Author: Stéphane St-Amour

No less than 700 speed bumps have been added in the past two years near parks equipped with playground modules, and primary schools in Laval. The 700th was built in front of the La Source school and the l’Étincelle building, on the 15th Avenue, in Fabreville, on Nov. 24. It was one of the last speed bumps of a first phase of implementation, around 67 schools and 139 parks in the territory, launched in the fall of 2020. “Laval wants to encourage drivers to adopt safer behaviour, reduce their speed and be more attentive to their environment,” said Ray Khalil,…

The natural green area near the Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, at the 10th Avenue, in Fabreville, was reduced to nothing at the beginning of November. Illegally, the deforestation work was mainly carried out on two lots, belonging to Gazaille Construction, whose president, Claude Gazaille, didn’t return our call, or respond to our emails. https://youtu.be/crmEUeVADbI Alerted on Nov. 4 by worried neighbours, Laval sent an urban forestry inspector, before requesting the work to be stopped, without success. “No private tree felling authorization certificate has been requested or issued by the City,” affirmed Head of Public Affairs, Anne-Marie Braconnier, by email. The following Monday, the…

Laval manufacturer Pélican International (Pelican) received the highest distinction awarded annually, by the Government of Quebec, to private companies and public organizations that stand out for their management quality, and their overall performance. A manufacturer of kayaks and other water sports equipment, Pelican was one of the 12 winners honoured at the 30th edition of the Salon sur les meilleures pratiques d’affaires, held on Nov. 24 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. The Laval company thus earned a regional distinction, at the Prix performance Québec (PPQ). Entrepreneurship Model “It represents an exceptional entrepreneurship model, contributing to the economic influence…

The residential real estate market in Montreal’s Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) experienced a particularly difficult month of October, with a 35 per cent decline in transactions compared to the same period last year. In absolute numbers, it’s a “significant drop” of 1,501 sales, according to the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB). The 2,770 sales, listed in the Centris provincial database of real estate brokers, are representing the lowest level of activity recorded since 2014 for the month of October. General decline Although below the average for Montreal’s CMA, Laval is still behind by 29 per cent, its…

New Liberal deputy for Mille-Îles, Virginie Dufour, has been named official opposition spokesperson municipal affairs and housing. Former municipal councillor for Sainte-Rose, responsible for issues related to the environment and urban planning during the two terms of Demers’s administration, Dufour will also act as spokesperson for Laval’s region for Quebec’s Liberal Party (QLP). During the last campaign, in the wake of the saga surrounding the Cité du Cinéma, Dufour had also pledged, should she win her place at the National Assembly, to do everything possible to amend the Act respecting elections and Referendums in Municipalities, especially Articles 546 and 553,…

François Legault’s Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) wrote history by winning four of the six ridings in Laval, dislodging the Liberal Party (LP) in Vimont, Laval-des-Rapides and Fabre. In the riding of Sainte-Rose, the victory of outgoing deputee Christopher Skeete was never in doubt. Re-elected with the strongest majority in the region, Skeete will team up for the next four years with Valérie Schmaltz (Vimont), Céline Haytayan (Laval-des-Rapides) and Alice Abou-Khalil (Fabre), all three elected for the first time in the National Assembly. Laval’s two other ridings remain liberal, but will be represented by two new deputees in Virginie Dufour (Mille-Îles)…

Less than a week before the provincial election, Action Laval is making public its “priorities” presented to the candidates of different political parties in Laval. Among the regional issues identified by Action Laval, sitting in opposition at the city hall, we can count a second hospital and a fair centre of international level. During the 2021 municipal election campaign, Action Laval had also committed to deploying efforts with Quebec, so that the city-region get those new infrastructures. “We need more than a mega-hospital in Laval’s centre,” said Saint-Bruno’s councillor David De Cotis. “The population of western Laval must leave the…

Put on hold four years ago, the construction site of Laval’s aquatic complex finally came back to life during the summer. “I’m happy to see that the site teams are mobilized and that the work is going well so that this structuring project can finally materialize,” said Mayor of Laval Stéphane Boyer in a press release published yesterday. Boyer specifies that “in a little over two years, Laval will have high-level and unique facilities on the north shore that will serve both the needs of the community and the ambitions of the aquatic environment”. If everything goes as planned, that…

President of the Société nationale du Québec à Laval (SNQL), Jean Desautels did not fall out of his chair when he learned of the significant decline of the French language in Laval since 2016. “It corresponds to what we’ve been saying for a few years, which is that Laval is becoming more and more anglicized, and that French is occupying an increasingly secondary role,” he said on the phone, when asked to react to the linguistic portrait of Laval emanating from the 2021 census data, published a few hours earlier by Statistics Canada. Urgency to Act Desautels also added that…

François Legault, leader of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) and Prime Minister, stopped Wednesday in Vimont, a riding he’s hoping to wrest from the Liberals on Oct. 3.  Along with his candidate Valérie Schmaltz, he visited the Ulric-Debien primary school, freshly renovated and enlarged in the Auteuil district, before revealing a commitment of $2 billion in the upgrading of educational establishments. This would add to the $7 billion already provided for in the last budget to renovate schools over the next four years. Education Being the Priority “Our children and teachers deserve to have beautiful schools,” Legault said, who’s making…