Valérie Plante is at the United Nations Monday and has told the gathering that the city will cut its emissions 55% by 2030.
Updates from September, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
It’s going to take four years to renovate the La Fontaine tunnel, and the transport minister has the idea of creating a sort of barge ferry for trucks that would work so well it would continue operation after the tunnel reopens.
She’s also keen on building on the success of the ferry between RDP (where she used to be mayor, but is now MNA) and Old Montreal, and thinks there should be more of those too.
Blork
That barge idea sounds so bonkers that it might actually work. But I wonder what the incentive would be for trucks once the tunnel work is completed. Obviously, exiting the tunnel approach and waiting to cross by barge won’t save any time under normal circumstances.
Maybe if there were a toll for trucks using the tunnel but using the barge is free?
Kate
Quebec’s had such bad luck with the ferry service downriver that I wonder if something like this could work. A heavy ferry toting heavy trucks? Across that crazy river?
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Kate
A young man and woman were shot at in St-Laurent Sunday night as they walked along the street. The victims are going to recover, but they aren’t cooperating with the police investigation.
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Kate
On the season opener of Tout le monde en parle Sunday night, Luc Ferrandez said that recycling is a mess in Montreal because mixing everything together makes it difficult to impossible to sort and repurpose. He’s also a bit embarrassed about the expense of the byelection caused by his midterm departure from his political job.
Uatu
On a side note, Bianca Andreescu and her coach were on the show and she happily answered questions. So I guess the “f_ck QC” narrative of the Gazette and the JDM sports columnists was just sour grapes for being ignored…
Kate
Yes, I saw that. She even answered some questions in French, although I think they brought along her trainer because as a francophone he made for a smoother interview.
Faiz Imam 22:04 on 2019-09-23 Permalink
Color me skeptical. I think the city, other levels of government, the private sector are doing a lot of things to promote sustainable living, but at the same time we are NOT disinsentivising the types of behavior that are unsuitable. Especially outside the urban core.
Until we can shift behavior in the most unsustainable corners of the city, something like a 55% decrease in emissions is tough.
Though, I suspect one goal will be extreme electrification of the auto fleet, which will go a long way to solve the issue without dealing with the underlying auto-dependency of our built environment.
Which is fine, I guess, but absolutely a half measure.
ant6n 23:33 on 2019-09-23 Permalink
Faiz, skeptical?!
…All the unsustainable parts of the city demerged or are suburbs anyway, so aren’t the city of Montreal’s responsibility.
Chris 08:59 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
ant6n, and you’re not skeptical? Montreal can’t even recycle glass FFS, you think they’re gonna reduce GHGs by half in a decade? I’ll take that bet.
JaneyB 09:40 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
Isn’t there some discussion of expanding the consignment program? Something’s happening at the NA level and heated discussion at the local level too. I’d like to see a glass container standardization law while they’re at it. I take mine to be reused at various places but that’s nothing.
Kate 10:10 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
The SAQ has been resisting consignment for years, but I can see why. Wine bottles are different shapes and sizes, and liquor bottles even more so. The SAQ can’t unilaterally standardize on a few formats because it’s not the producer of the products it sells.
Kevin 10:08 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
If we as a people really want to cut down on GHGs, we need to be radical.
1) Give away our hydro electricity to nearby states and provinces on the condition our neighbours stop using GHG-burning electrical plants. They can build nuclear plants.
2) Stop having all those diesel-burning trucks stuck in traffic. Set up ‘trucks only’ hours — so the trucks can get in and out efficiently (i.e. using less fuel) without having to deal with unskilled car drivers creating crashes and traffic jams.
3) Ban bitcoin and the like, since farming just burns energy and does nothing useful. Make using them for any transaction subject to a life sentence in prison.
4) Limit the number of airplane trips people are allowed to take. Flying south to a resort where you’ll use a dozen disposable plastic cups and straws a day?! How wasteful.
Jack 10:17 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
The problem is also in St Colomban a 73 km commute. I was up there a few weeks ago and saw this everywhere…..
https://www.centris.ca/en/houses~for-sale~saint-colomban?view=Thumbnail
CE 10:28 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
The bottle thing could be solved pretty easily. For all beverages, impose a few standards and if any producer wants to use a custom bottle, require them to deal with them themselves. Beer used to be pretty good for this. There’s a standard 341ml bottle and they get passed around to different breweries all over Canada (the Boreal blonde you drink today could have held Molson Export 20 years ago). I worked at a brewery that used a non standard bottle We had to pick up the empties but because we didn’t have enough space to store 10 or so pallets to them (the minimum that the company that washes them would take), we just had to send them out to be crushed and melted. Other provinces have central depots where you can take back your bottles and cans and under that system, I don’t think individual producers have to take them back to deal with them (good for small producers without the facilities to do the cleaning and reusing themselves).
The deposits also need to go up. I see glass bottles with deposits on them in the recycling all the time because it’s not worth lugging them to the dep for a few cents. The other day, in Lafontaine park, I had a six pack that a can collector refused to take. I’d never seen that happen before but I don’t blame him, why lug around 30 cents of bottles when two tall cans will get you 40 cents?
Mark Côté 12:07 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
The LCBO has been accepting container returns on almost everything they sell, including wine & spirit bottles, and even Tetra-Paks. It’s been going on for over 12 years. http://www.bagitback.ca/en/residential/eligible_items_return_rates.shtml
ant6n 14:06 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
@Chris
I’m always skeptical. I’m also perhaps being a bit facetious when pointing out that the most unsustainable areas of the metro area are outside the Metro area.
One thing: I’d say the issue of recycling is nearly independent of the issue of CHG emissions. They both represent environmental issues, but they shouldn’t be conflated. And it seems recycling is often a sort of compensation-action people engage in to shave of the impending feeling of climate panic: Oh I drive an SUV, and so does my wife, and we fly 4 times a year across the ocean, but we recycle!
qatzelok 15:05 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
Most of the comments on the CBC article look like they were written by Tar Sands workers on a break from processing the dilbit. Or paid social media agents (trolls) working for same.
Hamza 15:12 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
How about we just make a car-free zone in centre-ville, make Bixi more accessible to people without credit cards, slash public transit costs by 50% (didn’t somebody promise that in an election?) while upping federal spending, and of course ,
The Pink Line
Dhomas 20:05 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
One thing I think the governments (both provincial and federal) have backwards is their approach to incentivizing vehicle electrification. The subsidies are not making a dent in ICE vehicle sales. I say, when the carrot doesn’t work, time to reach for the stick. Instead of giving a subsidy on electric vehicle, put a tax on non zero emission vehicles. Any new vehicle sold in Quebec (or better yet, Canada-wide) must be a ZEV, and all others have a 30% tax (or more). Start it next year, none of this “by 2045, all vehicles will be electric” bull. By then, it will be too late. Give a 1-2 year break to businesses that require semis. Tesla, Nikola, and Daimler will all have options available by then.
walkerp 22:01 on 2019-09-24 Permalink
Lots of great ideas here.
Kevin 00:00 on 2019-09-25 Permalink
Dhomas
There is a significant production chokehold.
Tesla made about 200,000 vehicles last year, to sell in the US, and around the world.
Quebecers alone bought 200,000 vehicles in less than five months.
The EV manufacturers cannot keep up. A Six month waiting list for any kind of EV is normal.