The city’s program to help merchants whose business has been blighted by major roadworks has disbursed less than a quarter of the funds available since 2018. So it’s planning to simplify access, although is it really possible for a bureaucracy not to be bureaucratic about things like this?
Updates from November, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A window has blown down from the 40th floor of a building under construction on René‑Lévesque. TVA says it was the 34th floor.
Power’s out here and there because of the wind, too.
walkerp
That whole wind storm warning was, ahem, overblown.
Kate
Environment Canada is leaning hard into crying wolf. If a real weather event shows up, a lot of us will shrug it off because we’ve been scare warned so often over a dusting of snow or a few gusts of wind.
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Kate
There’s an Irish expression, an béal bocht a chur ort, to play poor mouth, meaning to exaggerate one’s hardships to coax money out of people. In response to a very generous city budget, the SPVM says it’s millions in debt because of all the overtime it pays. They have it down.
Other budget reaction pieces Wednesday: both landlords and tenants are worried about the tax increases, as are building owners who are neither. On the other hand, tax on commercial properties is not being felt to be unreasonable, according to La Presse.
tee owe
Google translate gave me ‘put the poor mouth on you’ – same meaning, but when I saw ‘ort’ i couldn’t fit it to your version – go raibh maith agat!
Kate
I just found the extended expression on Wikipedia, having known an béal bocht from Flann O’Brien’s book of the same name.
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Kate
François Legault is promising that immigration will be 100% francophone by 2026. It’s to be one of the two pillars of his new government, and probably the more important, the other being transitioning Quebec to a green economy. Numbers from Statistics Canada showing a slight drop in the use of French in business and even a slight decline in the regions are fuel to Legault’s fire.
DeWolf
Quebec’s top 10 sources of immigration over the past decade: China, France, Algeria, Haiti, Morocco, Iran, Syria, Cameroon, India and Colombia, in that order.
So new immigration will be restricted to people from… France?
PatrickC
Not necessarily francophone, says Christine Fréchette, but at least “francotrope”–meaning people from Romance language countries who will find the transition to French easier. Now there’s a scholarly category! But I love the word, which I’m sure has a bright future.
mare
@DeWolf Immigrants from Algérie, Haïti, Maroc et Cameroun are considered francophone. We only want the educated ones (brain drain be damned) even though their professional credentials aren’t recognized here, and a lot of our workforce shortages are in jobs that don’t need higher education.
The law and anti-immigrant discourse is working in other aspects though. I’m seriously thinking of leaving the province, and I bet I’m not the only one. Finding the perfect place (for me) is hard though, my excel sheet with pros and cons is getting very convoluted.
DeWolf
Of course. It’s just a chance for Legault to score some political points from the more hateful corners of the province.
Most immigrants selected by Quebec already come from “francotrope” countries, with the notable exceptions of China and India. And as Pierre Fitzgibbon specified today, there will be exceptions for people whose expertise is needed, even if they don’t speak French. China and India will probably remain major sources of immigrants. So we’re basically maintaining the status quo.
That just means we can look forward to another round of xenophobic grandstanding in five years when the next census results reveal the proportion of francophones has continued to decline, because “francotrope” people from Morocco and Vietnam are literally not francophones, and are not counted as such in the census.
Anyway, just another day in CAQistan!
DeWolf
@mare, You would really uproot your life in Montreal because of provincial politics?
Spi
Francophone or not doesn’t matter if the yard stick is going to be % of households that speak French at home.
It doesn’t matter how well you’re able to speak French or integrate if you’re from Haiti and speak Creole at home or Algeria/Morocco and raise your children to speak some Arabic according to the stats that Legault cares about you’re activelly hurting French.
Seemingly what Legault wants is a household that consists of people that speak only French amongst themselves but pointing that out leads to all sorts of nasty questions he’d have to answer.
shawn
Grateful for this thread. I hope we all stick it out.
Kate
Spi, the one thing Legault is trying hard not to do is to urge women from French‑speaking families to have more babies. I’m sure he’d love to, but somebody in his cabinet has warned him he can’t get away with that now.
In fact, I recall a previous government doing this thing where you got modest payments for your first and second child, but a much larger payment for child #3 and beyond. Is that still in effect?
