After two years when the City of Laval was unable to stage its annual Laval en blanc winter carnival because of the Covid pandemic, the Centre de la Nature will be hosting the open-air event on Jan. 27, 28 and 29.
According to the city, a wide range of activities are being organized for the three-day weekend event, including fireworks, shows under a big top, mobile circus performances, street performers, obstacle courses, a mini-zipline, a snowball fight fort, snow sculpting and others.
“Now’s the time to dress up warmly and get yourself outdoors to pay a visit to Laval en blanc,” says Laval city councillor Sandra Desmeules, the executive-committee member responsible for special events.
As she noted, it will be the first year that Laval en blanc is taking place at the Centre de la Nature, amidst a truly enchanting natural décor. As such, fun and entertaining shows await moms, dads, children and other family members who are in the mood to get out and have a great time outdoors later this month.
The events
27 January
· 7 pm — Fireworksoutdoors
· 7:30 pm — Explosion Band, varied musical act, under the big top
28 January
· 11 am to 2 pm — Ari Cui Cui and les patins magiques, big top
· 7 pm — Sara Dufour, music show, big top
29 January
· 11 am and 2 pm — L’hiver rock d’Atchoum,big top
Outdoors this winter
Several kinds of other activities are also being offered in Laval’s parks throughout the winter. They include snow sledding, skating, snow labyrinths and other activities allowing families to be active together outdoors. Additional information can be found at dehors.laval.ca.
A complete list of the activities and programming can be found on the web at : lavalenblanc.laval.ca
STL’s first female bus driver retires after 35 years
Sylvie Fiset, who is retiring from the Société de transport de Laval after 35 years service as a bus driver, is seen here around the time she was first hired in 1988. (Photo: Courtesy of STL)
First hired when she was 26 years old, Sylvie Fiset became an STL bus driver at a time when the job was overwhelmingly being done by male drivers. She was hired not long after she had given birth to a daughter.
The Société de transport de Laval’s first female bus driver, who started working for the transit agency in 1988, retired in late December.
Today, the STL has 640 bus drivers, of which 110 are women. She said that when she first started, some of the other drivers taunted her a bit, but that with time they came to accept her presence as well as that of all the other women who became bus drivers.
Among other things, according to Fiset, the job back in the 1980s was a lot more physically demanding than it is today, because the buses didn’t have features like power-assisted steering, nor were they well-ventilated on hot summer days.
New medical training facility will be located at Cité de la Santé hospital
As part of a series of ongoing efforts to meet the demand for trained and skilled medical personnel, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé with Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry recently announced the opening of the province’s first university-level clinical and teaching institution for specialized nurse practitioners in Laval.
This new teaching facility, the result of a partnership with the CISSS de Laval and the nursing faculty at University of Montreal, will be training nurse practitioners for the province’s health care system.
Helping reduce pressure
Provincial and regional health officials see the opening of the new school/clinic as a long-awaited opportunity to advance and promote a new generation of advance practice nurses in Quebec.
Graduates from the new facility are also expected to help reduce pressures on hospital emergency departments, with an immediate impact expected to be felt at Laval’s Cité de la Santé hospital.
Nurses from the unit are expected to begin seeing patients, adults and children alike, from Laval and the Lower Laurentians who are experiencing health problems requiring immediate medical attention, and who are referred by staff in the emergency department at Cité de la Santé.
Fixing labour shortage
The facility will be open Mondays and Wednesdays from 8 am to 8 pm, as well as on weekends from 8 am to noon. The opening of the facility is the fulfillment of a pledge Health Minister Dubé previously made to open several nurse practitioner clinics in Quebec. The one in Laval is the first such clinic.
The Quebec health ministry believes that not only will the increased availability of nurse practioners help reduce overcrowding in emergency departments, but that training more nurse practitioners will also help resolve the province’s ongoing labour shortage.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé.
“I am pleased by the launch of this first school/clinic, which answers to the real pledge by the government to find quick answers for the situation in emergency departments in Quebec,” Dubé said in a statement.
Additional human resources
“This school/clinic model also allows us to propose an additional solution for human resources needs through the training of new nurse practioners and clinical nurses by making internships available. I wish to thank all the teams who have been working had in order to allow us to continue to answer to the health and clinical care needs everywhere in the province.”
