municipal news shorts from Laval

Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The City of Laval and its unionized police officers signed a new collective agreement last week, leading Mayor Stéphane Boyer to declare himself highly satisfied by the outcome.

The agreement was ratified by 78 per cent of the police brotherhood’s members. It includes a provision to transfer some administrative duties to civilian staff, resulting in lower costs for the city.

The new agreement includes an overall 22.2 per cent salary increase over five years. It will also provide for the deployment of police cadets to manage traffic, representing another cost-saving measure.

“What we were looking for was greater efficiency and more officers on the streets,” said Mayor Stéphane Boyer, adding that the agreement allows the city to achieve that. “We’re really pleased with the outcome, and I think it’s going to be a win-win, both for the officers and for the public.”

“The new contract offers working conditions that reflect the growing responsibilities of our officers, who work in a complex environment and are facing an evolving and increasingly sophisticated criminal landscape,” said union president Sylvain Tardif. The agreement is in effect retroactively from Jan. 1, 2024 until Dec. 31, 2028.

Laval Firemen’s Footrace takes in a record $100,000 in donations

For its 13^th annual run, the Laval Firemen’s Footrace (Course des pompiers) on Sunday June 1 had a record number of enrolled participants. Nearly 12,000 runners of both sexes and of all ages took part in the event, which drew 2,800 more people than last year.

The participants raised $102,000 for the Fondation des pompiers du Québec. The sum was expected to grow in the following days as additional donations came in.

William Simon took first place in the marathon in the men’s category with an impressive time of 2 hours, 39 minutes and 55 seconds. For the second year, Florence Thibodeau was the first woman to cross the finish line after 3 hours, 4 minutes and 56 seconds.

In the half-marathon, Victor Boisvert finished in 1 hour, 13 minutes and 53 seconds, while Joëlle White finished in 1 hour, 25 minutes and four seconds. (It was the second consecutive win for Joëlle White in her category.) The event also included 10, 5, 2.5 and 1-kilometre segments.

Laval scales up efforts to recuperate funds through BIEL agency

The City of Laval’s Bureau de l’intégrité et de l’éthique de Laval (BIEL) recently released an overview report of its activities for the year 2024, maintaining that progress was made to render the city’s administration more transparent, while also preventing corrupt practices from taking root.

Pierre Brochet, director of the Laval Police Dept. which is mandated to run the BIEL, said the agency was called upon more than ever to offer advice and make recommendations to city employees dealing with issues involving ethical dilemmas

“In 2024, the BIEL’s integrity was solicited more than ever,” he said. “The increase in requests, notices and recommendations bears witness to the importance of the role it plays in ethics and integrity for the members of the City of Laval’s staff.

“This enduring culture of integrity makes the BIEL something to look up to in this regard,” added Brochet. “On several occasions, it was invited to share its expertise with the academic milieu as well as other organizations internationally. This goes beyond our borders, reflecting the excellence of our practices and our leadership in matters of organization integrity.”

According to the 2024 report, the BIEL carried out several integrity audits last year involving sub-contractors of  services to the municipality, including five investigations currently still underway. Thirteen interventions were made with respect to seven municipal infrastructure projects.

In addition to its investigative work, the BIEL also continued efforts last year to recuperate funds believed to have been misappropriated to sub-contractors in past years.

According to the BIEL’s report, the city reclaimed $1.7 million in 2024, bringing the total to $60 million. As well, three civil suits remain underway, representing $17 million in funds which might potentially also be recuperated.

Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It’s to be hoped you didn’t become overly alarmed if you happened to have heard one of several high-pitched emergency sirens that went off throughout the day last Wednesday in various parts of Laval.

It was part of an emergency preparedness exercise undertaken by the city in the eventuality of something more serious.

Sirens located at five Laval businesses and industries were being tested in accordance with the City of Laval’s By-law L-12933. The businesses in question all have some element of potentially hazardous activity in their operations and were taking part in the tests to be ready for the real thing.

