Montreal City Weblog

Kate 07:47 on 2021-03-18 Permalink Reply  

• Ephraim 08:04 on 2021-03-18 Permalink

  It’s not the petty cash… it’s the corrupt organization they gave it to. You know, the people who ripped off the city with Bixi, the people who managed to get a 3.5% tax on every tourist room in the city for Tourism and yet give no voice to those tourism businesses… but paid out at giant golden handshake when the head of the organization walked away. And the same people who own Montreal’s parking meters and pay the city pennies of the dollar.

• Jonathan 11:38 on 2021-03-18 Permalink

  Can’t speak to much of what Ephraim is saying, but the parking meters and lots have been reappropriated by the city a few years back. It’s now Agence de mobilité durable.

• Ephraim 16:03 on 2021-03-18 Permalink

  Only as of the 1st of January 2020. It started in 1995 and I think it was a 25 year contract in which Bourque sold the parking meters. They promised that they could bring in more money, more efficiently than the city and promised the city a 30% cut of the income. So, how did they improve the income… they started adding more meters and charging more for the meters. No magic there.

  Like many “non-profits”, the game is… pay higher salaries to those at the top so that there isn’t a profit, rather than put it into programs. And that’s exactly what they did at BIXI… and ran it into bankruptcy, leaving the city of Montreal holding the loans. (And egg on it’s face, because it shouldn’t have been lending money in the first place).

  As for Tourism Montreal, they collect a fee of 3.5% on all short term rentals. This is supposed to be spent on the promotion of tourism. But only if you pay them extra fees do you get any say in their budget or even their actions. They aren’t government, they don’t have to answer to anyone… they are quasi governmental. I think the last guy they pushed out, they ended up paying him a cool $700K+ when he left. Money that should have been spent to promote tourism…. but of course, doesn’t.

  I’m in the tourism business. I asked for maps for my guests. At one time they completely refused to provide any. Eventually they decided I could have them, but I would have to run all the way to St-Laurent to collect them from their warehouse…. they aren’t for me… they are for the tourists, who are paying 3.5% extra to them and all they want is a damn printed MAP!

  I think it is less than 25% of the hotels and other tourist accommodations that are actually members… because the other 75% don’t want to pay even more to Tourisme Montreal to get maps delivered.

• Kevin 10:17 on 2021-03-19 Permalink

  I think there is a serious disconnect between reality and what the Chamber of Commerce is expecting.
  Michel Leblanc is claiming that productivity is down, and that people want to be in the office.
  Stats Can shows that productivity rose dramatically during the lockdown phase last year, and dropped in the third quarter as hours worked by small businesses increased.
  Which shows that when you need people to come to the workplace, the amount of output they produce declines. People who have jobs that let them work remotely are *more efficient* when working at home.

  Similarly, polls show that 2/3 of Canadians who have been working from home have no interest in resuming the commute to their office.

  I understand Leblanc – he *needs* to have people coming downtown to work in order for all those spinoff businesses that rely on people being in the core buying lunch and wasting time — but I think he’s fighting a losing battle.