“This new clinic-school is a good example of the key cooperation between the university sector and the health and social services network,” said Quebec Miniter for Higher Education Pascale Déry.
“This allows us simultaneously to train replacement workers in nursing care in Quebec, while providing the population improved access to front-line health services. We will continue to invest in the training of nurses in order to offer students stimulating learning environments and quality services for the entire community.”
‘Good news,’ says Skeete
“The situation in the emergency departments of the region is as difficult for personnel as it is for users,” said Sainte-Rose MNA Christopher Skeete. “The opening of this first clinic-school is good news. This is an innovative solution that will make new services available to the population of Laval.”
CAQ MNA for Laval’s Sainte-Rose riding Christopher Skeete.
“I share the pride and joy of everyone who worked so intensely on this project over the past few months,” said Laval-des-Rapides MNA Céline Haytayan. “This approach for a clinic-school being brought forward moves me a lot. For the people of Laval, it is very good news. We will thus be able to reduce overcrowding at Cité de la Santé hospital, while contributing to the training of future nurses. I would like to salute the commitment of all the partners who united their efforts around this project.”
More treatment spaces
According to the health and higher education ministries, the opening of the new clinic-school will create 210 additional places per week for front-line medical treatment. Nurse practitioners have received advanced training at the university level in medical care. Since 2021, they have been able to diagnose chronic illnesses, prescribe diagnostic tests, prescribe medications, determine medical treatments without the direct supervision of a doctor. At the same time, they work closely with other health professionals.
MPs, consumer advocates want accountability from Sunwing and other airlines in Canada
Were you among the thousands of people from across Canada whose travel plans were overturned just before Christmas when airlines postponed or cancelled flights as a major storm wreaked havoc across Canada and the U.S.?
While Air Canada and other airlines got caught up in ensuing mess, if anything it was Canadian low-cost carrier Sunwing that got hit with the most flack.
Sunwing apologizes
Sunwing issued an apology to passengers it left stranded, while insisting, however, that “most of our customers enjoyed their holidays with minimal disruption.” Hundreds of passengers were affected by Sunwing flight disruptions, which began to pile up on Dec. 22 due to weather.
Some customers were stranded for days in tropical destinations amid a flurry of cancellations, winter storms and a breakdown within the airline’s digital communication systems.
Gabor Lukacs, who heads Air Passenger Rights, delivered a set of key recommendations to the House of Commons Transport Committee in December just a few days before the storm that threw many Canadians holiday travel plans into chaos.
In some widely-reported cases, Sunwing travellers were abandoned in Mexico for days with little or no communication and hotel lobby floors as beds. Well into the Christmas holiday period, many still didn’t know when they’d get on a flight back to Canada.
‘Incredibly sorry’
Sunwing Travel Group CEO Stephen Hunter and Sunwing Airlines president Len Corrado said they were “incredibly sorry for letting our customers down. We regret that we did not meet the level of service our customers expect from Sunwing.
“We had clear failures in execution, particularly in responding to weather-related delays and the aftermath of severe weather disruptions, which limited our ability to reposition aircraft and crew to other airports to help alleviate the backlog in flights.”
However, after Sunwing issued its apology, federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra tweeted that he had spoken with the company and “what happened is completely unacceptable,” he wrote.
New Air Passenger Protection rules
“Canadians expect airlines to keep them informed and manage disruptions. I will continue to work with Sunwing to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Alghabra’s office noted that the government recently strengthened its Air Passenger Protection Regulations. For its part, Sunwing said it is actively accepting eligible claims for compensation and would fully comply with Ottawa’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations. Sunwing said passengers who were affected by the delays can submit a claim through its website for compensation or a refund.
As of September 8th, the new regulations are in force, applying to flights that are cancelled, or where there is a lengthy delay, for reasons outside of an air carrier’s control, including major weather events or a pandemic.
Enforcing travellers’ rights
Last week in Ottawa, the chair of the House of Commons transport committee was calling on the airlines, as well as Via Rail whose operations were also thrown into chaos, to publicly explain what caused the travel nightmare.
