Thieves made off with a truck containing at least a million bucks Wednesday night in Dollard‑des‑Ormeaux.
Updates from June, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
There are several paramedics whose beat is the metro system, although this isn’t very well known unless you’ve needed their aid. Metro interviewed a couple of them about what it is they do.
I would’ve liked to hear about how often they have to administer naloxone, but the item doesn’t get so specific about the treatments they give.
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Kate
A long power failure hit the west end Wednesday afternoon, pulling the plug on parts of Hampstead, Côte St-Luc, NDG and Montreal West for several hours. It was something that went wrong at a substation and nothing to do with the thunderstorm that came through a bit later.
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Kate
There will be traffic complications for the second of our long weekends.
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Kate
Donovan King, who’s worked up the story of Mary Gallagher into his own claim to fame in recent years, with embellishments about ghosts, wants the city to formally commemorate the woman murdered 140 years ago. This piece gets the actor’s shtick about the ghosts mixed up with a real intention to preserve the Black Rock as a memorial, but the CBC should be more canny about giving self-promoters a platform. As one of the Irish Montrealers who might have an opinion, I think we can do better than a “headless ghost” as a symbol.
Jack
From a fellow Irish Montrealer, we can do better. Nominees?
Kate
Do we need to commemorate a person? I’m happy there’s still a shamrock on the flag and I’ll be pleased if they can figure out the future of the Black Rock without moving it very far (the discovery of buried bodies was the whole point in placing it where it is now).
Jack
I understand your point , people like personifications. Therefore i nominate Kate and Anna McGarrigle.
Ian
At least it’s not some frickin’ leprechaun.
Kate
Jack, Anna McGarrigle is still alive, and I’m hesitant at the idea of making a mascot of someone still living.
The Wikipedia list of Quebec people of Irish descent is interesting, reminding us that a lot of folks here have had a spark of green in them: Claude Ryan and Pierre-Marc Johnson have family names that reveal it, but I only just now learned that Louis Saint-Laurent was of half Irish ancestry, as was Patapouf himself. Not that I’d put him up as a significant leprechaun…
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Kate
I know the mayor is putting a good face on it but I have my doubts a tram line is really what Valérie Plante had in mind initially for the pink line.
Norman Bates
How many realize, however, that a 1976 Metro plan actually envisaged a Blue Line western extension which included four additional stations west of the current Snowdon terminus through NDG, Montreal West, Ville St. Pierre and potentially even further to Lachine proper as well as a Blue Line extension from the existing St. Michel terminus with seven more stations added to eventually terminate within Montreal North? (see link below with sidebar map).
https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/m/Montreal_Metro.htm
Clearly such an all-inclusive and conveniently-forgotten configuration of that unwisely-shelved 1976 Blue Line plan would be significantly less-costly than Mayor Plante’s original Pink Line idea which essentially came out of nowhere prior to the recent municipal election.
steph
The pink line plans offered a solution to the north-south congested orange line (Mtl-Nord / Mt-Royal / McGill). The original blue line plans were far from ‘all-inclusive” in this respect. A tram to Lachine ignores the north-south problem as well.
Blork
I think one of the main ideas behind the Pink line was to relieve pressure on the Orange line. Currently, that area of Rosemont, Petite-Patrie (etc.) feeds people into the Orange line via bus connections to Rosemont, Beaubien and other stations. The Pink line would cut most of that.
The Blue line western extension, on the other hand would feed more people into the Orange line. Most would be on the west end of the line, which is less congested, but the problem remains that the only way to get Blue line passengers downtown is via the Orange line.
Tim
Blork, won’t the REM allow people to get downtown from Edouard Montpetit station?
Kate
Tim, it will, in theory. It would partly depend on the fare structure. Would I pay an extra $3 (or whatever) to get downtown a little faster from Edouard Montpetit if I could avoid that by getting off at Cote-des-Neiges and taking the 165? If I had a seat on the metro would I choose instead to change transit methods and end up standing on a crowded REM train? Would I prefer to ride through a dark tunnel than over the mountain?
Hard to say till we see this stuff all working together, and how people actually use it.
steph
Chances are the three merged REM branches will be beyond capacity (for the tracks) and many people won’t even be able to ride the REM through the tunnel. I’m looking forward to see how they manage that issue without laying more tracks through the tunnel. – And add the Train de L’Est into into that volume somehow as well.
