Latest news with #Pierrefonds
CTV News
23-07-2025
- CTV News
‘She's my hero': Pierrefonds mother saves young girl from drowning at backyard pool party
A woman is being praised for saving a young girl who drowned in a backyard pool during a party in Montreal's Pierrefonds neighbourhood.
CTV News
21-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Pierrefonds residents frustrated as pool fences considered not up to code
Some residents in Pierrefonds have been told that their pool fences are not up to code. (Christine Long/CTV News) Some in Quebec are being told their existing fences are not acceptable, weeks before the new provincial pool fence bylaw comes into effect on Sept. 30. Mazdak Ardalan has three young children, and his pool fence, a non-rigid Enfants Secure enclosure made of PVC synthetic mesh, was inspected recently. 'He said, 'So, that fence you have is considered material non-rigide so it's not authorized,'' said the Pierrefonds resident. His Montreal West Island neighbour, Tom Di Nunzio, has the same fence and never suspected there would be a problem because the fence is shown on the Quebec government's own pool fence bylaw rule book. 'That's the fence that we have,' said Di Nunzio. 'So as per the provincial bylaw, that's the fence. This is what's here. When we go to the City Hall, they had the same sheet, and they just have this one crossed off.' Pierrefonds residents Pierrefonds residents Mazdak Ardalan and Tom Di Nunzio discuss their fences with Enfants Secure president Mathieu Lalonde. (Christine Long/CTV News) Di Nunzio asked the borough why it doesn't accept the fence when the province does, and he received a letter. 'No independent study was conducted to make the decision to prohibit non-rigid materials as fencing for pool enclosures,' the letter reads. READ MORE: Pool fence installers slammed as deadline for Quebec safety changes approaches Enfant Secure president Matthieu Lalonde says his product is tested, safe and accepted in most areas of the province. 'I would say more than 98 per cent of them accept our product,' said Lalonde. Pierrefonds seems to be in that 2 per cent, and Lalonde said that some pool owners will have to spend more. 'With the new regulation, people have to put some fence around their pools, and on top of that, they refuse our fence, which is an affordable one,' he said. Both Ardalan and Di Nunzio paid around $2,000 for their current fences, and the estimates they received on the new rigid fences were much higher at around $8,000. Mazdak Ardalan Pierrefonds resident Mazdak Ardalan was told by an inspector that his pool fence was not up to code. (Christine Long/CTV News) They submitted their concerns to the Montreal ombudsman and were told that municipalities are free to go above and beyond other jurisdictions. The Pierrefonds-Roxoboro borough did not respond to a request for comment from CTV News. With the deadline for pool fences looming, Ardalan has been waiting nine weeks for a new permit, and the inspector advised him to sell his existing one, perhaps to a jurisdiction just a few streets away where there are no problems with his fence.
CTV News
18-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
First-of-its-kind food insecurity summit in Montreal looks for long-term solutions
At the On Rock Community Services food bank, staff struggle to fill shelves often. (Swidda Rassy/CTV News) Food insecurity is a crisis that is growing across Canada, and the first-ever food insecurity summit in Montreal focused on delivering real solutions. At the On Rock Community Services in Pierrefonds on the West Island, the stocks of food are low and barely keeping up with demand. 'We've never run out, but we have been in a place where we walk around with a bit of a worried face, wondering if we're going to make it this week,' said president Kim Reid. Reid said his food bank helps around 300 families in and around the borough, but every week, he sees new faces. 'One week we had 17 registrations,' he said. Limited supplies mean more 'Not This Week' signs go up regularly. Data from Food Banks Canada shows that more than 2 million people visit a food bank each month, which are numbers that have never been seen before. 'So the stat that really keeps me up at night is that 30 per cent of food banks ran out of food last year before they could meet their community's needs,' said Food Banks Canada CEO Kirstin Beardsley. At the Food Insecurity Summit, stakeholders from across the country gathered to find solutions, as food banks face the perfect storm of rising cost of living, lack of supplies and increased hunger. 'The rate that we're seeing the increase right now is going to be unsustainable in the long term,' said Philanthropy/Food Banks of Quebec director Veronique Beaulieu-Fowler. The goal of the summit is to cut food insecurity by half in the next five years. 'But we also need to look long-term at reducing the number of people who need food banks in the first place, and that's going to take government policy and government action,' said Beardsley. She added that a collective effort will be needed from governments, corporations, non-profits and individuals. At On Rock Community Services, the staff takes it a day at a time. 'It's another one of those up-and-down things where sometimes we're doing great and other times we're riding the ragged edge of disaster,' said Reid.
CTV News
15-06-2025
- Sport
- CTV News
Amid dwindling membership, Quebec's lawn bowling champ looks to grow the sport
Lawn bowling is seeing new life in Pierrefonds, where champion Ryan Craig and fellow members are working to revive the sport and attract a new generation of players. When Ryan Craig moved from Northern Ireland to Pierrefonds three years ago, one of the first things he did was join a lawn bowling club. 'I came through the game at a young age because of my grandmother,' said Craig. 'She was an international coach for Ireland. And she gave me some coaching, and I just fell in love with the game.' Craig won the Quebec Men's Single Lawn Bowling championship several weeks ago and will be going to compete in the national championship in Edmonton this summer. 'The trophy was first played for in 1925. And that was a pretty special moment to win that,' he said. The game of bowls, also known as lawn bowling, traces its roots back to ancient Egypt. It flourished in Scotland and, from there, was exported around the world, including to Quebec, where it was once a popular sport. In the last few decades, Craig said lawn bowling clubs have struggled to stay alive. 'We've probably gone from 2500 members down to 500 playing members. We used to have around 11 or 10 clubs. Now we are down to five.' The city owns the Pierrefonds Lawn Bowling Club, but it is mostly run by volunteers who organize fundraisers throughout the year. Membership is around $150 for the year and is open to all ages. 'It's low impact, so that is the nice part. Anybody can do it,' said member Carolyn McGarr. 'I'm also a curler, and it's it's a different type of sport, but the strategy is exactly the same.' McGarr said it is also a social game, and it offers company to those who may be isolated. 'During the pandemic, we lost a lot of members to Covid, and it allowed their spouses to have somewhere to go, somewhere to share their feelings and their loss,' she said. Member John Devlin said it's important to introduce the sport to children at a young age. 'Once they see it and try it, they'll be hooked,' he said. 'We need to try and get away from the perspective that it's an old person's game.'