While Sunwing has taken the brunt of recent criticism for cancelled flights, other airlines like Air Canada are also under fire. (File photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)
Liberal member of Parliament Peter Schiefke, who chairs the House of Commons’ Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Committee, said he planned to convene a committee meeting and call for representatives from both companies to appear as witnesses. In a Tweet, he said Canadians deserve answers for “unacceptable delays and cancellations” over the holiday season.
MPs unite for passengers’ rights
At the same time, opposition MPs teamed up to call for an urgent meeting of the House of Commons’ Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Committee to discuss the treatment of passengers over the holiday season and to hear directly from the minister responsible.
“Hundreds of Canadians were stranded over the holidays due to extreme weather and poor customer care on the part of Canadian airlines and VIA Rail,” read a letter sent to Schiefke, signed by the committee’s five NDP and Conservative members. “These difficulties add to the troubling treatment of air passengers during the pandemic. Canadians deserve timely answers and accountability.”
In addition to discussing Canadian air and rail passengers’ experiences, the opposition parties wanted the committee chair to make plans to have Transport Minister Omar Alghabra appear and field questions.
Minister’s words not enough, says NDP
“It’s not enough for the Liberal Minister to tweet that the situation was unacceptable,” NDP transport critic and committee member Taylor Bachrach said in a statement.
“He’s the minister charged with overseeing Canada’s transportation system and has specific powers under legislation. If anyone can do something to protect passengers, it’s him. Canadians deserve to know what steps he took during the crisis and plans to take in the future to protect passengers.”
Gabor Lukacs, founder of the Halifax-based independent non-profit Air Passenger Rights group, took issue with Sunwing’s and the other airlines’ claims they were caught off-guard by the pre-Christmas weather disruption. “That’s the airlines’ story that there was a storm,” he said during an interview with Newsfirst Multimedia.
Storm no excuse, says APR’s Lukacs
While acknowledging that a severe weather disturbance did indeed sweep across virtually all of Canada and the U.S., he added that “a storm doesn’t require keeping travellers on the tarmac for twelve hours.
‘What we are seeing here is that as usual, the airlines are trying to blame somebody or something else,’ says head of consumer action group
“A storm does not prevent airlines from re-booking passengers as needed once the storm is over. What we are seeing here is that as usual, the airlines are trying to blame somebody or something else.”
In a report Air Passenger Rights submitted to the House of Commons Transport Committee on the Air Passenger Protection Regulations in December, ironically just a few days before the fateful storm struck, the group suggested that Canada’s passenger protection regime is unnecessarily complex, creates barriers to access to justice for passengers, and does not offer adequate protection to Canadians.
APR’S Key proposals
The Air Passenger Rights report urged harmonization with the European Union’s passenger protection regime, and provided five key recommendations for amending Canada’s air passenger protection laws:
Establish simple criteria for automatic standardized compensation of passengers for flight delay, flight cancellation, and denial of boarding.
Impose a clear burden of proof on airlines to present evidence about the circumstances of a travel disruption.
Establish common sense definitions for “flight cancellation” and “denial of boarding.”
Codify the right to a refund in the original form of payment of the itinerary if the passenger chooses not to travel due to a flight’s cancellation, delay, or denial of boarding by the airline.
Impose enforcement measures that include mandatory and minimum penalties, and higher maximum penalties.
“The status quo is untenable,” the 29-page document concluded. “The […] framework should be harmonized with the European Union’s passenger protection regime, which has been tested and proven to work for more than 16 years.”
The current issue of the Laval News, volume 31-01, published on January 11th, 2023. Covering Laval local news, politics, and sports. (Click on the image to read the paper.)
Front page of the Laval News, January 11th, 2023 issue.
‘Her dedication was a labour of love,’ principal says of Mrs. Panagiotopoulos’ help
On November 29, an inauguration was held for a sensory room at Souvenir Elementary School. The sensory room was made possible thanks to the generosity of the Panagiotopoulos Family.
The new sensory room at Souvenir Elementary School.
A sensory room is a therapeutic safe space with a variety of equipment that provides students with special needs or limited communication skills with personalized sensory input and helps them calm and focus themselves so they can be better prepared for learning and interacting with others.
The time children spend in a sensory room helps them improve their visual, auditory and tactile processing, as well as fine and gross motor skills. It also helps students manage negative thoughts and emotions.
