As part of the Patients Rights Week of the health and social services network, which will take place from November 9 to 15, 2021, the Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS) des Laurentides released a statement to underline the commitment and work of all the volunteers and resource persons who make up these committees.
The CISSS des Laurentides has 11 user committees and 15 residents’ committees whose mandate consists in particular of defending the rights and interests of patients.
“In this second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of our committees have remained active and concerned about their role with patients of the CISSS des Laurentides. For 18 months, these committees have shown initiative, adaptation and resilience to deploy new means of being at the heart of the actions of the CISSS des Laurentides. On behalf of our establishment and all the users in our region, I would like to thank all these volunteers for their civic commitment,” declared Ms. Rosemonde Landry, President and CEO.
The CISSS des Laurentides emphasizes that the mission of the committees is to inform patients of their rights and obligations, to promote the improvement of the quality of the living conditions of patients and to assess their degree of satisfaction with regard to services. They are the defenders of the rights and collective interests of patients and can offer support and assistance to them in their dealings with the CISSS des Laurentides, including when they wish to file a complaint.
To highlight the 2021 edition of Patients Rights Week, The CISSS des Laurentides is inviting everyone to visit the Patients’ Committees page on the CISSS des Laurentides website (www.santelaurentides.gouv.qc.ca) to learn more about the different committees and the residents’ committees of the region, their mission and their activities.
Municipal elections wrapped up last Sunday night all over Quebec. In the North Shore, perhaps the most intense moments came in Sainte-Thérèse.
In Sainte-Thérèse, at the end of an intense fight in this electoral evening, was elected mayor of the city. He succeeds Ms. Sylvie Surprenant who was the mayor since 2009. According to the numbers published on the site of the City, it is only by 69 votes that Mr. Charron can claim victory, accumulating 3,588 votes against 3,519 for Ms. Surprenant.
Another upset came in the city of Boisbriand Christine Beaudette was elected this evening as mayor of Boisbriand succeeding incumbent mayor Marlene Cordato. Ms Beaudette run a campaign as an independent surrounded by independent municipal councillor candidates which obviously paid off. She won with 52% of the votes against a little more than 46% for Mrs. Cordato
In Blainville, Liza Poulin, head of the real Blainville party, made history as when she became the first female mayor of Blainville. It was by a strong majority over her rival Florent Gravel of the Mouvement Blainville that Ms. Poulin entered the town hall. After all polling stations were counted, Ms. Poulin won with a titanic majority of 78.45% against incumbent mayor Florent Gravel’s, 20.17% of the votes.
A new service to answer questions about COVID-19 vaccination
In order to communicate more clearly and to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) des Laurentides is launching a new vaccination information service. Residents can now speak to a nurse to ask about COVID-19 vaccination.
In order to take advantage of this new service, people are asked to send an email to covid-19.vaccination.questions.cissslau@ssss.gouv.qc.ca to get a call from a nurse. For those without easy access to the internet, they can also call 1-866-495-5833 and a nurse will return the call as soon as possible depending on demand. “Given the amount of information circulating about COVID-19, we wanted to make available to the public a simple, direct, reliable way of asking a healthcare professional about vaccination”, said Ms. Rosemonde Landry, CEO of the CISSS des Laurentides. While COVID-19 vaccines remain the best way to protect against the virus and its variants, the purpose of this service is to inform you by answering your questions directly and to provide you with the relevant information to support your decision about vaccination.
An information service about vaccination
The procedure starts with an email or a phone call as indicated above mentioning name, telephone number and the best time to be reached. Following the initial step patients will get a call from a nurse and two attempts will be made to reach the person requesting the information.
As a reminder, there are currently five ways to get vaccinated:
With an appointment at Clicsante.ca or by calling 1-877-644-4545. Without an appointment, via the NotifVAX mobile app, available on Google Play or at the App Store, directly at the vaccination sites and at the vaccination mobile units
A free shuttle service is available for persons with reduced mobility, requiring accompaniment or lacking transportation.
All of the candidates of mayor Eric Westram’s Innovaction plus team were elected
“I will be the mayor of ALL Rosemerites”
It was about 9pm on Sunday night that the results of the municipal elections started rolling in at the Rosemère curling club where incumbent mayor Eric Westram’s Innovaction plus team and supporters gathered to await them. Right from the beginning, as soon as the first polling station out of the 54 in Rosemère reported it was clear that Westram would hold a solid lead.
The final results came down to a win for Eric Westram who got a 54% of the vote compared to Pierre-André Geoffrion who got 44,6 %. All of the candidates of his team were also all elected, some with sizeable majorities like counselor Philip Panet-Raymond that won with a 655-vote difference.
