A class action suit will go forward because both Montreal and Quebec City run parking meters back to zero when a new customer arrives, rather than letting them coast on unused minutes from a previous user.
Because people got used to finding unused minutes on the old mechanical meters, is it a good reason to continue this freebie with modern meters that operate differently?
A man was stabbed at Place Émilie-Gamelin Wednesday afternoon. CTV says it isn’t known whether the victim and attacker were homeless but TVA bluntly calls it an altercation between two itinerants.
An expert group has released a report on the whale seen in the river in spring 2020, but they have no explanation why the animal strayed into a busy river that eventually proved fatal to it. For a sea creature adapted to saltwater the river wasn’t a congenial environment, but there’s no certain explanation why it didn’t survive.
If you wonder why we don’t know much about deep-sea creatures, imagine, this whale was right there, we don’t know why it came here, and we don’t know why it didn’t simply ride the river back down to the estuary. Do we even know whether it was male or female?
There was a blurb about this whale on the local tv news yesterday.
A female about 2 years old. They showed her corpse being craned out of the river. Basically a mangled mess. The necropsy indicated past ship strikes as is common in 80% of whales.
Cause of death or explanation as to how she ended up in Montreal are unknown. I guess her body got mangled by ships after her death.
If I could ask anything of local media today, it would be to stop writing clickbaity headlines about the weather. CTV talks here about temperatures at –20° this weekend, and while it won’t be warm, no overnight temperature on the Environment Canada page goes so low. And spare me the “feels like” forecasts.
CBC radio this morning (maybe it was yesterday) plugged an upcoming piece on climate change and then literally in the next breath made a big deal about how it was going to get very cold soon with temps going all the way down to -9 or -10. I almost threw the radio across the room.
So with you on this.
I agree with you Kate.
Some people don’t know that wind chill is not the actual temperature.
I had a long discussion with someone who no longer uses actual temperatures, but rather the “feels like” temperature. I told him “But if you stick a thermometer outside, it will not display the feels like temperature, but the actual temperature”. His response: “That’s because it’s an old thermometer. The newer ones are calibrated to read the new temperatures.” I wish I was kidding.
What??? Oh, man.
@Clément It could be worse. They could use Fahrenheit. ;p
Can’t explain the discrepancy between the news outlet and Environment Canada.
But it should be noted: wind chill is a real and important way of characterizing the outdoor temp. We’re all wet warm bodies, and the convective effect of wind is very real. – 20C with a strong wind will bring about frostbite or induce hypothermia much faster than – 20C in still air. Way faster.
https://www.ccohs.ca/images/oshanswers/chart021.gif
Those “feels like” forecasts usually take that into account, and maybe the wet bulb temperature, other considerations, etc. I don’t believe it’s sensationalism. It’s the meteorologists giving you a heads up so you don’t do harm to yourself.
Like I care about any temperature after 8pm.
The Weather Network says it’s going down to -21 overnight on Saturday. The weather app on my phone says the same. Environment Canada says -19, which is pretty darn close. So doesn’t look like a big exaggeration to me…
PO is exactly right. Wind chill and humidex are both measures of heat transfer. These are important numbers. They should stop using the term “feels like”. It has nothing to do with feelings. It’s physics. People keep forgetting the fact that we live in a country where the outside is actively trying to murder us.
I was in the US a couple years ago and holed up in a hotel on the edge of the suburbs with no car so I watched a lot of TV. It was fascinating to see how exaggerated and sensationalist their news coverage was but it really hit home when I saw the weather. The forecast would lead with the max low with windchill. They barely mentioned the average temperature without windchill.
If you’re inside and concerned about how the temperature outside will affect the temperature of your home, is the real temperature the one to look at? That would matter more than ever these days.
It’s heat transfer for exposed skin, as if you were outdoor in a simple bath suit… So cover up (even your nose tip) and voilà: meaningless wind chill temperature value!
You can’t protect yourself against “humidex”, though… (it’s left as an exercice to the reader to see why).
@CE: Wind does influence thermal lost through external walls, not as much as exposed skin, cependant.
thermal losses
@Raymond Lutz: Plenty of people don’t always cover up their hands or faces when outside, especially the hands and face. And boots & clothing still conduct heat, so wind chill still counts for something. It’s far from meaningless.
You haven’t seen weather sensationalism until you spend a hurricane season in Florida. It was absolutely comical. There would be a tropical storm barely off the coast of Africa and the TV weather guys would stop wearing ties, stop shaving and carefully cultivate this “I have been awake for days” appearance. As if the whole state was waiting for Fox News 6 weather talker to determine the likely path of the storm.
