Geneviève Guilbault, Quebec’s minister of sustainable mobility, says it’s not up to Quebec to manage public transit. Quebec looks after the roads, but she’s washing her hands of public transit funding.
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Kate
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Kate
Quebec is handing off $40 million for repairs to the Olympic stadium sports complex needed after the March 21 fire.
Joey
Unrelated, but IIRC the stadium’s esplanade used to have, I think, each olympic member country’s flag flying; at some point, they replaced them with Quebec flags. So instead of emphasizing the international community coming to Montreal in 1976, we’ve got like 150 Quebec flags flying next to this terrible eyesore.
dhomas
@Joey I too noticed this a little while back. It turns out, this was a celebration for the Fleurdelysé’s 75th anniversary, and was done ahead of La Fête Nationale last year:
https://parcolympique.qc.ca/nouvelles/132-drapeaux-du-quebec-sur-lesplanade-du-parc-olympique-pour-la-fete-nationale/They should restore the flags to the way they were in time for the start of this year’s Olympic games.
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Kate
A clerk in a service station in St‑Laurent was stabbed early Wednesday morning by an assailant, and taken to hospital. There’s no other information, including whether this was a robbery, or how the victim is doing. Global is a little more descriptive.
La Presse also reports two stabbings on the Main near Prince Arthur late Tuesday.
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Kate
The opening of the REM branches to the northern and western parts of the city is being held off till 2025, and while it’s being blamed on complications in the Mount Royal tunnel, I tend to wonder if it’s at least as much because of the drop in commuting numbers generally.
Uatu
A cynical part of me thinks that this is a shakedown for more government cash – i.e. pay us more to finish it faster so you don’t look bad to the electorate. And it fits the public/private model of letting the public pick up the slack..
DisgruntledGoat
I mean, CDPQ is “private” only in governance being independent from the government. It’s stuffed full of $430 of public pension plan money exclusively.
P
Uneducated comment by me: it would have been cheaper and faster to dig a new tunnel. What — 5km of nasty old tunnel to retrofit and rework (and steal from the people of Quebec)?
The aggressive stupidity of deciding to assume control of that tunnel versus just cut a new one. Monopolize an old garbage hole through the mountain and pay out the ass to correct a century of infrastructural woopsies and mistakes.
Meanwhile holding hostage the commuters who used to rely on the AMT/Exo lines that used it, and cripple chances of Via from establishing a high speed Windsor-Quebec City line.
If it took assholes in the 1910s seven (SEVEN!) years to build the Mont Royal tunnel, there is no excuse that it wasn’t feasible to do it faster and marginally cheaper 100 years later.
The REM broke ground in 2018. Even if the McGill – Edouard-Montpetit segment started later than that… It’s just maddening.
I get that there are official excuses. It’s just infuriating that there are excuses to begin with. There’s no creativity, no alternatives, no incentive. All you can do is tolerate it.
Anton
But Nono, the REM had to have an accelerated planning stage that ignored the BAPE, they didn’t have the time to figure out integration of REM and AMT lines in the tunnel, and had to ignore all sorts of concerns from transit planners back when the project was announced in 2016, also needed no deviated/backup train service (Deux-Montagnes — Namur on rail?) because the thing needed to be done super fast so that it’s gonna be built and running in 2020, perhaps 2021.
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Kate
Professors of law at McGill are now on strike.
The SAQ is striking on Wednesday with intentions to continue through Thursday. Management may be keeping some stores open, but no decent person will be buying booze today. This is what workers want.
Incidentally, the SAQ is going to stop stocking more than a hundred locally produced hooches.
Crossed my mind just now: is the CAQ undermining the SAQ system just as they’ve been determinedly undermining socialized medicine?
Blork
I’m not sure what the CAQ connection would be.
As the article says, the market is saturated with local distilled products. It quotes the SAQ marketing boss asking, quite rightly, if we need ten brands of locally made lemon gin. She also invokes the not-used-enough adage that too much choice is less choice (the paradox of choice). We see this in the yogurt aisle of any grocery store, where there are 500 different yogurts to choose from, making it hard to actually decide or to find the one you want. (I buy 2% plain yogurt, and my time in front of the yogurt fridge is always the most hated part of my trip to the grocery store.)
To me, this points out one of the down sides to having a government monopoly. I have no problem with them culling the choice to make things easier for consumers except that this can also remove niche and oddball products from the market and potentially drive those makers out of business. Maybe we don’t need 10 local lemon gins at the SAQ, but the ones that sell the least (and are most likely to be culled) might have their fans, and they might actually be exceptionally good or interesting products that just haven’t found their people yet.