Among the biggest priorities of his second term are the city budget and the distribution of portfolios to the different councilors according to Mr. Westram. “Our great advantage is our thirst for constant and effective communication with our citizens” emphasized the reelected mayor adding that nothing can move forward and get resolved without proper communication, adding that this is an area where his team has invested a lot and will continue to do so with even more vigor.
“Our councilors will be close to the people they represent, and all of them know their areas very well” added the mayor.
Philip Panet-Raymond joined the interview adding that the Golf course is also a very big priority for the team. Rosemère needs to take care of its aging population which hemorrhages to other cities. “As soon some of our residents grow older, they sell their houses and move out of town. We need to address this by developing a variety of solutions from halfway housing to full-fledged residences for the elderly and whenever the road opens, the golf course is a place where we can do that” said Pane-Raymond. At the same time Mayor Westram emphasized that a minimum of 50% of the golf course will stay green whenever the city acquires it.
Starting November 2, a new vaccination clinic will open in Saint-Eustache. The Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) des Laurentides is providing the population with an additional site where they can get vaccinated.
The new site will be located at 450, boulevard Arthur-Sauvé in Saint-Eustache.
“It was crucial for us to offer local service to the Deux-Montagnes MRC population. It will also be possible to get the flu vaccination, with an appointment, at the same location. Simply ask our vaccination teams,” said Ms. Rosemonde Landry, President and Executive Director of the CISSS des Laurentides. A shuttle service is available on demand for people with restricted mobility or without the means to reach our vaccination sites.
There are multiple ways to get vaccinated in the Laurentians, with or without an appointment in one of our vaccination sites, by using the NotifVax app, or in one of our mobile vaccination units. For more details, visit santelaurentides.gouv.qc.ca.
The flu vaccine
It is highly recommended that people most at risk of developing complications get vaccinated each year in order to protect themselves. For these people, vaccination is the best protection against the flu and its complications. Vaccination allows the body to make antibodies to fight the flu. However, studies have shown that the number of antibodies may decrease in the year after vaccination. This decrease particularly affects older adults and people with a weakened immune system. In addition, viruses that cause flu constantly change. The composition of flu vaccines is reviewed annually in order to include the virus strains most likely to be in circulation during the flu season. The Flu vaccine is safe and cannot transmit flu or other illnesses. In fact, it contains part of the viruses or viruses that are killed or too weak to reproduce and cause the flu. In Canada and at the World Health Organization (WHO), there are several vaccination surveillances programs. These programs ensure, among other things, the quality of vaccines offered. Among these is the Québec surveillance program, ‘Effets secondaires possiblement reliés à l’immunisation’ (ESPRI). This program was established in 1990 by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux. The flu vaccine does not make COVID-19 symptoms worse if you get infected.
Effectiveness of the flu vaccine
The flu vaccine generally takes 2 weeks before being fully effective. It does not offer 100% protection against the flu. The vaccine prevents the flu in about 40 to 60% of healthy people when the strains of viruses it contains correspond to strains circulating. The protection offered by the vaccine may vary from person to person, but it lasts at least 6 months. The vaccine protects only against the strains of the flu virus it contains. It does not protect against other respiratory infections such as the cold or COVID-19. For people aged 75 and over and those with chronic illnesses, the vaccine especially helps reduce the risks of complications from the flu, hospitalisation and death.
10,000 signatures to demand from the Quebec Ministry of Transport the redevelopment of the intersection of Autoroute 640 and 25e Avenue in Saint-Eustache
10,000 signatures to demand from the Quebec Ministry of Transport the redevelopment of the intersection of Autoroute 640 and 25e Avenue in Saint-Eustache
The City of Saint-Eustache released the results of a petition demanding from the Quebec Ministry of Transport (MTQ) the redevelopment of the crossroads of highway 640 and 25th Avenue in Saint-Eustache.
This petition, launched by the City of Saint-Eustache last September, thus gathered the signatures of nearly 10,000 road users frequenting this busy sector, who thus informed the MTQ of their exasperation at the endemic congestion that is rampant in this strategic crossroads. Citizens who wished could also dial 511 and assert their demands in the face of the crossroads redevelopment file, which has dragged on for more than a decade.
“It seems that citizen pressure is already bearing some fruit, since after months of silence, the City has finally received a summons from the MTQ to a meeting, in order to discuss the elements likely to unblock this file, which is moreover entirely under provincial jurisdiction, I would like to point out. I congratulate the citizens who took the trouble to join their efforts with ours,” recalled the mayor of Saint-Eustache, Mr. Pierre Charron. The topics addressed at this meeting, the results of a traffic study by the MTQ, the results should be known in June, the installation of a traffic light at the intersection of 25th Avenue and rue Dubois, immediately upstream of the problematic crossroads, in anticipation of which the City of Saint-Eustache has already carried out the preparatory work.
