety and security,” said Housakos.

“The Prime Minister responded by comparing returning ISIS fighters — responsible for beheadings, burning people alive, sexual slavery, throwing men over rooftop buildings because they are gay, just to name a few of their atrocities — with immigrants historically welcomed to Canada from countries such as Greece, Italy and Portugal.

The immigrant experience

“I come from a cradle of that community,” he continued. “My parents both immigrated to this country in the 1950s, and they were outraged to hear that from the Prime Minister. These are the individuals in the Greek, Italian and Portuguese community in Montreal that came here understanding they were coming to a Commonwealth country, to a great democracy, a country that respects human rights and the rule of law.

“They also understood — and I can tell you my parents always made it clear to me — that Canadian citizenship came with tremendous privileges, but it also has responsibilities. How does the Prime Minister possibly justify making this comparison, equating legal immigrants and those fleeing persecution with the return to Canada of individuals who are complicit in the horrific crimes perpetrated by our enemy, ISIS?”

Senator defended the PM

Sen. Harder responded: “Let me simply reiterate, and I do this as myself, the son of immigrant refugees to Canada, that I share and understand deeply the pride with which your parents inculcated the values of citizenship in you, as most immigrants have with their children and their children’s children. I didn’t see the interaction to which you refer, but I can only remind senators that this Prime Minister has consistently spoken well of Canada’s immigrant history and the accommodation and diversity of our immigration process that has allowed Canada to become the country it is today.

“At the same time, while individual immigrants and citizens have responsibilities, we collectively have a responsibility to our citizens, even those we would disagree with because of actions that they have taken with the rights they hold as citizens. We have to be vigilant in our programming to ensure that we do everything possible to protect the safety and security of Canada in the face of those who return to Canada after having indulged in the practices to which the honorable senator referred.”

Says PM’s ‘all over the map’

In an interview with Newsfirst Multimedia, Sen. Housakos described Prime Minister Trudeau lately as being “all over the map with some of his mis-speaks.” However, with regards to Trudeau’s comparison between immigrants and ISIS he said a few people in Montreal’s Greek community “expressed their complete hurt feelings on this issue to me – and legitimately so.

“When the Prime Minister is asked a question by a Canadian citizen at a town hall about repatriating Canadian citizens that have gone off and left the confines of this secure nation to go and support ISIS – our enemy – half way around the world, an organization that is extremist, and which has as its mandate to destroy our western democratic structure, and they’re hellbent on destroying and killing moderate Muslims in the Middle East and Christians driven out of places like Syria, they certainly don’t have respect for the pluralistic multicultural multi-faith society that we have here in Canada.”

Martin C. Barry

Three days of technology-driven competition took place at Laval Senior Academy on the weekend of Feb. 1 – 3, as Montreal-area high school and CEGEP students with carefully crafted robots faced-off during the 17^th annual CRC Robotics Competition.

Winners one and all

Hundreds of eager and ambitious students were called upon to use their imaginations and ingenuity to come up with the best robot as well as the best team for this year’s football-inspired game called Converto 2018. Although it was a competition by nature, the organizers emphasized that if you made it there with a working robot you were already a winner.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board president Jennifer Maccarone was on hand along with other board officials on the competition’s opening day to help get things rolling. “Every team member here today has experienced leadership, learned management and organization skills and perfected the art of presentation,” she said, while extending special thanks to LSA’s administrators and science teachers “who worked hard in making this event a success,” said Maccarone.

Girls’ participation rising

Laval Senior Academy and the SWLSB “have been a huge part of the CRC over the past 17 years,” said Jennifer Vaughan, LSA’s vice-principal. “LSA is very to proud to host the event this year,” she continued, noting that participation by girls has been increasing year by year in leaps and bounds.

“Throughout its 17 year history, CRC Robotics has always had success in attracting girls to participate. I believe all of the all-girls schools in Montreal have participated over the years. Co-ed schools like LSA have a history of huge involvement from girls as well.”

Around 600 students took part

According to Vaughan, 600 students from 26 teams were participating this year. They included 17 high schools, eight CEGEPs, one all-girls high school and an adult education centre. Half of the participating schools were Anglophone, while the other half were from the Francophone education sector.

