Pierre Karl Péladeau is buying Taxelco, which owns the Diamond and Hochelaga taxi fleets, and whatever remains of Téo Taxi.
Updates from April, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
TVA is alleging secrecy around the construction and terms of the new Radio-Canada building but this is an area in which I don’t think we can exactly expect them to display a lack of bias.
steph
Yes something stinks here. Selling a public building to rent space in a private building is backwards. How many more PPP are we going to take-on before we learn a lesson.
Kate
The Gazette has a piece today about how much better the unfinished new building is, which rings a little hollow. “CBC/Radio-Canada will be paying rent of $20 million per year in the new facility for the next 30 years — the same amount it was paying to maintain the current building.” Spokesman is quoted “it was important to become a tenant rather than an owner” but why being a tenant makes them a better broadcaster is a strange point that’s not even questioned.
Uatu
Hahaha…. If it’s anything like the Superhospital, then get ready to pay for 1000$ light switches for the next 30yrs. PPPs are just cash cows for the private partner. Good luck to all of us since it’s our taxes footing the bill.
thomas
I can see the logic why Radio-Canada would prefer to rent. Given the way Radio-Canada is funded I suspect it is much easier to provide a known rental expense when preparing their budget to the government. Radio-Canada doesn’t have a surplus to deal with unexpected repairs to an aging and under-utilized building. Thus if major repairs other than upkeep are required they would have to pay for it though cuts elsewhere.
Kate
thomas, you make a good point here. The Maison was put up in an era of optimism with an assumption the national broadcaster needed all that space. It’s sort of sad that, since then, most of the broadcasting has been done from the basement. And, like so many projects done around that time, all the thought went into accomplishing the project, almost none into the cost and process of maintaining it.
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Kate
TVA says that the end of the notorious old traffic ticket quotas has had consequences with lower city revenues and higher individual fines. Drivers used to complain about the quotas, now at least they can’t carp that they were only fined because a cop had to make their quota for the end of the month.
Ian
Yet strangely I still se the cops still being way more active end of month on the main north-south streets like Parc…
Kate
Ian, I wonder if the “end” of the quotas was merely a technicality, maybe a change of wording from individual cops having to meet a quota, to imposing it on a team or station basis.
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Kate
The federal environment minister has made some vague but pleasant-sounding promises about helping with nature reserves on the Îles de Boucherville and other river islands, as well as other green spaces around Montreal.
Faiz Imam
Very good language, and the possibility of this is linked to how low value most of that land is, due to its geographical isolation and lack of infrastructure.
But that’s exactly also why its not very well used as a nature space. It’s still not possible to bike or walk there, and there still is no bus to the island. The only option is a ferry that does not cross very often.
It’s a great place, but I hope this increased interest comes with the other things needed to make it more connected to the city.
Kate
Faiz Imam, in a way I sort of hope the opposite happens. It’s easy to get to the Îles de Boucherville by car (although that may not be so true when work begins on the tunnel – I don’t know for sure) but, as you say, otherwise difficult, just that small ferry from east-end Promenade Bellerive, with a limited schedule that has to define your visit unless you want to get stranded there. Also the ferry only runs during high summer. You can’t go there at other seasons unless you drive – or have a boat moored somewhere over on the south shore. I’ve seen kayakers around those islands, for example.
What would be great is if they made the park inaccessible by car, but somewhat more accessible by boat.
Faiz Imam
I think you might very well get that wish.
The main part of the island is only accessible by car, and I’m hoping they build a extension to that bridge (or a new bridge) to attach a bike path. There is a major bike path on the south shore side and its a pretty straightforward connection. Longueuil is already investing major money in improving that and other parts of their bike network in the city.
For example check out this gorgeous bridge and attached observation tower: https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.5452242,-73.5068345,3a,60y,236.76h,96.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQWD6kybb15zey72afry9mA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
But on the island itself, the roads only really go to the main picnic area. The current golf course and the half dozen farms, as well as all the marsh lands are only accessible by boat. I would hope that once all that is absorbed by the park and connected, they keep all that mostly isolated.
Maybe a couple small bridges to build a hiking and biking network.
If you look at how most other parks Canada places are maintained, i’m pretty excited by what it could become. They tend to build really solid faculties while maintaining a pretty light (and not autocentric) touch,
Kate
Have you been over there, Faiz Imam? I have, a few times, by the bicycle-boat combo a couple of times and once with a friend who has a car. There are small bridges connecting the islands, passable by foot or cycle but not by car. Also a tiny hand-pulled ferry in one spot, again capable of moving bikes and pedestrians, but not cars.
MF
In the summer, there is a bus to Iles-de-Boucherville: http://www.rtl-longueuil.qc.ca/fr-CA/bus-des-iles/
Kate
Thanks, MF
js
The golfers must have some way of getting to their golf course in their cars. The farmers who work the islands too.
I bike over there every few years and I find the pickings pretty slim – most of the land is agricultural. There’s also a hotel and a water treatment plant or something.
Navark also runs a ferry from the south shore that for some reason cost a dollar less than the Montreal-side one the one time I took it.
dhomas
The hotel building you see there, Hotel gouverneur, is no longer an operational hotel and hasn’t been for about 5 years. They were supposed to convert it into an old folks home called Lux, if memory serves. I don’t think they ever followed through with those plans, though.
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Kate
There was a nonfatal shooting in Verdun Wednesday night. Cops say drugs were found at the scene.
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Kate
Some construction and driving notes for the weekend are already up. And later, even more of them.
steph 19:52 on 2019-04-25 Permalink
Does he know something we don’t? Seems like the worst time to invest in the taxi industry.
Kate 08:44 on 2019-04-26 Permalink
There may be some asset in there that he wants, like the software that ran Téo.
DavidH 17:25 on 2019-04-26 Permalink
In many cities, cabs are as much in the advertising business as they are in the transportation business. If Peladeau expects he can get rules relaxed and get more advertising on and inside the cabs, it might make sense for a media conglomerate like Quebecor. He’d be adding the cabs to the packages he already sells. No need to build everything from the ground up, he already has the client base.
mare 21:54 on 2019-04-26 Permalink
Taxi firms are in the rental business. They own the permit and the phone number and rent out the broker service and the cars to the cabbies who do 12 hour shifts every day. Even though the competition will get fierce after the permit system is gone and all hell will break loose, there’s always a Syrian doctor or Egyptian engineer who can’t get past the impossible requirements to get their accreditation transferred, and who’s only option is to drive a cab (or an Uber, but Uber takes 70% of your fare, before costs and taxes, so is much worse). Only when you want to treat your drivers fair, with a wage and normal work weeks like Tallifer tried with Teo, a taxi company is hard to run profitable. If you’ve got no problem screwing people, like Peladeau, it’s still a good business.
Kate 10:17 on 2019-04-27 Permalink
Both DavidH and mare have good points here.