Finding inner balance
Sensory rooms provide opportunities for engagement in prevention and crisis de-escalation strategies and promote self-care/self-nurturance, resilience and recovery. In a nutshell, sensory rooms help students find their inner-balance.
Mr. and Mrs. Panagiotopoulos met with the school principal, Ms. Kalipolidis, last year and informed her, that they wanted to leave a legacy in their son Bobby’s name for all the support, dedication and quality services he had been receiving during his journey at Souvenir Elementary School.
Everything was put in place so that the sensory room would be finished this year as Bobby is in grade six and moving on to high school next year. The school took care of getting the room ready with new flooring and fresh paint and the Panagiotopoulos Family took care of the rest.
‘A labour of love’
Not only did they contribute financially to the sensory room, Mrs. Panagiotopoulos would also come by the school often and donate her time. To quote principal Kalipolidis, “Her dedication was a labour of love.”
According to SWLSB chairman Paolo Galati, council was so touched by the Panagiotopoulos family’s generosity that the commissioners wanted to recognize the couple during the Nov. 14 council meeting. “Thank you so much for all you have done for the students of Souvenir Elementary School,” said Galati, while presenting them with a plaque in recognition of their help.
Investigators with the Laval Police Dept. have announced that on Dec. 15 they finally caught up and arrested several players involved in a Laval-based stolen car ring that was exporting hot vehicles to overseas destinations.
It’s worth noting that car thefts in Laval rose a staggering 84 per cent in just the first nine first months of 2022.
In 2021, according to the LPD, 686 vehicles were stolen in Laval.
To date this year, the number has risen to 1,557, and that figure is considered conservative since the last three months of this year aren’t taken into account.
If they haven’t yet been shipped out of the country, the cars end up at clandestine garages in places surrounding the Laval and Montreal regions. Last week, LPD investigators executed search and seizure warrants in Sainte-Sophie, Saint-Calixte, Mont-Tremblant, Sainte-Julienne and Montreal.
Six suspects were arrested, while a dozen or so vehicles were impounded, including a Ram pickup truck, a Jeep Sahara, a boat, six trailers, materials for disguising thefts, $50,000 cash USD and CAD, and 53 tires with sport mags.
At one of the raided locations in Montreal, the investigators found shipping containers, leading them to believe that stolen vehicles were being prepared and loaded onto ships from there. Currently, the vehicles stolen most often in Laval are Honda CR-V, Acura RDX, Ram 1500, Jeep Wrangler and Dodge Durango.
The police believe the modus operandi of the perpetrators was typically to open the vehicles manually with a hand tool, cut the alarm, use an electronic device to clone a copy of the starter key, after which they started the engine and left the scene, all in just a few minutes with a minimum of damage.
The LPD released the following names of suspects who were arrested: Pascal Lafleur and Nicolas Dufour, who were freed on bail, while Frédéric Caron, Raymond Abdelshaheed and Alexandre Jalbert were detained pending further bail proceedings.
Fire heavily damages Saint-Martin Blvd. residential multiplex
During the early morning hours of Saturday Dec. 10, a fire caused extensive damage to a multi-storey residential condo building at the western end of Saint-Martin Blvd. in Sainte-Dorothée.
While the cause hasn’t yet been determined, investigators know that a smoke detector system in the building was operational. In the meantime, it is believed the source of the fire was on the first floor.
The blaze required assistance from nine units from the Laval Fire Dept., for a total of 34 firefighters. Help from the Laval Police, Hydro Quebec, the Société de transport de Laval (STL) and City of Laval public works was also requested.
An early estimate of the damage estimated it at $300,000 for the building and $100,000 for materials inside. Eight residents were looking for new lodgings following the blaze, and the investigation has been transferred to the Laval Police since arson hasn’t been completely ruled out.
Arsonist targets Jaffa St. building linked to Accurso
A fire at a commercial building on Jaffa St. in Laval last week was one of two in the Montreal region which broke out at buildings owned by the spouse of the daughter of controversial public works contractor Tony Accurso.
Just before midnight, the Laval Police responded to a call about a fire at 1410 rue de Jaffa next to Autoroute 15. According to news sources, the office building is partly owned by companies belonging to Karol Fortin, husband of Accurso’s daughter.
