Martin C. Barry

Presenting the City of Laval’s revised Master Urban Plan earlier this week following years of preparation, Mayor Marc Demers said citizens will very shortly begin seeing the city’s central area blossoming into a true downtown core worthy of a major municipality.

A vision for the future

“Basically what this plan is saying is this is how we want to develop Laval for the next 25 years,” Demers said in an interview with the Laval News following a press conference for the unveiling at Collège Letendre in the heart of the city’s education district on de l’Avenir Blvd.

The Master Urban Plan is being updated after not being revised since 1990. It now goes to local public consultation, following which it will be examined by the Montreal Metropolitan Community and finally by the Quebec government. Beginning late next year, the plan will form the basis for further development in Laval over the next quarter-century through municipal zoning and by-laws.

Development downtown

According to the mayor, development in Laval’s downtown – which is beginning to fill up although there are still many bare patches – will start accelerating in 2017 when the plan is finally in place. “Within the next five years there’ll be over $1 billion invested in the centre-ville by private investors,” he told the Laval News.

“A strategic vision inspires the development of a city, while a master urban plan demonstrates more substantially the major orientations of planning, as well as the goals and the actions needed,” said city manager Serge Lamontagne. He said the major actions the city plans to make include concentrating on Laval’s agricultural areas, identifying the nature preserves which need to be conserved, the consolidation of transit Oriented Development (TOD), determining the crucial district poles and the downtown, and fixing maximal heights for buildings.

Height restrictions coming

“We’re finally going to be dealing with heights,” said Councillor Paolo Galati who represents the eastern Laval district of St-Vincent-de-Paul. “Right now there’s no regulation as to how high you can go. But soon each territory will have a limit. And the only place that won’t have a limit is the downtown area which is very particular. We’re really focusing on rebuilding the city and giving it a distinct image and a new vision for the next 15 to 25 years.”

Planning the future layout of the City of Laval is taking place in conjunction with a specific principle the Demers administration adopted shortly after being elected in 2013. It foresees all future development occurring while taking into account Laval’s basic rural, urban and industrial components. The stance was taken to ensure that development takes place in a balanced manner, laying the ground for a city truly in step with 21^st century values.

Preserving historic legacy

The Master Urban Plan will also be taking into account the historic legacy present in many buildings throughout the city. Vasilios Karidogiannis, the councillor for the district of Abord-à-Plouffe, sees this as a valuable tool for the preservation of tradition not only in his area but across Laval. “I’m very proud that this is going to be the legacy of the administration from 2013 to 2017,” he said of the plan.

Information about the revised Master Urban Plan, including a complete version with details and facts, can be seen at the web site www.repensonslaval.ca. As well, the city will be holding public information sessions on May 16, 18, 24 and 25 at 7 pm, during which the plan will be explained in detail and questions can be asked.

Martin C. Barry

With the Quebec Liberal government still implementing a massive restructuring of the province’s health and social services sector, questions are being raised by some English-speaking Laval social services providers about the government’s seeming decision to appoint a non-Laval resident as an English-speaking member of the new board at CISSS de Laval.

New CISSS structure

The issue arose during a meeting at North Star Academy on March 31 of the Agape – Networking Partners Initiative, which groups together more than a dozen health and social services organizations which have a stake in assisting Laval’s English-speaking community.

Gary Stoopler, who was until two years ago the executive-director of the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital, is now director of intellectual disabilities at the Laval CISSS. As well, Stoopler is senior manager responsible for access to English language services in the CISSs. He gave a presentation describing the new structure of the CISSS and access to its English services.

According to Stoopler, the new 17-member board of the CISSS has only been in place since last October. Among those on the board are some appointed by the provincial health ministry. Stoopler said that prior to the dissolution of a previous regional access committee that was chaired by Agape’s Elizabeth McLeod, the ministry consulted a list of names submitted to it and selected an individual named Jean Laliberté to be the board member representing Laval’s English-language community.

‘Ill at ease’ with choice

“They placed someone who didn’t have a clue about what’s going on in Laval,” said Elizabeth McLeod, who was among the more than a dozen community social services reps present at the NPI meeting, while adding that the former committee protested the decision.

“We said that we would be ill at ease to accept someone who is not from the area, who has not lived these years with the access committee. Yes I am frustrated with this, because we worked 20 years on the access committee and you guys have been with us all these years trying to get things done and all of a sudden there’s no English representation per se. Mr. Laliberté, in all respect, I have nothing against this man, I don’t know him, but he’s not from Laval.”

Regarding the list of names submitted to the ministry, Agape Daycare director Kevin McLeod, who coordinates the NPI, said, “Betty was on there, I was on there, I had submitted my candidacy. I know that [SWLSB chairwoman] Jennifer Maccarone also submitted. We were not selected.”

Commenting on the selection process, Stoopler said “it was a very stringent process. There were interview processes. There were skill sets that you had to acquire. And a multitude of conflict-of-interest clauses, so it was very, very difficult to get in there.”

NPI wants to meet him

Kevin McLeod added, “I think it’s imperative that we need as an NPI to have Mr. Laliberté at our meetings. We need to speak with him sooner than later. We will take charge and try to get an appointment before our next meeting and also include him in the next meeting. I’ll revolve my NPI meeting around his schedule if need  be. I think he does need to be here. In his defence we haven’t met him yet. So we have to meet him, we have to introduce ourselves, who we are and what not. That’s something we have to do.”

Michael Campolieto, who attended the NPI meeting as an Agape board member as well as on behalf of the St. Paul’s Charitable Foundation, said in an interview with the Laval News that he agreed something was amiss in the government’s selection.

“First of all, he’s not a resident of Laval,” he said. “Secondly, we submitted some English-speaking people to represent the community and the government appointed this gentleman. I’ve nothing against him. Absolutely not. But why are they saying they want English-speaking people on the board? This is an issue that the person should be from the community, their mother tongue should be English and they should come from Laval so that we have a voice as English-speaking Quebecers.”

The Rainfall warning is in effect for the regions of Laval, Montreal, Châteauguay, La Prairie, Longueuil & Varennes.  Due to the heavy rain that is expected, because the ground is still frozen it might reduce the ability to absorb rainfall.

Rainfall amounts between 25 and 40 millimetres are expected by Friday morning over several of the above mentioned regions.  So localized flooding in the low-lying areas is possible.

Some essential steps to take to prevent a flooded basement during the spring thaw or excessive rainfalls.
(1) Keep Gutters & Downspouts free of debris and downspouts aware from the foundation.
(2) Inspect the exterior foundation and your basement’s walls and floors.
(3) If you have a Sump Pump, check to make sure its free of debris.
(4) Check the sewers and septic tanks. During extended heavy rainfalls, they tend to clog.

These are just some of the ways to prevent flooding in basements.

Quebec senator and former NHL coach Jacques Demers has been hospitalized after having suffered a stroke.   He is currently receiving treatment.

More to come on his condition.