Recently, Vaughan added, with the help of CRC Robotics’ first female coordinator Natasha Vitale, the competition was able to double-down on its efforts to empower women. She noted that prior to becoming a coordinator for CRC Robotics, Natasha participated in the competition as a student from Sacred Heart School and then from Marianopolis College. With Vitale’s leadership, CRC Robotics ran a conference in November 2017 entitled ‘For Girls, From Women’ to inspire girls to go into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

A passion for robotics

“Year after year, we see the participation of girls in this competition increase exponentially,” said Vitale. “As a former participant involved with CRC since 2007, it brings me such joy to know that we are reaching more girls as the years progress and that we are truly promoting women in STEM with every year that goes by. In such a world where gender equity is becoming increasingly prominent, it is important for us to inspire our girls to continue their studies in STEM fields, starting with encouraging their passion for robotics.”

The CRC Robotics Competition is considered to be unique as it’s the only robotics competition where all the work is done exclusively by students, with teachers, engineers and mentors being present for advice only.  Except for a motor and a control box each team receives, everything about the robot, the kiosk, the video and the website is conceived and built by the students.

OTTAWA, Jan. 29, 2018 /CNW/ – Pharmacists understand the needs of patients and desire of government to get fair value for drug prices to ensure that Canadians can afford their medications. Today, the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) and governments across Canada announced a new generic drug price framework that will reduce the price of generic drugs. This new agreement, which is going to generate considerable savings for governments but have a significant financial impact on the pharmacy industry, is an opportunity to increase the accessibility and quality of healthcare services for patients in communities.

Pharmacists continue to provide an increased level of care to Canadians – and have never been more accessible, vital contributors to patient and community health than we are today. In fact, every day, pharmacies are driving value in the healthcare system and providing efficient and high-quality services to patients in communities across Canada. But pharmacists could be doing even more.

“We believe that this new pricing framework is an opportunity for governments to invest a portion of the anticipated savings back into frontline services that pharmacies offer to enhance patient care,” stated Justin Bates, CEO of the Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada.  “There are more than 10,000 pharmacies well-positioned to increase their contributions by providing more harmonized services across the country such as increasing access to common ailments services as we continue to provide high quality, accessible, and cost-effective services to patients when and where they need it.”

Canada’s 42,000 pharmacists believe that through targeted and much needed investments, governments and patients could benefit from enhanced coverage of both medications and pharmacist provided care and services to ensure medicines are being used effectively.

“Pharmacies have never been more important to patient and community health,” stated Alistair Bursey, Chair of the Canadian Pharmacists Association. “From counselling patients on how to take their mediations safely, to giving flu shots, pharmacists are consistently providing the highest level of care to Canadians.”

Right now, across Canada, governments and pharmacists are working to tackle some of our most pressing health challenges from the urgency of the opioid crisis, to increasing access to home care, mental health services and vaccines.

While pCPA did not engage pharmacy in its decision, pharmacy and pharmacists look forward to an engaged dialogue on how to reinvest the money saved from lower drug prices to benefit patients through expanded community-based pharmacist services. By investing some of these savings into community-based care, governments can support pharmacists, deliver the quality of care patients have come to expect and allow for pharmacy to innovate and provide more comprehensive front-line services. This would aide governments and help patients by alleviating the burdens to access patients currently face in primary care settings.

About the Canadian Pharmacists Association

The Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) is the uniting national voice of pharmacy and the pharmacist profession in Canada. As pharmacists undertake an enhanced role in the delivery of health care services, CPhA ensures that the profession is recognized as a national leader in health care, influencing the policies, programs, budgets and initiatives affecting the profession and the health of Canadians. More information is available at www.pharmacists.ca.

About the Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada:

Neighbourhood Pharmacies represents the delivery of care in pharmacies across the country and advocates for Canada’s leading pharmacy organizations who deliver high value, quality care in all patient care models including chain, banner, long-term care, and specialty pharmacies as well as grocery chains and mass merchandisers with pharmacies.