“The introduction of emergency sirens is something new on Laval’s territory,” said city councillor and executive-committee member Sandra Desmeules, who is responsible for public safety issues.

She said the goal of the test, which was the first of its kind to be conducted in Laval, was to prepare residents for emergencies. Another of the objectives was to see that residents become familiar with the sound of the sirens so as to recognize them in the future if there is a real emergency.

The sirens, which were programmed to go off one at a time from 9 am to 3 pm, are located at MAPEI Canada chemicals (2900 Av Francis-Hughes), Dyne-A-Pak packaging (3375 Av Francis-Hughes), Supérieur Propane (111 Rue de la Station), Gaz Propane Monin (555 Montée Saint-François), and Produits alimentaires Viau (6625 Rue Ernest-Cormier).

Each siren produced a loud horn sound, rising and falling gradually, for exactly three minutes. They were designed to be heard within a geographic area surrounding the industrial locations.

Were the sirens going off for a real emergency involving the accidental release of toxic or hazardous gases, residents normally would seek shelter inside the nearest building. They would then close all doors and windows and shut down ventilation systems, seal windows and doors with adhesive tape, move away from windows, and follow the instructions of public safety officials.

On the day of the practice exercise, teams from Civil Security, the Laval Police and the Laval Fire Dept. were on hand near the businesses where the sirens are located to answer residents’ questions.

Laval to transform Saint-Martin Blvd. into a safer, greener urban axis

Officials with the City of Laval announced last week that they reached an agreement with the federal government for $10 million in federal funding to improve and transform a 13-kilometre stretch of Saint-Martin Blvd. into a safer route for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.

The work, for which the City of Laval will be paying $29 million of the total $39 million cost, will include the planting of 525 trees and the installation of 15,000 square metres of plant and shrub embankments.

The vegetation is expected to help absorb up to 2,500 cubic metres of heavy rainfall, thus keeping it out of storm sewers during severe storms.

The work is also expected to include improved security on sidewalks and bicycle paths. Climate change is one of the factors being taken into consideration, as well as the overall improvement of the quality of life.

“In transforming this major axis, we are not only beautifying the area,” says Mayor Stéphane Boyer. “We are also creating a more secure living environment while faced with climate change.”

He said the extensive vegetation and the new trees will be able to contain the equivalent of an Olympic pool of rainwater during heavy rain storms, taking pressure off the sewer system.

“By encouraging active mobility, the safety of users and the greening of living spaces, we are building more inclusive, dynamic and resilient cities while facing today’s environmental and urban challenges,” said federal public services minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

Contracts for the work were awarded at the March 12 Laval city council meeting, and the work will begin in May, with completion scheduled for sometime in 2026.The city will be taking special traffic measures along Saint-Martin Blvd. while the work is underway to limit the impact on traffic.

Merchants and businesses located along the route will be informed by the city of special measures to minimize the impact the work has on them.

Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

During the last few days of August, City of Laval work crews were wrapping up the last of a series of coordinated trash and waste pickups on streets throughout the city, after the devastating floods that washed through several neighbourhoods of Laval on Aug. 9.

Over the previous three weeks, a coordinated effort by several key municipal departments focused on the massive task, with assistance from a few contracted outside service providers.

According to the city, more than 25,000 hours of work went into the cleanup, and city teams were resuming their day-to-day operations, as students in schools across Laval were adjusting to back-to-school routines and settling down to classes.

“Planning and coordination efforts as well as the exceptional mobilization of several hundred people made it possible to conduct this never-before-seen cleanup operation on Laval’s soil,” said Patrick Taillefer, director of the Laval Fire Dept. and principal coordinator for emergency measures.

“For every residence affected, our teams had to pick up the equivalent of nearly a year’s worth of trash,” he added. “They managed to do it with success, after a second and then a final sweep over all the territory.”