At this fire, as well as at another in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu south of Montreal around the same time, investigators found traces of fire accelerants used by arsonists. A spokesperson for the LPD confirmed that at the rue de Jaffa address, an incendiary device (a Molotov cocktail) was thrown at the building’s front south-east window.
Canadians’ take-home income to drop by up to $305 on January 1 due to EI, CPP hikes
The upcoming 2023 increase in payroll taxes will mean every Canadian worker will see up to $305 less in take-home income on January 1, unless their employer is able to make up the difference.
Dan Kelly, CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
And as employers face Employment Insurance (EI) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) hikes of up to 6.7%, many will struggle to meet even their existing payroll budgets, warns the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
As of January 1, the CPP premiums alone will rise by up to 7.3% due to an increase in both the CPP rate and the Yearly Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE), costing workers and employers up to $255 more in contributions per employee.
Also on January 1, Employment Insurance (EI) premiums for employers are set to increase by as much as 5.2% per employee. All together, the increases in CPP and EI could cost business owners up to $325 more per employee — a 6.7% increase from 2022.
“The maximum additional amount that an employee will pay in EI and CPP contributions is $304.71. It may not seem like a lot, but $300 can cost one family a trip to the grocery store or pay for their transportation or utility bills. Payroll tax increases will hit Canadians at a time when most are already seeing their cost of living quickly increase,” said Dan Kelly, President at CFIB.
“The hikes will also affect small businesses. With rising input costs, staggering labour shortages and a potential recession, the economy is already in a bad shape. At minimum, government should be pressing pause until inflation is under control.”
Few small employers can afford to raise wages to offset CPP and EI increases. Over half (52%) of small businesses across Canada have not returned to normal levels of revenue, according to the latest Small Business Recovery Dashboard. And over half (58%) are still carrying pandemic-related debt averaging over $114,000.
“Some businesses are saying what they face these days is as bad, if not worse than during the pandemic. So now is not the time to raise taxes and drive more businesses into despair. Give them a break,” said Corinne Pohlmann, Senior Vice-President of National Affairs at CFIB. “During the pandemic, the government froze EI premiums in 2021 and 2022. The same approach should be taken next year as well.”
CFIB has sent a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Freeland calling on the federal government to do no harm and avoid burdening small businesses even further.
CFIB recommends Ottawa work with the provinces to freeze or offset the upcoming 2023 CPP hikes, freeze the 2023 EI increases or introduce a refundable credit, similar to the 2015-16 Small Business Job Credit, to offset the rate increases for small businesses.
Business owners can share their concerns with the upcoming payroll tax increases by signing CFIB’s petition here.
Opposition wants city to seek electronic voting and postpone property taxes
During the Dec. 5 session of Laval city council, Saint-Bruno city councillor David De Cotis tabled two resolutions aimed at supporting the development of soccer in Laval.
Action Laval city councillor for Saint-Bruno David De Cotis. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)
The first seeks to recognize soccer as a sport that is played year-around in Laval, while the second would impose certain conditions on the financial support provided to the Complex multisport de Laval.
Along with his Action Laval council colleague, Val-des-Arbres city councillor Achille Cifelli, De Cotis and Cifelli reacted positively recently to news that the city has decided to go ahead with the two proposals, and without necessitating a debate in council over.
As everyone who has been watching the 2022 FIFA World Cup matches from Qatar over the past few weeks can attest, soccer is stronger than ever in popularity in Laval, and its growth as a sport can only be expected to continue.
Action Laval city councillor for Val des Arbres Archie Cifelli.
Last winter, according to De Cotis and Cifelli, soccer clubs and teams in Laval registered 3,500 players, while several other sports practiced during the winter, including hockey, figure skating, ringuette, basketball, gymnastics and chearleading, had far fewer registrations.
“Thanks to our proposals, soccer players will be able to play not only during the summer, but year-around,” said De Cotis. This is yet another victory for Action Laval.”
The opposition party thanked Mayor Stéphane Boyer’s administration for its support, while noting that two resolutions that were drafted were withdrawn from the Dec. 5 council meeting agenda since the administration accepted them in principle.
“The work by our team has borne fruit,” said Cifelli. “We are happy to see that conditions for soccer teams are improving and that youths will more easily be able to join up with these sports teams.”
Electronic voting in 2025?
