Some bars and restaurants are having to close due to Covid outbreaks.
Updates from March, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A car smacked into a tile falling from the ceiling of the Ville‑Marie tunnel, Tuesday midday. Luckily nobody was hurt. The tunnel was partly closed for a couple of hours.
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Kate
The city is undertaking twelve measures to combat systemic racism, the most concrete of which involve diversity in hiring and fighting racism in housing situations.
Update: The Gazette says some mostly English-speaking minorities still feel excluded from the city’s plans.
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Kate
Photos from La Presse show workers inspecting Le Monstre, La Ronde’s massive wooden roller coaster, and doing maintenance for the upcoming season.
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Kate
Does the CAQ have numbers showing strong support from those between 75 and 80? Because that cohort will no longer need to take medical and vision exams to keep driving.
carswell
What could possibly go wrong?
MarcG
They’re like a tobacco company trying to kill their clients.
carswell
FDA today: We authorize second COVID boosters for everyone age 50 and over.
Dr. Legault Puppet (I’m paraphrasing from CBC reports and interviews): People over 80 and senior home residents qualify for a second booster because it’s been four or months since the first for many of them and resistance declines with time. Also, everyone else will have to wait until next fall (13-15 months in my case) unless hospitals start to get overwhelmed. (Translation: if enough of you get sick, we might reconsider.) Oh, and we have no plans for reintroducing public health measures, including masking extensions, despite what experts say and despite the looming sixth wave.
Santé Québec/MSSSQ: Testing? We don’t need no testing.
It’s increasingly clear that Legault doesn’t care how many people die from preventable causes, get maimed in accidents or suffer long COVID if he thinks it will help him get re-elected.
That the opposition parties and the media aren’t all over this is disturbing to say the least.
bumper carz
With airbags and other safety devices in cars, you can basically drive into cement walls at top speed and walk away without a scratch.
The eye exam is irrelevant now. Just a make-work project for fake doctors.
MarcG
@carswell: The criteria for the 4th dose includes the immunocompromised. My wife has active Crohn’s disease and she’s been able to get in the door earlier because of it. When you show up to the clinic they ask “why do you qualify to get it early?” and she explains and they accept. Perhaps your situation is similar. Good luck. I’m still confused as to who exactly this policy is appealing to.
carswell
@MarcG – Yes and people on dialysis too. In late January, I went to the Park Ave. vax clinic, which was so unbusy, there was no wait and the staff were twiddling their thumbs. They agreed I needed a second booster and wanted to give me one but said their hands were tied until they have a ministerial order allowing it. As I was leaving, one of the managers came up to me and went through a checklist of qualifying conditions. They also said they could be audited by the ministry so I didn’t want to lie. I have high blood pressure and take medication that, last I heard, could slightly increase the risk of complications if I caught COVID (at least the earlier variants) but that’s not on their little list and I went home without a shot.
Ian
Haha “bumper cars” …qatzi, you forgot to unlink your URL 😀
Go ahead and drive a car into a cement wall at full speed. I double dog dare you.To be fair 75 seems kind of arbitrary. Lots of people experience vision changes slowly in their late 30s through early 50s, slowly enough that they don’t realize they need glasses until one day they realize they can’t read signs at 50m after dark. I think a mandatory eye exam for drivers every 10 years would be a good idea.
Chris
>Legault doesn’t care how many people die from preventable causes, get maimed in accidents or suffer long COVID if he thinks it will help him get re-elected.
You seem to think decisions are free and easy and there are never tradeoffs. How many people can’t see a doctor because they’re too busy filling out stupid forms when the majority of 79 year olds are still fit to drive? Are you sure so it’s a win one way or the other? I’d wager on balance this decision will increase health and life.
>Oh, and we have no plans for reintroducing public health measures, including masking extensions…
If the government wants to maximize human health, there are much better things to do at this point than to focus on covid. There is better bang for the buck directing our energies at environmental issues for example.
Kevin
@Chris
The biggest reason you can’t see a family doctor is because the government bureaucracy has determined that Montreal has far too many family doctors.That’s their reality and they’re sticking to it.
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Kate
A specific mutation of Covid was detected in Quebec in autumn 2020 but not reported worldwide. Then the variant “anglais” overtook the Quebec variant. And no, this is not satire.
mare
Virology can be easily explained by the language divide. Pauvre virus pure laine.
walkerp
Maybe if we renamed all the variants to something English, then the CAQ would actually work overtime to put proper ventilation, testing, etc. in place.
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Kate
An investigation by the Journal found that SPVM police racked up a lot of overtime in 2021 – $12 million worth, in fact, compared with $7 million in 2020.
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Kate
The city is planning to host its first climate summit in May, to discuss the work needing to be done if we have a hope of reducing emissions significantly.
Allison Hanes says it’s Montreal that’s leading Quebec in environmental matters – and, more specifically, Mayor Plante.