I quit watching weather forecasts. I just use my app because it gives you the info with out hyperbole or Laurie Graham showing pictures of snowman building contests or internet crap you’ve seen 10000x of some guy jumping into a frosty lake
Again, it is actually going to get down to -20 (or very close) on the weekend, not counting windchill, and it’s likely to be the coldest temperature we’ve seen so far this season. I guess you could quibble that “overnight” should have been in the headline but it doesn’t feel egregiously misleading.
The CBC forecast often is different from the one in The Gazette. I don’t know why they differ (it’s not windchill factor) and I don’t pay enough attention to keep track of which is right more often. CTV definitely showed colder temperatures for this weekend than the CBC forecast.
Toronto has an extreme cold warning for this weekend.
I do pay attention to windchill because it does make a difference. And there are times when the wind isn’t blowing, and the forecast is wrong at that particular time.
But tgese are warnings, like those about traffic. They help us make our own decisions.
The city will soon be requiring side bars on dump trucks working on its snow removal contracts. They have been recommended for a long time to protect pedestrians, and some boroughs already require them.
Update: CTV recalls the news story mentioned by Michael Black in his comment below.
It’s been fifteen years since Jessica Holman Price pushed her brother out of the way and slipped under a dump truck carrying snow. I know now that sidebars existed elsewhere, but I don’t remember it as an issue before her death. Her mother certainly made it an issue.
Virtually all news media here signed an open letter to the Quebec government asking for access to health care facilities so they can better convey the Covid epic. I’m seeing a few tweets suggesting there may be changes, but I can also understand having a policy to maintain patient privacy even in the face of a news story this big.
Disappointed but not surprised.
By which aspect, Alison? That they didn’t have access? Or that they may be getting access sometime soon?
That they didn’t have access.
The media have ways to preserve patient privacy.
I firmly believe that all institutions should allow that level of scrutiny. Obviously not identifying patients or workers without their consent would be mandatory.
I saw a Doc on Vice about the “worst” school in Chicago, where the admin had let a camera crew film for weeks. It was such a courageous decision by the School Board and created a context of understanding and empathy for anyone who watched, good people trying to help kids, kids who because of circumstances beyond their control were running uphill, it was tough to watch. However it was informative and courageous.
I chuckled to think how that request would be addressed by our school boards “information” department.
The Gazette profiles CHK PLZ, the locally brewed resto delivery service rising as competition to Uber Eats, DoorDash, Skip the Dishes and so on.
They use eva.coop to do their deliveries. Very nice app, let’s you track the location of the driver the whole way. Excellent service. There is one other app out there called Fantuan, which is primarily in Chinese, but also does English which has a lot of Asian cuisine on it, including Chez Chili, Lan Zao.
Areas included are Verdun/Angrinon, Downtown, Brossard, CDN/NDG and Chinatown.
It amazes me that new food delivery services are still popping up. Especially here in Quebec where they are being demonized for charging restaurants too much and paying drivers too little. There have to be some serious brass balls investors forking over the seed money for these operations.
If you read the article, there is one significant difference with CHK PLZ besides being a local startup: “the company only charges a fee of around three percent, a tenth the price of a service like UberEats.” We tried the service with Épicerie Pumpui one weekend, it was super easy.
Bill Binns, this service is supposed to be fairer than the existing ones. Whether something local with less support will survive, we’ll see.
What about the local delivery service started up last year, the name escapes me. But it was started by a few restaurants.
Seems like it’s app-only; no web interface for the smartphoneless among us?
@MarcG – There is a web interface, if you know which restaurants are there. For example, try a google search for order.chkplzapp.com and you should see restaurants that use the service. Dobe & Andy, for example is there and you can order from their website without the app. (Other restaurants on there include Maestro SVP, Pamika, Paradis BBQ, Tendresse, Brit & Chips and many more.
@Michael I think you might be thinking of radish.coop (CBC profile here: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-edition-for-may-3-2020-1.5547652/a-new-platform-created-in-montreal-takes-a-different-approach-to-food-delivery-1.5547817).
Eva is a coop that doesn’t screw over its drivers the way Uber does, so that’s an added bonus of using CHK PLZ. Their customer service is also really good. I hope they do well.
Yes, it was radish, and it sounded like a means of getting the food out rather than a third party wanting to make money.
@Ephraim Thanks for the tip.
We have used ChkPlz a few times, the service is great and I am happy knowing that more of my money is going to the restaurants and drivers
I shared this on a FB group and someone did a comparison:
“I downloaded this app and noticed that for customers, to order the same items would come up to more $ compared to UberEats.
Here with CHK PLZ, I would have to pay $90.26 excl. tips to the driver
Whereas with UberEats, there is free delivery, it would come up to $80.50 (again, excl. tips to the driver).