During the same council meeting, Action Laval also tabled a resolution calling on the city to submit its candidacy to the provincial government to become eligible to hold elections electronically in 2025.
The resolution notes that the City of Montreal has already expressed an interest in electronic balloting and that Élection Québec is considering the implementation of it in municipalities of 20,000 or more residents.
As well, the resolution says voter participation in the 2021 elections was 28 per cent, while maintaining that electronic voting might help improve participation in future elections.
Seeking tax bill deferral
And finally, Action Laval councillors tabled a resolution at the Dec. 5 meeting calling on the administration to postpone payment of municipal tax bills in 2023 so that property owners are given a break during these trying inflationary times.
“Inflation has a direct impact on the capacity to pay by Laval residents,” it states, noting that the coming year could be very challenging financially for families and individuals living in Laval, and that soaring interest rates are making things even harder. The resolution asks the city to postpone tax bill payments until June and September, whereas they are now due in March and June.
Some blame major retailers like Loblaw, Metro and IGA for ‘greedflation’ phenomenon
With the New Year looming and some especially dark clouds hanging over the Canadian economy, the Competition Bureau of Canada as well as the country’s Parliamentarians are proceeding in 2023 with in-depth investigations into whether Canada’s leading grocery retailers have been colluding to fix food prices.
Who to blame?
Experts are attributing the rising costs of groceries (10.8 per cent in Canada over the past year, according to Statistics Canada) to a number of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting supply chain disruptions, severe weather from climate change, and higher costs for everything from labour to transportation.
And yet, two of Canada’s three major grocery chains posted increased profits in their most recent financial statements. Loblaw reported a quarterly profit of $387 million — an increase of $12 million, or 3.2 per cent, over the same quarter last year.
The Big 3’s profits up
In the meantime, Metro posted a $275 million quarterly profit, up from $252.4 million in the same quarter the year before. While Empire (which runs IGA) reported an increased profit in June, its latest financial statement showed a slight decline in profits.
Although senior officials with the country’s grocery retailers recently told the country’s Parliamentarians they were not to blame for the soaring prices and were only passing on costs, it’s notable that Loblaw (the largest of the three) announced in early October that it was freezing prices on its No Name products until the end of January.
A quick move
As noted by B.C.-based economist Jim Stanford in an October Toronto Star opinion piece, Loblaw’s announcement was made on the same day that month when the House of Commons voted in favour of an NDP motion to open an investigation into the grocery chains’ alleged “greedflation.”
The Conservatives’ newly-elected leader Pierre Poilièvre, whom one might expect would normally be disposed to defend big business, actually sided with the motion, which received unanimous support from MPs. The resulting investigation into Food Price Inflation by the Commons’ Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food is sure to be a focus of public attention over the coming year.
“With inflation on the rise, Canadian consumers have seen their purchasing power decline,” says the Competition Bureau of Canada
Working as one?
It’s worth noting that within hours of Loblaw’s price freeze announcement, Metro announced a similar move. While some may attribute this gesture to natural competitiveness in an open economy, others see it as evidence of large corporations working in tandem and effectively being able to fix prices monolithically as suits them best.
Accusations of price fixing are not new in Canada’s food production and retail industries. In 2018, federal business competition investigators opened an inquiry into whether the same three companies now facing scrutiny were colluding to fix the price of bread in the Canadian market. That investigation went nowhere, by the way, although it may now become appended to the larger one unfolding in the coming year.
For its part, the Ottawa-based Competition Bureau said in October that it is launching its study of grocery store competition in Canada in order to examine various issues “with the goal of recommending measures that governments can take” to help improve competition in the sector.
Purchase power down
“With inflation on the rise, Canadian consumers have seen their purchasing power decline,” the bureau said in a statement. “This is especially true when buying groceries. In fact, grocery prices in Canada are increasing at the fastest rate seen in 40 years.”
The bureau agrees with economic experts that many factors are thought to have impacted the price of food, including extreme weather, higher input costs, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and supply chain disruptions, while leaving the open question, “Are competition factors also at work?” To find out, the bureau will study the issue until June 2023.
Grocery prices in Canada are increasing at the fastest rate seen in 40 years, says the Canada Competition Bureau
The study will examine three main questions: To what extent are higher grocery prices a result of changing competitive dynamics? What can we learn from steps that other countries have taken to increase competition in the sector? And how can governments lower barriers to entry and expansion to stimulate competition for consumers?