DeWolf
It’s the mayors generally. Plante let the way, but now we have Bruno Marchand in Quebec City, Catherine Fournier in Longueuil, Évelyne Beaudin in Sherbrooke, France Bélisle in Gatineau and Stéphane Boyer in Laval, all of whom are progressive on urban development and environmental issues, and who are cut from the same cloth as Plante.
Meanwhile the provincial government has decided to carry the banner of all the car addicts who hate bikes and public transit – see Éric Caire’s offhand comment about the Quebec City tramway “polluting the lives of motorists.”
This is why we desperately need more powers to be devolved from the province to the municipalities.
Kate
We do, but asking Quebec to devolve powers is like asking a majority government to switch to proportional representation. It’s always a hard sell trying to get politicians to agree to reduce their own power.
Kevin
Quebec merged cities and dissolved school boards specifically to concentrate power.
If Quebec devolved powers then some anglophones might end up in change of something and that’s unacceptable.
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Kate
Montreal has its Bureau de l’inspecteur général (BIG), Quebec has its Autorité des marchés publics (AMP). Now Quebec wants to enlarge the range of the AMP, and Montreal thinks this would tread on the toes of the BIG. Kind of remote and theoretical, but this can have long-term effects on how public money is spent.
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Kate
I notice a weather alert Monday evening and I have a look to see what horrors are in store – and it’s “Freezing rain event possible Thursday.”
I’m beginning to think they’re having us on.
EmilyG
The guest host on Let’s Go today, Shawn Lyons, said something like, “The three most dreaded words – Special Weather Statement!”
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Kate
Sunday, the public health director gives a presser saying a sixth wave of Covid may or may not be coming. Monday, actual experts in the field say it’s already here.
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Kate
Peter Nygard, always described as a “fashion mogul,” is facing sexual assault charges in Montreal following similar charges in Ontario and the United States.
JaneyB
And in Winnipeg, his home base. Rumours for many years.
MarcG
First link is broken
Kate
Fixed, thank you.
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Kate
Quebec is giving Montreal $117 million in money to fight climate change, which will pay for 800 new vehicle recharging stations, tree planting, decarbonization of municipal buildings, flood protection and other things.
John B
Meanwhile, I just got the renewal papers for my drivers’ license, and lo most of the fees have been waived! There’s even an extra piece of paper in there with a graphic saying that the SAAQ is waiving most fees this year. My license will cost $20 this year instead of $90.
I would much prefer that $70 be used to add some bike lanes or something, thank you very much. We can’t be serious about fighting climate change if we’re making it cheaper to drive cars, (see also, Ontario eliminating license plate fees and some states and BC giving a big rebate per vehicle because the war in Ukraine has raised gas prices).
dhomas
I completely agree, John B. Use that money to do something good. This looks like electioneering to me.
There are also multiple petitions across Canada to reduce taxes on gasoline, due to the increase at the pump, which is ridiculous to me.steph
“The SAAQ, a crown corporation, built up the surpluses because Quebecers are driving better, meaning the corporation has to pay out less in insurance costs”,
‘Driving better’ I doubt, but probably just less accidents due to less driving during COVID.Blork
AFAIK the “driving better” trend has been going on for several years; since before the pandemic. I would not be surprised if the rate of fender-benders and maybe even more serious accidents has declined somewhat, given how many newer cars come with some level of driver assistance. That stuff can keep you in your lane, hit the brakes when the car in front of you stops suddenly, etc.
That said, I too would prefer the extra money be used to build better bike paths and whatnot. That $70 a year savings is not going to change anyone’s mind one way or the other with regard to getting or renewing their license. Better to keep the fee as-is and do something useful with the money.
Ephraim
The SAAQ insurance is on bodily harm, not the vehicle. If I remember government rules, half of the surplus goes to the Generations fund. They should have lowered rates over a number of years, rather than in just one year, but that would have also cut back on the amounts going to the Generations fund.
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Kate
La Presse has discovered that things are in a mess at the Tribunal administratif du logement, still commonly referred to as the Régie, with long delays and dissension among the judges.
EmilyG
I tried to file a complaint with them, and couldn’t even figure out how to contact them.
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Kate
Bullets shattered the balcony window of a family in Little Burgundy on Friday evening, narrowly missing one of the kids in the apartment. No indication is given that the residents had any connection with gangs.
Update: Radio-Canada has more detail. Eleven bullets shattered not only the apartment window but the window of a van belonging to a family with no criminal history.
walkerp 09:49 on 2022-03-30 Permalink
How will some owners find a way to blame the government for this?
H. John 11:49 on 2022-03-30 Permalink
Pity they didn’t use the government app to check Vax status. Oh wait, the government decided to disable the app:
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/some-quebec-businesses-wary-as-vaxicode-qr-code-reader-is-disabled-1.5838753