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Kate
Work on the Mercier Bridge, closing one lane in each direction, is causing alarm and despondency and, of course, monster traffic jams.
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Kate
Uber’s red JUMP e-bikes have arrived. Don’t forget your helmet.
Roman
Took a few rides today. They are super fun but $ adds up quick.
Ephraim
Do it without a helmet and you can add $60 to $100 in tickets too 🙂
Some days I like to daydream that our cops actually do their work….
Ian
I saw 2 people riding them without helmets in my neighbourhood just today.
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Kate
Via Toula Drimonis, a Globe & Mail op-ed from a writer well versed in France’s secularity laws and their effects. “Rather than repel the demands of the far right, laws prohibiting religious coverings in France have only emboldened them.”
Education minister Jean-François Roberge is blowing off concerns from the CSDM saying that applying the law shouldn’t cause it aaaaaaany trouble at all.
Hamza
Can the government or any of its supporters produce examples of religious persons prosletyzing to their students, who *weren’t* Christian in Quebec?
dwgs
A few years ago my son got in trouble in class for talking about zombies eating people. Fair enough. He came home two weeks later traumatized by the same teacher’s lengthy and detailed description of the crucifixion of Christ (it was Easter), including a grisly account of the nails being driven, the spear wound in the abdomen, slow agonizing death and the (zombielike) resurrection. 🙂
Kate
I never experienced that, but a friend of mine got the whole story, and – get this – it was from a woman with a scarf over her head! For religious purposes!
The teacher was a nun.
Ian
My kids got indoctrinated into the angels and Jesus stuff as early as garderie, I made sure to tell them about vampires, ghosts, the Norse Gods, Leprechauns, and Solstice celebrations that they could bring back to their class, just for balance.
This year one of my daughter’s friends informed her that he doesn’t believe in Santa but he does believe in Moses. He’s Jewish. Wasn’t too sure what to do with that. I told him that people can believe what they want but if you don’t believe in Santa then yeah, all your presents come from your parents because Santa won’t bring anything to children that don’t believe in him – and we always get presents from Santa.
TBH my kids only learned about religions because of the mandatory ERC classes in school, I wish they had a segment on atheism and humanism, but they don’t and aren’t open to it.
Chris
Kate, interestingly, when I first read your summary/quote I parsed “far right” as “Islamists”. (I suspect they too are emboldened by these kinds of bans. It no doubt makes great propaganda for ISIS types.) It’s an interesting thing about this whole topic: it’s the religious right pushing veiling, and it’s the (Western) right that’s most against it.
Michael Black
I remember grade one abiut 1966 at tge PSBGM, and we began the day with hymns. I don’t remember them after that. I never sang, just mouthed the words to avoid trouble. Religion was never part if family life, so I coukdn’t be influenced. Sure I know bible stories, but more like proverhs or something, not real history. They are colorful, Noah’s Ark is a good story, but I never saw it as other like the story of the Trojan Horse.
Michael
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Kate
The city is promising to build a tram from downtown to Lachine, after agreeing to hand over transit millions it has in the bag for Quebec City’s tramway first.
Jack
Great deflect, especially after the CAQs environment ministers spokesperson said the ” Plan Vert ” money could be spent on the troisieme lien.
nau
Pretty sure I suggested a while back that under the CAQ maybe the Lachine part of the Pink Line would get done first. Good to see something happening, and Lachine certainly deserves to be better connected to downtown.
Ant6n
This is confusing. The pink line was supposed to be a metro (heavy rail), not a tram. Is Montreal heading towards a weird hodge podge of disconnected, random transit systems?
mare
Yes, because changing from one mode of transport is fun for the passengers. Also, transfer stations are expensive to build so better for the construction and engineering firms.
But I doubt this gets ever built, by the time the million dollar feasibility studies are finished the earmarked money will be spent on something else, and another government is in power.
And that tramway in Quebec City won’t have many passengers per spent dollar.
ant6n
As part of their “structuring network” consultations, I also proposed a tram with a downtown tunnel, which works well in many mid-sized cities. But other cities connect the expensive downtown tunnel to multiple branches outside of downtown to actually make a good network. As far as I can see for Quebec City, it’s just a single line.
Michael Black
Maybe this is the best she could leverage. As I recall, people here have liked trams,nwhike I’ve wondered whst improvement they are over buses.
