City to intensify wood-burning rules

La Presse headlines this story on the positive side: La cuisson au bois ne sera pas interdite, but the city plans to clamp down even harder on emissions from bagel and pizza places burning wood.

According to CTV’s version of the story, the health department “found that three per cent of fine particle emissions in Montreal came from commercial wood-burning stoves.” The article adds “According to officials, it causes about 39 per cent of fine particle emissions.” I suppose “it” in this second cite means wood-burning overall, which – if an accurate summary and not a mistake – means only a relatively small proportion of the wood-burning in the city is done for commercial cooking.

I’m wondering if the issue here is that wood-burning fireplaces are a toy of the relatively wealthy, so the city finds it hard to identify and fine the perpetrators. For example, I know an elderly couple in the posher part of NDG who have a fireplace they use, and no intention to stop using it on chilly winter days. I doubt an inspector will be sent to their house, or to houses in upper Westmount, Senneville, upper Outremont, TMR…