We are the voice and advocate for our members who:

• Are the Canadian business leaders and health professionals committed to running successful, sustainable neighbourhood pharmacies;
• Operate neighbourhood pharmacies across Canada and provide pharmacy services and other core healthcare products and services;
• Focus on wellness, treatment and prevention;
• Ensure fulfilment of almost 70% of Canadian prescriptions each year;

Guy Ouellette, the Liberal MNA whose arrest by the province’s anti-corruption unit (UPAC) stunned Quebecers last fall, says he never disclosed any information about UPAC’s work to the media.

The former high-profile provincial police officer was called to testify at a hearing into the stay of proceedings request by lawyers representing Nathalie Normandeau, former Liberal cabinet minister and party fundraiser Marc-Yvan Côté and their four co-accused.

Normandeau, the ex-Liberal deputy premier, is facing corruption-related charges, along with her former chief of staff, Bruno Lortie, two former Parti Québécois staffers, and Côté.

Ouellette was summoned by Côté’s defence lawyer, Jacques Larochelle, who is trying to have the charges thrown out, arguing UPAC documents leaked to reporters have robbed the accused of their right to a fair trial.

Questioned by Larochelle, Ouellette said he never directly or indirectly provided information that aired in a Radio-Canada report, called Mon Ami Sam, which linked Côté to former MNA Sam Hamad.

“I played no role in this,” he answered.

Lino Zambito testimony discredited

Ouellette denied several of the claims former construction boss Lino Zambito made in court yesterday.

Zambito testified that it was Ouellette who told him members of the Liberal caucus, including Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux, were displeased by the reappointment of the head of UPAC, Robert Lafrenière, only weeks after Normandeau’s arrest.

Zambito suggested Lafrenière wanted “a big catch” to ensure his position and precipitated Normandeau’s arrest, which coincided with the tabling of the Liberal government’s 2016 budget.

Zambito added Ouellette had told him the Liberals wanted to replace Lafrenière at the end of his 5-year mandate, and that Denis Gallant, a lawyer with the Charbonneau Commission, was “on the short list” to replace him.

Ouellette said he had not given out this information “directly or indirectly,” and that he only heard of such a list in a newspaper article.

Toxic workplace at UPAC

In the days following his arrest, Ouellette alleged UPAC was framing him and suggested it was trying to conceal “irregularities” which had come to his attention, as chair of the parliamentary committee responsible for overseeing UPAC’s work.

When asked in court if he thought Robert Lafrenière was “the right man for the job,” Ouellette said the workplace relations at UPAC could certainly be improved.

“To get optimal results, the work environment wasn’t ideal,” Ouellette answered.

Ouellette was never charged following his arrest and eventually returned to the Liberal caucus.

Sections of the search warrant against him, unsealed last month, show UPAC suspected him, as well as two alleged accomplices inside the anti-corruption unit, of leaking information to the media.

Reporters showed up at raids before police

UPAC investigators Stéphane Bonhomme and Richard Despaties were suspended on Oct. 25, 2017, the same day that Ouellette was arrested.

They were also called to testify Thursday.

Both vehemently denied having leaked any information to reporters, and both said the tense work environment could have led any employee to leak the information.

“I am totally innocent. One hundred per cent,” Bonhomme told Quebec court Judge André Perreault.

He said he knew there was a serious confidentiality problem within UPAC when he started seeing reporters arriving before police when UPAC carried out search warrants.

“We suspected there were people who were making phone calls,” he said.

Bonhomme said plenty of people at the office had access to reports which were stored in an unlocked cabinet in the main office.

“That means 75 people minimum,” he said, adding computers weren’t well accounted for either.

‘You’re pushed aside, suspended or paid to shut up.’- ex-UPAC investigator Stéphane Despaties

Despaties, who has filed a grievance against his former employer, testified that during his last two years with UPAC he was responsible for forwarding complaints to his superiors.

He said he was bothered by the fact that at least four or five files which he considered serious never led to a formal investigation.

“This went against my values,” he explained.

Despaties said the only time he spoke to journalists about UPAC was to talk about the psychological harassment he said he witnessed.

Despaties that the general level of workplace dissatisfaction could have led to employees leaking sensitive information.

He said several of his co-workers have either left or received compensation after filing grievances of their own.

“You’re pushed aside, suspended or paid to shut up,” he alleged.

Chomedey MNA Guy Ouellette testified Thursday at a hearing into a stay of proceedings request by Nathalie Normandeau and her five co-accused. (Radio-Canada)