But maybe it gets more transport towards lachine. Yes switching transport slows thing down. But if this gets you out of the main poulation, maybe it’s a good thing.
Lionel-Grioux to Dorval can take as much as an hiur, as Ian always reminds us, on the 211. But then the rest of the way to St. Anne’s is shorter and rarely slowed down. Maybe getting to Lachine by a different route will speed things up.
Michael
ant6n
(I was replying to mare’s point about Quebec City … it’s true that they won’t have many passengers per spent dollar, and I think it’s cuz they don’t maximize the utility of the expensive tram tunnel)
ant6n
@Michael
A tram to Lachine sounds like a glorified 90 bus. In previous proposals, the Lachine tram was often to go via the Turcot yards. That would make very little sense: The pink line envisioned going to Lachine via NDG, parallel to the very full 105 bus, and it also meant a direct connection downtown. Without connecting to NDG, where there’d be more passngers than from Lachine, and without a good connection into the network and the requirement for extra transfers, but also possibly as a slow surface tram, this line won’t make sense.…one can only hope that in the budgets this money will be made out for a “Lachine connection”, and then spend it more wisely. After all, the REM didn’t exactly follow what was originally proposed (although we don’t know what the initial project agreement between CDPQ and government was, because they afaik it’s not public).
Kate
Ant6n: Is Montreal heading towards a weird hodge podge of disconnected, random transit systems?
Yes. Patched together from political expediency and weird deals about money, and not designed in response to users’ needs as it should be.
Joey
Seems like it may be premature to draw too many conclusions about what precisely will be built. From La Presse:
« Aujourd’hui, je célèbre », a dit Mme Plante. Pendant la période de questions avec les journalistes, elle a admis que le projet final ne serait pas nécessairement un tramway, mais pourrait prendre une autre forme. Tous les élus ont refusé de s’avancer sur une date d’inauguration.
Faiz Imam
See, this is a Mayor doing their job very well.
It’s not about the plans per se, it’s about taking the hand you are dealt, and doing the horse trading necessary with other parties to get resources to actually advance the cause, even if you have to shovel money from one imaginary bucket to another.
It takes a very strong understanding of the institutions of power, and very good inter-personal skills to make this sort of deal happen. It’s super rare.
Now of course that also means its very fragile. There is a lot of trust in place that the quid pro quo will actually be honored. But if at the end of the day this actually gets shovels in the ground sooner (and of course assuming the actual project is not overly compromised) then this is a real win.
Ant6n
Wtf
Ian
Oh great, a streetcar to Lachine. What a fantastic transit win for the city. Ha, ha, ha.
Michael Black
“A Streetcar named Desire”? The mayor desires more, this is what she gets?
Michael
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Kate
Entomologist Georges Brossard, key in the creation of the Insectarium, has died and not of a bug bite either. He was 79.
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Kate
Real estate valuations are poised to take a bound in most parts of the island.
Ephraim
And this is how your house taxes increase, while the city says that they aren’t increasing them…. they increase the value of your home. Of course, this will also increase rents. I’m just surprised that the Plateau isn’t getting the greatest increase…
Joey
True, but these increases are not happening out of thin air. If you are a homeowner in Montreal, the value of your home has likely increased significantly in the last year (whether you’re selling or not). If we are going to fund municipal services on the basis of the value of property, these evaluations should reflect reality. Bidding wars, homes selling X% above asking, etc., which never really existed in Montreal are increasingly common. The fact that homeowners who aren’t selling aren’t realizing any direct financial gain from the hot market is an indictment of the concept of property tax, not the way homes values are calculated.
Ephraim
You don’t get any financial gain unless you sell…. for the rest of us, it increases the cost of living. It shouldn’t be growing faster than inflation, but it does. It doesn’t hurt just the homeowners, it hurts the tenants. If you pay $1 million to buy a house to rent out, someone has to pay the property taxes…. they are just passed on.
Ian
…which, as I like to point out, is why the city actually does very little to curb gentrification. It’s their main source of income, since it increases property values and in turn increases taxes. Somebody has to pay for all the beautification projects, which in turn feed into property value increases…
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Kate
Valérie Plante says there’s no housing crisis and indeed there have been years when the city has publicized a phone number offering help to people getting close to moving day with nowhere to go, but I haven’t seen that mentioned this year.