But the heart of the discussion will focus on the need to review the complete configuration of the intersection, taking into account that it constitutes a route widely used by motorists coming from or heading to neighboring cities in full expansion. “As Highway 13 ends near Saint-Eustache and Boisbriand, motorists wanting to head towards certain sectors of Mirabel, which, it should be noted, have experienced a demographic explosion over the past decade, have no choice but to pass through the A-640/25th junction Avenue. This intolerably congests the sector, causes delays and pollution, harms the competitiveness of the region, not to mention the impacts on the quality of life “, said Pierre Charron, who added: ” Any temporary solution, synchronization of lights, development of a ramp, will undoubtedly alleviate the problem of congestion somewhat in the short term. But we must see further. Short term, these mitigation measures cannot be anything other than a bandage on an open wound, given the urban development which is increasing in the region more quickly than anywhere else in Quebec. The redevelopment of the 25th Avenue intersection and the extension of Autoroute 13 are required. The productivity of the whole region depends on it ”.
from left to right :
Erik Johnson, City Councillor, district du Lac
Michel Mendes, City Councillor, district du Coteau
Dave Byers, Treasurer of the Lion’s Club of Deux-Montagnes
Florindo Stabile, President of the Lion’s Club of Deux-Montagnes,
Denis Martin, Mayor of Deux-Montagnes
Micheline Groulx Stabile, City Councillor, district of Olympia,
Pascale Dupuis, Director of the Culture and Library
On October 27th, the Library of Deux-Montagnes has received a grant of $ 1500 offered by the Lion’s Club of Deux-Montagnes to expand its collection of large print books and audio-books.
Since 1980, the Lion’s Club contributes to these collections in French and English mainly for people with visual handicap. Through this annual financial aid, the library members have a good variety of books of all kinds. These collections are available to the subscribers during the opening hours of the Library.
The Lion’s club also recently held the first weekend of October its book fair which was very successful, even though theywe were operating under Covid restrictions. The Club was only allowed 50 people at the hall at one time, which sum included the workers, when in the past they were running the book fair with up to 15 volunteers and Lions club members.
According to the club, the community was very appreciative of their efforts, and even though they only collected books for 3 months, the donations were coming in at a great rate, which allowed the club to end up with over 15000 books.
The club had many requests to have the bookfair on a semi-annual basis, and currently they are looking into the possibility of having a pre-summer edition in May.
NSN reached out to Mayor Westram to comment on the Rosemère Vert’s press release and the Government’s response
The citizen group Rosemère Green, a group of volunteer citizens who are involved in ensuring the preservation of green spaces in urban areas, and the Coalition of Golf Courses in Transition (CTGT) welcomed the unfavorable notice of the Government of Quebec towards the request of the City of Rosemère to change the use of the site of the old golf course in a press release sent to local media on October 21st 2021. More specifically, the notice blocks the modification of the Land Use Planning and Development Plan (Schéma d’aménagement et de développement/SAD) referred to in draft by-law (PR) 21-02[1] of the MRC de Thérèse-De Blainville.
In the press release Rosemère Vert announced that it obtained the preliminary notice of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MAMH) following an access to information request and decided to make it public. “If this by-law had been adopted before the elections, it would have modified the MRC’s SAD and would have changed the land use of the site of the former Rosemère golf course so that it transitioned into a “Residential in a landscaped environment”. This change was requested by the City of Rosemère in order to open the door to a residential development on the site of the old golf course. The process of modifying the SAD was therefore interrupted and no modification of the latter will take place before the elections.” says Rosemère Vert
In its notice sent to the MRC on the draft Regulation, the Government of Quebec concludes that the MRC’s request to modify the SAD does not comply with government guidelines for land use planning (OGAT). Twelve departments and bodies concerned with land use planning, the Quebec Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks have conveyed their concerns regarding the draft Regulation.
According to Lucie Tremblay of Rosemère Vert, “the government’s conclusions are in line with what we have been reiterating for several months and that the elected officials of Rosemère and the MRC have always refused to hear. The needs as well as the impacts of the development of the site of the old golf course have not been assessed. The unfavorable opinion of the Government of Quebec shows that they did not do their homework and acted quickly to change the use of the site of the old golf course, just before the elections”.
Following this unfavorable opinion, Rosemère Vert and the CTGT ask the government of Quebec to immediately decree a moratorium on changes in the use of golf courses, to make legislative changes to the Expropriation Act and to put sums available to cities to facilitate the purchase of old golf courses to ensure the protection of these green spaces.
NSN reached out to Mayor Westram to comment on the Rosemère Vert’s press release and the Government’s response.
According to the mayor, from the outset, it is important to stress that the comments of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MAMH) in its letter of September 16 concern the draft by-law as a whole and this includes in particular Place Rosemère as well as the file of the old golf course. Thus, the comments are not specifically aimed at the golf course.