In that respect, culling wouldn’t be such a problem if those small-batch and small-sales brands had a chance to stay afloat by finding other stores to sell their products. Beer makers can do this; your thistle and rosemary IPA that only 30 people like can be sold in deps and grocery stores without the long hand of the government monopoly declaring you unworthy and killing your business.
Kate
The CAQ has always been business first, and they make little secret of the fact that they’re only interested in you if you have a car, and can afford a house and private health coverage. I’m sure they’d love to denationalize Hydro and the SAQ and radically downsize public transit too.
Blork
Yeah, I get that. I’m just not sure how that’s connected to culling products, but maybe you meant the other thing about the strike. (But even then, I don’t know that the CAQ has much sway with how the SAQ runs things…)
carswell
My understanding — Plato’s cave-ish at best — is that the main things the government cares about with the SAQ are maintaining the annual dividend (all the SAQ’s profits) and avoiding situations that make the government look bad (e.g. the executive party scandal of a couple of decades ago).
That being the case, booting underperforming products from the catalogue in favour of better-selling ones is exactly the kind of thing the gov wants the SAQ to focus on as beverage alcohol sales continue to fall. To all appearances, the current situation with the monopoly carrying every local distillery product submitted to it — a boon to the young industry — is no longer tenable due to the booming number of distilleries and ever-expanding product lines. Will this lead to a shakeout among Quebec distillers? Quite possibly but arguably one that needs to happen. As the article notes, even industry insiders think so.
AFAIK, the only crown corporation that Quebec takes a more hands-on approach with is the SQDC, where just about every decision, policy and publication is subject to health ministry input and approval. Even more than the Liberals, who created the SQDC, the CAQistes disapprove of legalized cannabis, view it as yet another evil imposition by Ottawa, and treat its sale accordingly. Will be interesting to see what changes if/when the PQ and/or QS take over.
carswell
And before someone starts nitpicking that last paragraph, yes, the government does appear to have close connections to Hydro-Québec and take action to ensure the energy corporation’s policies and leadership are aligned with the government’s long-term plans. See the recent axing of Sophie Brochu and appointment of Legault fave Michael Sabia, for example.
But, as far as I know, the government’s day-to-day interference with the running of the company, its keeping the company on a very tight leash (controlling the number and location of stores, the kinds of products that can be sold and the kinds of things employees can talk about) is reserved for the SQDC.
Ian
From a strictly business perspective streamlining makes sense because it reduces held inventory. Since SAQ profits go directly to the government it’s not conspiratorial to think the government might encourage driving profit. The SAQ mission was always to reduce costs thr9ugh collective buying so the citizenry could get better quality wine for lower prices – driving the artisanal gin flight industry is a second tier concern at best.
Blork
Ian, it could be argued that “driving the artisanal gin flight industry is a second tier concern at best” is valid in something resembling an open market, but if the SAQ is a monopoly then this amounts to actively squashing it. Maybe if there were no monopoly then it would be a question of letting the market decide. As in, hands-off. If some small-batchers want to create 100 cases a year then they can if they can find people to buy it. But when you control access to the market then it’s a different thing.
I can understand that level of government oversight (and maybe monopoly) on essential things like energy (Hydro Quebec) but I’ve never understood why it’s needed for alcohol. I understand the need for some level of oversight and regulation, but why not let independent retailers sell booze, even if it needs SAQ stamp of approval? (Especially since this “cull” is entirely for retail reasons.) The whole thing just seems like a hangover from the 1930s.
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Kate
Data show that REM downtimes closely followed the temperature last winter.
Ian
…and it wasn’t even that cold a winter. It didn’t seem to like wind much, either.
Blork
And y’all didn’t believe me when I said this would happen over a year ago: https://mtlcityweblog.com/2023/01/11/freezing-rain-causes-rem-stoppage/
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Kate
The RCMP have uncovered a plot cooked up by two men at Montreal’s ICAO headquarters to traffic Chinese war materiel to Libya. Sounds like a background plot for a bad action movie.
Ian
Bon Cop, Bad Cop 3
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Kate
Quebec is putting up $7.8 million for housing offices and municipalities in advance of moving day, meant to help people in a jam looking for a new place to live that they can afford.
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Kate
Mayor Plante says it’s inutile to say “Hi” after “Bonjour” and merchants should speak French to customers.
Incidentally, Bernard Drainville is blaming the rise in English spoken in French schools on asylum seekers. Note that it isn’t a question any more of languages other than French – there must be some kids speaking Arabic or Spanish, for example – it’s English, that wickedest temptress among languages.
Ian
Multiculturalism is an English plot to destroy French, didn’t you hear?