Gianni
Eliminate Régie du Logement du Québec (rental control) and you will solve the housing crisis in the Montreal. Nobody wants to build appartment buildings as for La Régie du Logement du Québec will always favor leaser and not owner. Should do as all other provinces in Canada let free market decide not a mayor that does not understand how it works.
CE
@Gianni: It’s pretty obvious you’ve never rented an apartment in another province of Canada. Here’s a small list of all the fantastic gifts the free market gives you: Paying two months of rent before you move in, probably not getting that month of rent back when you move out (landlords are pretty creative or just straight up bullshitters when they give reasons not to give your deposit back), rent increases of whatever the landlord decides, very few options to fight exploitative landlords, high rents.
From the perspective of someone who has rented with and without the Régie du Logement, getting rid of it is madness!
Blork
Also, the Régie du Logement du Québec is under provincial jurisdiction, not municipal, so it has nothing to do with the mayor, and it’s been there since 1974 (the same year Valérie Plante was born).
Ian
Ah yes, Gianni, the old trickle down approach. Doesn’t work with corporate tax breaks, and it definitely doesn’t work with property development.
Whenever you see a law in place, it’s because somebody did something awful that the people in charge decided there should be a law against. Similarly, the Régie exists because people were getting screwed by landlords. That said, good luck ever getting a dime out of your landlord if you bring them to the Régie and can’t afford a lawyer.
We are lucky to have some form of rent control in place but we all know that landlords skirt that rule as often as possible. The price of a 4 and a half didn’t go from 800 a month to 1600 a month in Mile end over 5 years because people moved out so often the landlords were able to make incremental increases to that effect.
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Kate
The New York Post says the principal owner of the Tampa Bay Rays is reaching out to Montreal in desperation because the team has very low local support. Is Montreal being offered a pig in a poke?
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Kate
Quebec has an $8-billion surplus and Québec solidaire says some of it should go into funding transit – this as the STM prepares to hike fares on July 1.
steph
That surplus was on the backs of teachers and health workers that have been living austerity cuts for years. Maybe they should get some of it back.
Douglas
Time to cut down the qst 9.975% tax. Such a drain on peoples lives. They won’t do it though.
Kate
Quite the contrary, Douglas. The more you buy, the more you contribute, and we need the funds so we don’t squeeze teachers and nurses down to the bone, among other things. Unless you prefer hiking corporate taxes?
Michael Black
It might be nice to lower the pst by a bit. They raised it a bit at one point.
On the other hand, I’ve always qualified for gst and pst rebate. I may get more money back than what I spend on gst/pst. Certainly asva quarterly chunk, the rebate means I can spend it, while a bit less gst/pst per item can’ buy much by itself.
Another five years and I can get a senior’s bus pass. That will impact a lot, about when I will likely need it. I’ve never been able to justify the cost of a monthly pass.
Michael
Ephraim
We should put down some of the deficit, especially the part in foreign currencies, or put it in the Generations fund for future deficit reduction. And we should lower the most regressive of all taxes, sales tax. It’s a tax that hurts the poor the most. QST brings in about 16 billion a year. While we look to collect more from outside sources that should be paying (like AirBnB, Netflix, etc). we can manage to lower it. Like bringing it down from 9.975% to 7.5% should bring down about 4 billion, but should also lead to a lower amount of rebates and increased spending. Probably would hurt the balance in the range of 3 billion… and be a lot more palatable.
Joey
This one-year surplus, net of promised debt-reduction payments, would be almost enough to fund the entire pink line – restoring some dignity and capacity to our overtaxed transit system, easing road congestion and giving Francois Legault and Valerie Plante long-lasting achievements. And the taxpayer wouldn’t feel a thing.
SMD
@Ephraim $3.48 billion will go into the Generations fund, $371 million more than projected. Like Joey and QS, I wish the rest was going into the pink line and other public transit projects.
David100
1/2 Generations, 1/2 transit sounds good to me too.
Ephraim
The Generations fund does a good job of reducing Quebec’s debt and ensuring that the next generation doesn’t have to pay for the folly of the past. Most of the money is from HQ surplus and water charges… but it’s nice to see some more go in. The lower the debt, the less they have to pay for the excesses of previous generations.
Would still like to see a gradual reduction of sales taxes towards zero… they really do tax the poor more than the rich. We could at least end the taxation on toilet paper, tampons and tissues and classify them as grocery.
Ian 21:28 on 2019-06-27 Permalink
Wow, that’s nearly enough to redo a quarter of a block of sidewalks.