It’s a difference of $9.76
It’s quite significant.
This may deter users who would care more about the final amount to pay.”
I replied that since the FB group’s aim is to suppot local businesses, then hopefully its members will take this into consideration and pay a little more if it means their fave restaurants will profit fairly from this transactioin!
Wonder if the Gazette’s article has led to a sudden increase in traffic that the system can’t handle… I just tried signing up, and it sends me an SMS but the app times out loading the screen where I can actually enter it.
Meezly most aren’t on the larger services or if they are, are more expensive. For example Dobe & Andy charges more on UberEats than on ChkPlz.
You can help the restaurant by doing pick up. The apps aren’t charging the restaurant a fee if you do pick up.
@Ephraim, that’s interesting. I have never used UberEats so I wasn’t aware of price differences in how restaurants charge.
Yes, my household has been almost 100% pick up, esp. in fairer weather as we can bike. We are carless so much more limited in the winter. Last week, I wanted to order a Filipino kamayan for my husband’s birthday but the restaurant was way across town. So I contacted the restaurant to see what my delivery options were – the owner confirmed that UberEats gouges them 25-30%. Since I was planning to order on a Sunday, which is normally a slower night, the owner ended up offering to deliver the meal himself. Win-win!
So always try to contact the restaurant directly first – you just never know what your alternative options are until you try it.
Uber Eats, unlike the morally superior Chk Plz, offers loads of promos, discounts, etc., that presumably come out of the restaurant owners’ pocket – but make the service more attractive to customers.
I used EVA exclusively after Teo went under, though I’ve had little need for private transit since the pandemic. They are quite responsive to user feedback, and have implemented some of the changes I recommended in the past. The last time I used it was in January 2020, I think, and the driver at the time was driving for both Uber and EVA as EVA did not yet have much volume. They much preferred EVA’s model, though (and I can’t remember why).
I will definitely check out CHK PLZ to encourage a local company. I currently use the 3 mainstream services (UberEats, DoorDash, and Skip the Dishes) in alternating fashion. If you don’t use one for a while, they beg you to come back with coupons. I used to like Foodora as they used bike couriers and used them quite a bit when I worked downtown, but they’ve since folded.
Also, when this whole food delivery craze started a while back, I was reminded of another local company that did this long before it was popular: A La Carte Express. I didn’t like their service when I used it (a long time ago) since it was clunky and expensive. That said, I’m surprised they didn’t improve their position when it got more mainstream. They could have been Montreal’s Skip the Dishes (based in Winnipeg).
Finally, as others have mentioned, you can save both yourself and the restaurant some money if you call them directly. There’s an Indian place close to my house that I order from that offers free delivery for orders over 20$ if you’re in a 5KM radius, for example. You get free delivery and the restaurant doesn’t have to give their pound of flesh to UberEats. It’s a _teensy_ bit less convenient than using an app, but it’s so much better if you want your favourite restaurant to stick around. I don’t think ghost kitchens can become a thing in Montreal, though. One of the complaints about the food truck regulations was that they needed to be associated to an actual restaurant (“cuisine de production”, in the rulebook). I don’t think these delivery apps will be able to skirt these rules, either.
The problem with ordering directly from a restaurant is contactless payment is often not possible, or at least wasn’t last spring when I last attempted it.
I think Doordash has the lowest percentage and pays the drivers better. But I don’t have the exact numbers. Some provinces stepped in and put in a cap. They all put in a temporary no charge for pick-up for a few months. Personally, we try to do what’s best for the restaurants, as we want them to be there when this is all over. We’ve called in orders and picked up. But we have used the services every once in a while. We tend to choose place where we can order a much larger order and use it for a number of meals. Having an air fryer is helpful with that.
As for ghost kitchens, there are a few restaurants that do it themselves. Diablo’s took over the space that was Rubs on Prince Arthur and runs a few ghost restaurants out of the space. But Kinka uses a number of names including Tokyo Sando. See https://www.mtlblog.com/en-ca/feature/montreal/montreal-is-opening-3-new-virtual-restaurants-so-you-can-eat-in-discover-something-new
Thanks for the info, @Ephraim. I didn’t know ghost restaurants were a thing here. But I simply will not click a link to MTLBlog.
Can someone please advise. I work for a medium size law firm in Mtl. Many of the lawyers have their own accounts and never have any problems. It is when we try to use the company card that it is never accepted. As we all know there is no customer service whatsoever. Doordash is the same.
Can anyone recommend a company that has customer service?
A woman passenger was killed Monday night when the driver of a car, fleeing an apparently minor road accident in Montreal East, collided at speed with a cement mixer truck.