It’s just a variation on white replacement theory.Blork
Is it only anglos who understand that the “hi” is code for “I won’t judge you or be harsh with you if you happen to speak English?”
Ian
I still think âllo/’allo would be an ideal solution. But yeah, like Blork said, French first & let people know they can switch if they want. If it was signage it would follow OQLF rules – English second, and half as important.
MarcG
Maybe it needs to be whispered so it’s half the volume.
Kate
Blork, they know, and they don’t want that option to be offered.
Ian
Well, therein lies the rub. It’s not that French isn’t represented, or even dominant; it’s that it’s not exclusive.
Kate
How will this square with summer’s tourism season? Are we really meant to stick stubbornly to French when asked directions by an American or British tourist?
Ian
I guess like in Europe people would simply say “do you speak English” but I’m sure once the bonjour/hi problem has been resolved, speaking any language in public other than French … oh wait
Uatu
I thought this was resolved 4yrs ago with “bonjour – ho!” Lol
jeather
I actually saw a sign saying Bonjour Ho! somewhere in the past year or so, it made me laugh.
Ian
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Kate
The Guardian reports on Céline Dion’s struggle with stiff person syndrome, essentially rewording a piece (in English) in Vogue France, photographed wearing some very odd clothes.
qatzelok
The clothing in the Vogue article appear to be therapeutic so a kinesiologist might be required to explain them to civilians.
Ian
Or perhaps an upholsterer.
Blork
walkerp
I didn’t realize she was only 55! That’s really sad and sucks for her. Anglos like to joke about her because we can’t deal with sincerity but she has always struck me as a fundamentally decent person who never allowed her celebrity to overcome her humanity. I attribute a lot of that to her Quebec background.
JP
It’s a great interview. I’m glad she is doing better. My two favourite blogs rarely overlap but today both have a post about Celine’s interview!
Unlike a lot of celebrities, Celine buys all her designer clothes: “I have always bought everything myself. I didn’t want to borrow. It’s a form of respect. People pay to come and hear me sing, so I pay to buy myself clothes by designers.”
Ian
@walkerp many Francophones mock her, too. For one, you should hear my belle-mère (mother-in-law, not stepmother) go on a tear, she even does impressions.
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Kate
Gilbert Rozon is in La Presse Tuesday blaming everyone except himself for the downfall of Just For Laughs. His letter to the paper is reproduced in full.
Blork
Side note: welcome to the new Longueuil Comique Fest! https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/humour/2024-04-23/longueuil-comique-fest/un-nouveau-festival-d-humour-sur-la-rive-sud.php
PatrickC
The article says there were four sisters of Rozon’s among the “hauts dirigeants” of the company. That’s a lot of nepo. That said, some of his criticisms of the way media capitalism works sound plausible to me.
Kate
I’ve mentioned before, I think, that I worked there in the graphic design department in summer 2009. His twin sisters would show up occasionally and we gave them precedence over anything else going on. They used to run a twins parade that sort of hung off the main festival and was their pet project. I don’t think it made any money.
CE
I never understood why JFL had a twin parade. Like, what is funny about twins? It always seemed to have echos of old fashioned circus freak shows. I guess this explains it.
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Kate
The RCMP is taking over investigation of a bomb scare at the Museum of Fine Arts on April 7. The caller made other threats, a young person has been questioned, and his apparent motives seem to have alerted the Mounties.
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Kate
Four cars were torched early Tuesday at a repair garage in Hochelaga. This incident follows other vehicle arsons over the weekend.
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Kate
99.5% of the workers at the Port of Montreal have rejected the latest contract offer from the Maritime Employers Association.
The CSN is making moves to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Laval.
Strike action is likely to be happening at SAQ stores soon.
Meantime, the strike by the 1600 teaching assistants at McGill has ended.
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Kate
Two incidents Monday, one in Dorval and the other in Rosemont, involved suspects crashing into police cars. There have been a lot of incidents of car thieves attacking police in recent weeks.
In tangential news, TVA is reporting an incident from the weekend in which a driver at the wheel of a BMW without plates fled from police who had drawn their guns. The vehicle surged onto the downtown sidewalk as the driver fled.
carswell 18:06 on 2024-04-24 Permalink
If you had any doubts left as to whether the Legault government hates cities and isn’t serious about climate change, you can lay them to rest.
Ian 18:54 on 2024-04-24 Permalink
Absolutely.
That said, the real reason they don’t want immigration is becoming evident – the population of greater Montreal is almost 5 million and the population of the whole province is ojnly 9 million. Since the immigrants will mostly want to live in the city, it would be easy for that balance to tip.
The ethnonationalism is just a ruse to keep the support of the deplorables.
As in all things poitical, cui bono.