Équiterre cofounder Sidney Ribaux has taken the city’s top climate job – director of the Bureau de la transition écologique et de la résilience (BTER). The bureau’s aim is to make the city’s operations sounder ecologically.
Updates from April, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Next month the city begins a process of debate over systemic racism and discrimination sparked by a petition last summer.
SteveQ
What a waste of time and energy from our city officials who should concentrate on fixing the numerous and real problems in this town. Or at least try to fix the real problems such as social housings, transit and the never ending pot holes….just to name a few !
steph
@ SteveQ, If you think systemic racism and discrimination isn’t a problem, you are part of the problem.
Kate
Well put, steph.
walkerp
That argument of “why are we wasting time/resources on X when we have Y and Z” is just so dishonest and gross. Just come out and state your position instead of acting like this is a zero sum game and you are actually concerned about the other issues.
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Kate
Water levels have forced the closure of Galipeault bridge that links Île Perrot to Montreal; forty other Quebec roads are also closed for the same reason. La Presse tells us that fifty years ago, after a flood season, Quebec passed a law banning construction in flood zones, but never enforced it properly because towns were keen to build, flood maps were vague or inconsistent, and there wasn’t any sense of urgency to act.
dwgs
Also, the municipalities receive the money for the building permits and ensuing property taxes but it’s the province that’s on the hook when things go bad so the municipalities will continue issuing building permits where they shouldn’t .
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Kate
Valérie Plante has declared the flooding is a state of emergency in Montreal, and evacuations have been ordered in parts of Laval and Rigaud.
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Kate
Ste-Catherine is now closed to traffic through the village, between St-Hubert and Papineau, until late September. The colourful balls are being reinstalled for the final time.
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Kate
The official consultation on Bill 21 is coming next month, a mere six days of discussion hearing 36 groups and individuals with an interest in the matter including Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor, the City of Montreal and various school boards, who will all be weighing in.
Justin Trudeau has spoken up against it, school boards are resolving to resist it, academics are writing collective letters. But six days of discussion is a joke when it comes to social engineering on this scale.
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Kate
A small self-driving bus that was used last year only within the Olympic park may be allowed to shuttle between the park and Maisonneuve market this summer, taking regular roads for the first time. It’s a distance of 1.4 km.
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Kate
The mayor is warning that flooding could get worse in afflicted areas, as more rain comes this weekend.
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Kate
After years of wrangling with the borough, the Khyber Pass Afghan restaurant on Duluth has demolished its wooden façade.
walkerp
So lame.
Kate
I know. The architecture on that part of Duluth is an agreeable jumble of small old buildings with different modernizations and finishes. You can still see the Khyber Pass’s façade on Streetview and it was not an eyesore in any sense. Plateau borough sometimes lets gentrification go to its head.
Ian
This started before Projet, I think – the main issue is that they made the facade without getting the appropriate permits, and the city being the city, that is not allowed. It’s actually a good thing in that it prevents illegal renos… yet mysteriously the illegal expansions of the Belz Synagogue on my street buying up triplexes and converting them to adjoining space… maybe the Khyber Pass guy didn’t know whose palm to grease. To be absolutely clear I do NOT mean this as any form of anti-semitism but it is a well-known fact on this street that this synagogue keeps expanding bit by bit into formerly residential property in a manner that is clearly not anywhere near within zoning regulations, and really they aren’t the only ones, there are lots of places throughout the Plateau that mysteriously undergo drastic work without a permit or one whose limits are clearly not being followed despite repeated complaints by neighbours. It just doesn’t seem possible unless a few inspectors are simply on the take.
Kate
Ian, you’re right about this going back to pre-Projet days and a failure to get a permit, but Projet should’ve looked at the situation and allowed the owner to arrange things retroactively. They keep saying they want to help out independent businesses in the area, and this is exactly where they could say, this is a successful business, part of the Duluth Street scene, the owner is otherwise a law-abiding fellow, let’s cut him some slack.
jeather
My neighbour did all sorts of illegal renovations, we complained all the time to the inspector who was assigned and said it was legal. We eventually got to someone who agreed it was illegal but too late to do most of the fixes (I think they had to change the balcony which was a fire hazard). I am sure 90% of them are being paid off by someone.
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Kate
Pierre Karl Péladeau is buying Taxelco, which owns the Diamond and Hochelaga taxi fleets, and whatever remains of Téo Taxi.
steph
Does he know something we don’t? Seems like the worst time to invest in the taxi industry.
Kate
There may be some asset in there that he wants, like the software that ran Téo.
DavidH
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
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
Both DavidH and mare have good points here.
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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.
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