Kevin
A politician that really thinks this is an important issue could change attitudes, but it would require a lot of work. You’d need a government and civil servants that value excellence and competence. You’d need the creation of daycare spots and schools. You’d need family doctors. You’d need a substantial baby bonus, scholarship funds/RESPs, and parental leave. You’d need developers to build family-sized units.
Said politician would have to drum up that support and present it as a national project to improve everyone’s lives, to deliver purpose and optimism.
But as long as the politicians focus on negatives, as long as people continue to feel economically uncertain, Quebecers will continue to have small families and seek out that comfortable suburban bedroom community.
Chris
>…We only want the educated ones…
You know that’s the federal policy priority too, right?
>my excel sheet with pros and cons is getting very convoluted
Does your sheet have an entry for countries more accepting of immigrants than Canada? I’m curious which you’ve found. Genuinely.
Mark Côté
> In fact, I recall a previous government doing this thing where you got modest payments for your first and second child, but a much larger payment for child #3 and beyond. Is that still in effect?
It seems the amount is fixed per child, though the table is weird as it splits “1st child” and “2nd child and subsequent children” into single rows despite the number being the same—maybe a throwback to a time where 2+ children did result in a higher benefit.
Mark Côté
@Chris: mare said leaving the province, not the country.
Ephraim
You would think that a businessman would understand diversity and that you hire the best person for the job, regardless. Nope, we don’t want the best immigrants, we want immigrants who can speak to Moliere.
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Kate
A young man was found shot dead in Dorval on Tuesday evening. There have been no arrests. It’s the 35th homicide this year.
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Kate
The city budget for 2023 is out: notes from CBC, CTV, TVA, La Presse. Residential taxes are going up by an average 4.1% (La Presse has a graphic laying it out by borough) and police are getting lavishly funded with a 9% boost from this year. La Presse also has a piece analyzing transport funding – cycling infrastructure, public transit and road work being among the most expensive things for the city.
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Kate
A current trial reveals how two SPVM cops treated a homeless man during an incident in 2010. Driving someone from downtown to Ste‑Anne and dropping him by the highway in March is not just cruel, it’s dangerous, and according to this piece, police have been in the habit of doing this to people with no resources, just to get them off their patch.
Ephraim
Please, someone tell me that SPVM cars have GPS? Please, tell me that if they exit the city limits, it sounds an alarm? If the answer to these questions are NO, then the problem is entirely the responsibility of management. Questions should have immediately have been asked once the car leaves jurisdiction. And if no one asks, it applies consent.
Cadichon
Sainte-Anne is within SPVM’s jurisdiction.
Ephraim
Aren’t there 4 cops involved? Pierre-Luc Furlotte, Luc Gauthier, Patrick Guay and Alain Poirier. This trial appears to be only for Guay and Furlotte. And they are TRULY dispicable people… https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-cops-confinement-trial putting a bag over his head and threatening to execute him. The problem isn’t simply that they should be prosecuted… a review of the entire police hiring system has to be put in question. From those who gave them the psychological tests all the way to those who hired them and finally to those who were their supervisors.
And of course, they are suspended… are they being paid? Collecting their pension? Why were they not terminated? Is the brotherhood standing behind these men? If they are, can we now start to question the brotherhood? Who’s paying for their lawyers… let’s show entirely how despicable these people are…
Ephraim
@Cadichon – But it is not that station’s jurisdiction. Going far out of the jurisdiction of your station should immediately throw up flags! If you are working at station 15, driving out to Ste-Anne should be suspicious as f***
walkerp
Just a couple of bad apples, right?
Ephraim
If some of the reporters would ask the right questions and report them, they would show that this is a top down problem. Who signed on the gas station receipt showing that they had travelled more than usual? Who didn’t report the car out of the station? How did they leave the territory without anyone knowing? Without the GPS reporting? How were they out of radio control for other calls without someone knowing? There are page and page and pages of questions…
Chris
>Just a couple of bad apples, right?
The SPVM has over 4500 officers, so… basically: yes.
walkerp
I’m still waiting to encounter a good one.
dwgs
” His allegations went ignored for eight years until a special police squad assembled by the provincial government was ordered to investigate a variety of claims of alleged corruption within the Montreal police internal affairs division.”