Update: TVA spoke to the victim’s father.
Quebec has launched an investigation into Montreal’s biggest school service centre, the CSSDM, which replaced the CSDM less than a year ago. What’s striking here is what’s not being told – just that the inquiry is into “l’administration, l’organisation et le fonctionnement” of this entity, which was spawned by the CAQ because they didn’t find the old school board format efficient enough.
Chris 20:08 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
No, it’s not.
Bill Binns 20:27 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
I hate the practice of selling the same thing to two different people (such as with hotel rooms, airplane seats, etc). The city has already been paid for that time, they shouldn’t be able to sell the same time again. The city is certainly not giving any “freebies” with the old system. They only person giving anything away is the driver who paid in advance and left early.
That being said, it’s pretty funny that they found enough people pissed off about not being able to find a few minutes left on the meter to get a class action lawsuit going.
Spi 20:28 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
It’s not simply about unused minutes left by the previous person, anyone that uses the payment terminals instead of the smartphone app to extend their parking time will be paying double for the few minutes they have remaining unless they wait for their time to completely expire before putting any more money.
Kate 20:31 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
Spi, are the terminals smart enough to distinguish between “minutes being bought by the same driver” vs. “minutes being bought by a new driver”?
PO 21:19 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
Interesting case. Back in the day, if you rented a movie and returned it before it’s due, the store could immediately put it on the shelf and start charging the next customer for the rental. I guess the same applies to a rental car, at least for prepaid rentals. Airlines will cancel the second leg of a flight if you miss the first.
If I pay for 1 hour but then drive away after 30 min, I’m guessing I’m not legally entitled that space for another 30min if someone else pulls up. But that would have been true with the old meters too. As far as I’m concerned, if you leave the parking spot, you forfeit your access to it if someone else assumes it. Makes sense you’d forfeit the remaining cost too.
Someone who leaves the spot early also isn’t entitled to a refund for unused time. That’ll probably play a role.
Weird case. Wish this kind of thing would be thrown out.
Tim 21:59 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
This lawsuit seems frivolous to me. Has the plaintiff considered that now that there is an app, there is probably far less minutes remaining because it is easy and cheap to top up minutes? I rarely overpay now as the app beeps me when 10 minutes are remaining.
steph 22:46 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
The only lawsuit case I could imagine is the scenario where: Innocent Mary pays her 8$ for 2 hours of meter, and goes shopping. Malicious Joe comes along and pays for 15mins on the same spot. MrMean green onion writes Mary a ticket because the 15 mins is expired.
Blork 00:28 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
Kate, to answer your question to Spi; no. The system resets when you add time, even if it’s the same person adding time.
Regarding double-paying, if you go into a parking lot in the morning and pay the day rate, and then you leave early, there’s no reason the lot can’t charge someone else to take that place until the end of the day. How is this any different?
Michael Black 01:16 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
Apparently in some places, you pay for a slot of time, and it’s connected to your license plate. So pay for half an hour here, and if it only takes ten minutes, you can park somewhere else to use the time (and top it off if you need more time).
Never having driven a car, I have no idea how that compares.
Ephraim 08:07 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
@Michael Black – Pay by plate, they have it in Westmount. Montreal is supposed to move to pay by plate as well. It will mean that we won’t need those numbered spots anymore.
Kate 10:54 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
You’d think even the primitive hardware and software inside those black boxes would be able to distinguish between users, allowing someone to top up their own time, but not allowing people to coast on someone else’s time. Maybe technology will solve this, as Ephraim suggests.
jeather 11:07 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
The Westmount pay by plate app is absolutely atrocious. The machines are the better option, if you need to pay for parking there.
Joey 11:34 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
@jeather Atrocious? You enter your plate and credit card info once (it’s saved), you enter the zone, you choose the amount of time, you’re done.
As for double payments, meh. The compromise should be that they keep collecting double payments but use that revenue to eliminate the surcharge for paying by app (that still exists, right?). Let people who are worried about overpaying refill their meter in 10-minute increments.
jeather 12:43 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
You can’t do it in small increments, it starts counting down from the time you open the app instead of when you pay, it has way more steps, doesn’t have non-billable time plugged in so you can pay even if parking is free.
Joey 13:55 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
@jeather I’m pretty sure the few times I’ve parked while parking was still free (e.g., before 9 am), I could pay in advance but I can’t say for sure
jeather 15:35 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
My memory is that if parking stopped costing money at 6, at 5:30 you could still pay for an hour. But I, obviously, haven’t used it in ages.
maxim 18:49 on 2021-03-02 Permalink
how do i participateÉ