“Since August 12, the City of Laval’s teams worked incessantly to support our community,” said Mayor Stéphane Boyer.

“This cleanup operation, which quickly became our absolute priority, showed one more time the solidarity and resilience of all the people in Laval. Thanks to the commitment of our staff and the collaboration of everyone concerned, we were able to surmount this challenge together and reestablish order in our neighbourhoods to the best of our abilities.”

Just what was done

• Work crews passed twice on all Laval’s territory, for a total of 2,900 streets
• 15,363 addresses visited
• More than 8,000 tons of debris gathered
• 4,170 10-wheel truck trips
• 12,455 visits to the écocentres
• Around 1,000 tons of debris dumped
• More than 25,000 hours of work
• Estimated cost $4 million

Other options still available

Laval’s écocentres continue to be an excellent option for those still needing to rid themselves of trash and debris left from the flooding. Because of the exceptional nature of the situation, the city is allowing a much greater volume of materials per resident to be accepted.

They are also reminding residents who were impacted that some insurance policies include rental charges for steel containers to gather debris and its pickup by a specialized contractor.

Giant mural completed at Chomedey high-rise

On Aug. 29, representatives of the City of Laval were on hand for the official unveiling of a large mural created over two exterior walls on a high-rise building at the corner of Saint-Martin and Daniel Johnson boulevards in Chomedey.

The work, titled Inner Child Healing, was created by multidisciplinary artist Jacquie Comrie, on the outside of the 14-storey Tours Saint-Martin.

“Adding to the City of Laval’s already impressive collection of public art, this impressionist and brilliant work will be embellishing the sector to make it even more lively, while at the same time adding to the experiences of those using the sector,” said Laval city councillor for Sainte-Rose Flavia Alexandra Novac, who is responsible for cultural dossiers on city council.

“The building’s architecture was perfectly suited for such a large project in an area where its visibility over a wide and well-trafficked area will ensure it is seen by a maximum of passersby,” she added.

The artist who created the work explained how she went about it. “In my artistic efforts, I use color as a tool for social transformation in order to create a positive impact and beneficial effects on mental health,” Comrie said.

“Color is a universal language for transmitting emotions, in addition to being a powerful tool to embellish spaces. It has healing properties and also the capacity to influence our thoughts, our behaviors and our well-being.”

The mural was created with the assistance of MU, an organization that has been behind the creation of many other exterior murals in the Montreal region since 2007. The City of Laval undertook to sponsor the mural as part of an existing cultural policy to promote public art in open outdoor spaces in strategic locations.

Around 60 other murals and other works of art are part of a growing collection on Laval’s territory. They can be found on many municipal buildings including libraries, sports and community centres, as well as in green spaces and public parks.

Marius-Barbeau library branch in Saint-François moves

Since Sept. 7, the City of Laval library network’s Marius-Barbeau branch in Saint-François has been closed while a move is undertaken to a new location at the Espace citoyen des Confluents (ECC) at 1000 Marie-Uguay St.

According to Laval city councillor Flavia Alexandra Novac, in charge of library services on city council, the new locale will give the branch more space and convenience for its users who are mostly in Duvernay-Est and Saint-François.

“They will have access to a collection of more than 55,000 documents, several new pieces of digital equipment, a terrace, a reading room, a special section especially set aside for teenagers, meeting rooms and much more,” said Novac.

“This will be a place very simply that is exceptional where you will be able to find places for gatherings, exchanges and for culture, which is sure to become an important focal point for the community,” she added.

Until Nov. 2 when the ECC is schedule to open, library users from the area are invited to use the Germaine-Guèvremont library branch located at 2900 boulevard de la Concorde Est in Duvernay, or any of the eight other Laval public library branches.

At the same time, library users are reminded that many of the City of Laval’s services are not available online, making it unnecessary to go in person to a library branch.

For example, books and documents can be reserved online, while other resources can be consulted directly in databases of information. Book and document loans can also be renewed online.