He also noted that his administration has been developing the urban vision since 2018 with and for the citizens. This vision identified major challenges, including those of commercial vitality on boulevard Labelle – the regional hub of Place Rosemère – the mobility of people on the 117 and on Grande-Cote and the planning of the land use in the old golf course area. This urban vision developed with citizens requires approvals from supra-local MRC, CMM and MAMH authorities. This is a normal and regular process when a municipality revises its urban plan.
Thus, in January 2021, the City made representations to the MRC and the CMM in order to assert the will of the Rosemère people regarding a mix of uses at Place Rosemère and in terms of the protection of a minimum of 50% of the old golf course. The Rosemère community wishes to maintain a density comparable to neighboring areas, which goes against the standards set by the CMM. The Mayor also said that already a 12% of the course has already been developed by the previous administration in 2016.
It is also at the regional hub of Place Rosemère that a higher density is planned. By the same token, this is where the majority of travel would be generated. The MRC and the CMM have given their agreement in principle to the request for a change of assignment and the government of Quebec made its comments in its letter of September 16, which mainly concerns the mobility of people.
“There are no surprises in the opinion of the MAMH. Our preliminary urban plan also identifies the issue of the mobility of people as a priority. We are going to work with the Government of Quebec in order to assert the will of the citizens in this normal and regular process. In short, as I have always said, my commitment is that citizens have the last word.” concluded Mayor Westram.
Sainte-Thérèse awards nine scholarships to support young emerging athletes
As part of the Athlete Support Policy, the City of Sainte-Thérèse is awarding $ 2,400 in scholarships to nine Therese women and Emerging Teresians. Through their resilience and perseverance, these young people have stood out and made their city and their sport shine.
Here are the nine athletes who received a support grant: Alexis Cousineau (tennis), Léa Cousineau (tennis), Matilde Desharnais-Guenole (athletics), Arielle Garant (athletics), Cédrik Laberge (hockey), Laurent Plamondon (judo), Jules Rolland (diving), Colin Saint ‑ Pierre ‑ Ménard (fencing), May-Anne Seney (softball).
“We are proud to continue to support and encourage Teresian youth, especially when we think about the challenges of the past few months. These young athletes are models of surpassing oneself. The next generation deserves not only our support, but also our admiration. Our congratulations to the recipients! », said Sylvie Surprenant, mayor of Sainte-Thérèse.
Citizens are invited by the city to like the achievements of the recipients by going to the Town of Sainte-Thérèse’s Facebook page, where a photo album has been created in their honor.
Starting November 2 in Boisbriand, ASTERIA will travel from one week to the next in each of the towns of the MRC, and will end on December 19 in Rosemère.
The MRC de Thérèse-De Blainville and the Table Action Culture are launching ASTERIA
The MRC de Thérèse-De Blainville In close collaboration with its partner and regional broadcaster Odyscène and following the recommendation of the Table Action Culture (TAC), has launched a new cultural project: ASTERIA.
ASTERIA is an immersive musical journey in virtual reality that plunges the viewer into the world of several singer-songwriters from the Quebec scene, namely Vincent Vallières, Dominique Fils-Aimé, Daniel Bélanger, Alexandra Strélinski and Fouki.
“It is an experience which allows the VR voyager to discover the musical works of the artists in an unprecedented way, by a spatialized surround sound environment which envelops a dynamic and modern visual which mix turning in 360 degrees and creation of universe in 3D animation”, declared the prefect of the MRC de Thérèse-De Blainville, Mr. Richard Perreault.
For its part, Odyscène, in collaboration with the MRC de Thérèse-De Blainville, once again offers a cultural experience open to the community by promoting accessibility to the performing arts. “ASTERIA is an innovative way of presenting song and music, paired for the occasion with technology. I invite the public to take part in this extraordinary musical virtual reality experience,” mentioned Odyscène President Mélissa Poirier.
Genesis of the project
Odyscene presented the ASTERIA project to the TAC in the fall of 2020. It immediately aroused great interest from each of the seven towns of the MRC who wished to participate. However, due to the context of the pandemic, the TAC deemed it more appropriate to postpone the activity until the fall of 2021 and mandated Odyscène to carry out the project. The MRC is proud to invest to allow citizens to enjoy this activity free of charge.
ASTERIA is part of the guidelines of the 2nd generation cultural policy of the MRC adopted in 2021. In this regard, ASTERIA is banking on the strong potential of new technologies to improve citizens’ access to culture, creativity and innovation to increase and diversify the local and regional cultural offer. In addition, ASTERIA is a relevant project to promote citizens’ access to culture in the context of a pandemic.
Programming
Starting November 2 in Boisbriand, ASTERIA will travel from one week to the next in each of the towns of the MRC, and will end on December 19 in Rosemère.
