It is a new day in Laval.
After a tumultuous past riddled with recent mayorship scandals, the third largest city in Quebec is no longer under trusteeship and back under local city management.
“Well I think it's a beautiful day,” said new Mayor Marc Demers who presented his first budget to the economically minded members of Laval's chamber of commerce.
Demers presented a balanced budget of $759 million for 2014, with some built-in benefits for residents: a freeze on residential taxes and on water services taxes.
Also, though the details have yet to be announced, this budget allows for seniors 65 and older to ride Laval buses for free, 24 hours a day.
Those new measures are all proposals that were made during the last administration.
Much of the rest of the budget is practical, emphasizing city services, maintenance of infrastructure and green space.
“For the first one, I think it's a very good budget. It establishes a new administration,” said Pierre Desrochers, president of Laval Technopole.
Many among Laval's business community said they weren't looking for creativity, that what Laval needs is stability.
“I think now it's the new situation and he's doing it gradually and I think the best thing is to do it gradually,” said Andre Labreque of Laval Labs.
Opposition parties are taking a wait-and-see approach.
“My thing is to see the type of budget he's going to put forward in 2015, after a year of working with him,” said opposition councilor Paolo Galatti.
Chantal Provost, the director general of the Laval Chamber of Commerce, agreed.
“I think that the first thing is to see that Mr. Demers has a vision of Laval. This is what we will wait for,” she said.
Demers said hepromises Laval citizens will be a part of the process.
“We want to establish our credibility as an efficient administration - straight, honest,” he said.