Limited powers only
The bureau cautions that the study will not be an investigation into specific allegations of wrongdoing. However, if they do find evidence that someone is or may be acting against the law, then they will investigate and take appropriate action.
However, the bureau does not have formal investigative powers to compel information for the purpose of market studies.
Newsfirst Multimedia reached out to Vimy Liberal Member of Parliament Annie Koutrakis for her reaction to the launch of the two investigations. In a texted response, she declined to comment, referring our questions to the Competition Bureau of Canada’s website (cb-bc.gc.ca).
In their 24th annual campaign, retired City of Laval employees raised and donated more than $400,000 for Centraide of Greater Montreal.
The money was gathered from employees, retirees and current City of Laval elected officials, as well as from corporate donations.
William Hupke, with Centraide du Grand Montréal; Stéphane Boyer, mayor of Laval; Christine Poirier, city councillor for Duvernay–Pont-Viau, and Tania Fonrose. (Photo: Vincent Girard)
More than 25 Laval-based charitable groups will be receiving financial assistance from Centraide. According to the city, nearly $3 million was given by Centraide to groups in Laval in 2021-2022.
“The City of Laval and Centraide have a history of productive collaboration since 1998,” says Laval executive-committee member and city councillor for Duvernay-Pont-Viau Christine Poirier. “I am proud of the commitment of our teams towards the neediest. Such generosity will almost certainly make a difference for a great many organizations in Laval.”
City unveils list of projects chosen after budget consultation
After initiating the City of Laval’s first consultative budget, municipal officials have announced 10 projects that were chosen and will be implemented over the coming years.
In a departure from the city’s usual budget allocation procedures, residents of Laval were invited in the past year to take part in the selection of community projects that would receive funding from the annual budget.
The selected projects involve sports, culture, as well as social support and development. In all, according to the city, more than 5,200 residents voted from Aug. 22 until Sept. 30 for their favourite projects either online or at branches of the municipal library network.
“Our administration is proud to see this initiative in participative democracy become a reality, and we would like to thank everybody who took part,” said Mayor Stéphane Boyer.
The 10 projects chosen were those which received the largest number of votes out of 21 project proposals. The projects’ themes involve landscaping to help deal with urban heat islands, the development of public marketplaces, refurbishment of certain streets, additional lighting in parks, mini-public libraries, green alleyways and other ideas.
The 10 projects will be receiving a total of $576,000, with an additional $24,000 set aside for any cost overruns. According to the city, 4,444 votes were made online, while an additional 777 votes were received at library branches. It is estimated that 1.18 per cent of the city’s population voted, with 1 per cent considered an acceptable rate by international best practice standards.
City’s snow clearance crews ready for winter
With the winter season now well underway, the City of Laval says its public works department is prepared for whatever Mother Nature sends this way.
Crews are standing ready with snow plows and snow removal trucks, as well as sidewalk tractors. Here’s what you can do to help make snow removal as easy and efficient as possible when storms blow through:
When possible, park in your driveway on snow removal days. If you must park on the street, park your car at least 30 centimetres from the sidewalk so snow plows have clearance, while making sure there’s also room on the passenger side for police or emergency vehicles to pass by.
Always shovel snow onto your own property, rather than onto the sidewalk or street.
On recycling or trash pickup days, always place your bins on your property, rather than on the sidewalk or street.
Always obey the instructions on parking signage.
Laval signs with Quebec for historic and heritage studies
Members of the city’s executive-committee last week approved the signing of an agreement with Quebec’s Culture and Communications Ministry, which will allow the city to conduct studies on the historic roots of some neighbourhoods where documentation has been lacking.
Since the end of the 1950s, several inventories of buildings of potential heritage and historic interest were conducted. The city has gradually been enlarging its knowledge of its historic past, including architectural development, over the past few decades.
Grande-Côte, now known as Avenue des Terrasses, in July 1948. (Photo: Archives City of Laval).
“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with the government of Quebec, which will allow the City of Laval to find on its territory the significant traces of heritage and history and land management in some of its neighbourhoods,” says Pierre Brabant, the city councillor for Vimont who is responsible for dossiers involving heritage and history.
