CBC got hold of the report on the internal turmoil at the EMSB and if you can even read this outline and summary without feeling the ghost of a tension headache starting, you’re a stronger person than I am.
Updates from August, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
July was the second hottest on record for Montreal, and the hottest ever recorded in the northern hemisphere of this planet.
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Kate
A young hooded seal has been spotted in Boucherville and in the St Helen’s Island marina. The Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Network is asking that people report any sightings, but not try to get close.
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Kate
Habs head coach Claude Julien has been hospitalized for chest pain and will miss the series against the Flyers. I guess it’s 50-50 whether the team will suffer from his absence, or rise to the challenge of making him proud in his moment of need.
Scarlet billboards reading #GOHABSGO have gone up around Toronto.
Update: Kirk Muller is going to stand in for Julien, who’s had surgery and is recovering. It’s already been an issue that Muller doesn’t speak French.
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Kate
Since the pandemic began I’ve been updating daily numbers from Santé Québec in the side column of the blog. The Santé Québec site was not updated Thursday midday, but CTV has some numbers: 104 new COVID-19 cases and six more deaths for a total of 5,715.
Update: Santé Québec updated later than usual – the numbers are up. Also, a party in Laval has caused an outbreak, and there’s another outbreak at a Costco in Quebec City.
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Kate
The city has distributed $1 million in pandemic aid to 82 businesses, and has two more millions set aside.
If the slices were equal, that should be $12,195 each, although the item says the maximum is $10,000. Better than nothing, but in some locations it might only cover a month’s rent.
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Kate
The STM is opening bids to provide 18 million disposable masks to get through the next year.
Quebec’s politicians are not keen on the federal tracking app so my prediction is that it won’t be used here. Jonathan Montpetit says in this piece that discussions have considered “developing a Quebec version” so I refer you to yesterday’s post and discussion.
Update: The human rights commission is concerned that employers could require workers to install the app.
paul
Regarding the tracking app, in typical QC fashion:
‘Not only can we produce something worse than your product, we will pay good money to do so!’Michael Black
The article I read this morning about the hearings seemed to focus on whether an app is effective. There are limitations, people like me who don’t have cellphones, but that just means it won’t be perfect, not a reason to not go with an app. How can anything not be better than the fax-based system that now exists?
jeather
I’m trying to figure out what the harm/costs are to using this app. I am similarly unconvinced by how effective it will be, are we worried people will put too much faith in it and assume without a notification they could not be exposed?
Spi
Politicians seem unconvinced that it will be effective from a public administration point of view and not from the citizens point of view.
Politicians keep repeating that it seems ineffective in helping to plan or track, what a regular joe that would rather know if he’s been potentially exposed what about their concerns?
Raymond Lutz
Sensible position here (as always, from M. Geist) https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2020/08/why-i-installed-the-covid-alert-app
Kevin
Good catch Raymond
If Geist says it’s private, the politicians should shut up and agree.
thomas
The app is getting rave reviews as seen in this thread https://twitter.com/benadida/status/1294087566803623941
JaneyB
Great news. Happy to hear it gets the nod from Geist! I wish I could use it but it needs iOS 13 which is beyond the reach of my phone. I’m sure I’m not unique. They need to make a version for older phones esp if they need 70% population uptake. Still, a good start.
CE
Same here, my girlfriend and I are still on iPhone 6. Mine should last until around the end of the year and her’s still has at least a couple years left.
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Kate
The city’s nature parks are estimated to have had 150% of the visits of previous summers.
The mayor wants us to speak up about the future of the Grand parc de l’ouest and what we’d like it to be. I’d like it to be closer to downtown, please.
Tim S.
Having just filled out the survey on the Grand parc, I’m pretty convinced they’re going to follow their usual practice of just building stuff all over green spaces. For cultural and educational purposes, you know. Sigh.
Also the survey did not have any questions about public transit access, hopefully it will be well-integrated into the REM with frequent weekend service.Kate
Tim S., I see what you mean. They seem so keen to make the park useful, entertaining and educational. It’s not a goddamn campus, it’s one of the island’s last bits of more or less unspoiled nature. They should shove in a couple of maps and bathrooms, but leave it largely as it is.
mare
If the park is not accessible did it actually happen? (Tree falling, deer jumping, and a tortoise rolling upside down.)
Tim S.
If it has a multi-million dollar website and logo, then yes 🙂
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Kate
The operators of Notre-Dame say that without tourism revenue, the church needs $30 million from government to pay for maintenance and repairs. Normally the church gets more than a million visitors a year, most of whom pay to get in. Not this year.
steph
have they consulted: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/business/maintaining-your-business.html
paul
Right, because they pay $30M annually in maintenance…ok
Kate
To be fair, the $30 million is for a maintenance and repair program stretched out over several years – the plan is outlined in the article.
Jack
How much municipal, provincial and federal tax do they pay?
Ephraim
Is this OWNED by the government? Are they going to pay it back? Other religions don’t get to beg money from the government… why is it okay when it’s Christian?
Kate
Ephraim, I think there’s an argument that Notre-Dame is a tourist attraction, quite separate from its religious function. Also it has acted as a sort of national shrine, e.g. for the funerals of Pierre Trudeau and Maurice Richard, and the marriage of Céline Dion and the funeral of her husband. If we were designing Montreal from a blank slate maybe this would not be so, but as things stand, it’s the most focal of the city’s churches, and the most ornate inside.
Jack, I don’t know what kind of tax, if any, it pays. Churches have mostly been exempt, but Notre-Dame may have to pass over some percentage of its take from tourists – I don’t know, and I don’t know who would know. The Sulpicians may well have insisted that Notre-Dame stay tax-free and gotten away with it.
Ephraim
Kate, religious shrines in other countries, like Paris’ Notre Dame don’t charge an entry fee. At what point is this Madame Tussaud’s rather than a church? And the Catholic church is one of the richest churches, with billions of dollars in the bank. Maybe, we should start asking the question of, is it time we got a share for the money… Or even bought the building and rent it to the church. I mean, if it’s a tourist attraction, we could own it, like a museum. Instead of giving money and letting it flow back to Rome. And if it is Madam Tussaud’s, then it should be losing it’s tax exempt status… I mean, percentage wise, if it’s more tourist attraction than church, it doesn’t have a right to a tax exemption… the airport has a chapel, does it make it exempt?
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Kate
An STM bus with only the driver aboard crashed into a tree in the east end in the wee hours Thursday. CTV specifies the bus hit two traffic lights, concrete blocks then the tree. The driver only has minor injuries. Why he lost control of the vehicle is unknown, and no report mentions the condition of the tree.
Jack 17:58 on 2020-08-13 Permalink
A lot of the animus between Matheson and Mancini was based on the fact that Matheson hummed a tune from “The Lion King “. Ladies and Gentlemen your English Montreal School Board !
Tim S. 18:15 on 2020-08-13 Permalink
I hate that posed picture of the principals saying goodbye to Matheson. Their number one job is figuring out how to protect children and staff from a pandemic in face of inadequate guidance from a fairly incompetent government, and they’re spending their time on photo-ops intended to send some internal message only they care about?
Mark Côté 19:08 on 2020-08-13 Permalink
I’m sure the 15 minutes spent on that photo really impacted pandemic prep. Admins posing for a photo is the least of my concerns about schooling this fall.
Tim S. 08:53 on 2020-08-14 Permalink
You have more faith in their ability to walk and chew gum than I do.
Michael Black 10:05 on 2020-08-14 Permalink
Maybe they needed a break from all that planning, they are people.