Yup, just a couple of rogue cops, nothing to see here.MarcG
‘We define bad apple as “someone who creates problems or causes trouble for others; specifically, a member of a group whose behavior negatively affects the remainder of the group.” This term is often misunderstood to mean that a troublemaker’s behavior is not representative of the whole group, but the proverb this term originally comes from is “one bad apple spoils the whole barrel.”‘ – MW
walkerp
Ah thanks MarcG for that clarification. I think to extend this metaphor, it’s the barrel that is rotten and spoils all the apples once they get put inside (though many are also already rotten to begin with).
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Kate
A police unit that brings together the RCMP, the SQ and the SPVM is making plans in case of any kind of threat to the COP15 meeting.
What police will most likely face is protest. Voilà: “Pour encadrer ces manifestations, le SPVM a déjà annoncé qu’il va bénéficier de renforts provenant de la SQ et des services de police de Québec, de Longueuil, de Laval et de Gatineau.” Anyone planning to demonstrate will have to expect damage from the gathered police forces of every level and other cities.
Orr
One of the goals of this COP is restore biodiversity: Quebec and NL’s George River caribou herd population has declined 11 per cent since 2020 and by more than 98 per cent since 2001.
Only one of many amazing achievements in our lifetime by the Quebec government to protect nature and biodiversity.
One of our government’s goals is to avoid taking any serious (read: “economy-impacting”) action to prevent/restore biodiversity loss, while making it appear that they are making every effort possible.
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Kate
The Palais de justice is having to delay a lot of cases because there simply aren’t enough people to staff the courtrooms. This risks having serious cases thrown out because of delays.
This isn’t new news: there have been warnings about it all year including this one in June.
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Kate
A new trial has been ordered for Randy Tshilumba, the young man who stabbed a woman to death in a Maxi store in 2016. I’m not writing “alleged” because it was established he did it: the new trial turns on whether Tshilumba was in a mental state to know what he was doing. The appeals court holds that the judge in his trial gave confusing instructions to the jury about how they were to consider his state of mind in deciding their verdict.
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Kate
A centre initially founded to monitor Islamic radicalization has shifted targets and is now looking out for signs of far right conspiracy‑style brainwashing.
qatzelok
Imagine if France had had one of these centers in the 1780s. They’d be at Louis XXI by now.
Kevin
The richest man in the world has been red-pilled.
There are far too many people with too much free time and not enough brain power.
Chris
I must note: radical Islam *is itself* far-right. The types that won’t educate girls, force hijab, etc. are far more right-wing than anything we have here. And they too were created by conspiracy‑style brainwashing (aka religion).
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Kate
A new number now exists to call if you don’t have a family doctor and one of the new nurse practitioner clinics is already open.
PatrickC
I’ve had very good experiences with nurse practitioners. Anyone know how many are being trained each year and how their salary compares to that of RNs?
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Kate
The 2023 municipal budget will be presented Tuesday. La Presse’s Philippe Teisceira‑Lessard considers the various difficulties assailing the city.
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Kate
With ridership still down, the STM’s projected deficit for 2023 is close to $78 million, which may mean service cuts are coming.
CE
Ridership might be down but with the cuts they’ve already made, I’m not sure where they’ll be able to make more, especially on the buses. I’m starting to get tired of coming out of the metro and seeing that the next bus isn’t for 25 minutes and then having to cram into an overflowing bus when it finally arrives. Also, with the schedules as they are, it’s nearly impossible to plan a connection from one bus to the other, even during peak hours.
Ian
It’s pretty ridiculous that it’s faster to walk downtown from Parc and Fairmount than rely on the bus but here we are, and it’s not even snowy yet.
That the city is increasing the police budget by almost the sane amount as the STM shortfall feels like a cruel joke.
Spi
On time reliability even at a lower service level would probably do more to convert commuters to public transit than simply higher frequency. Anyone that has a bus connection as the final leg of their commute knows better than relying on the STM in order to be on time. No one enjoys planning to be at work 30 minutes sometimes almost an hour before you need to be in case you miss a connection because busses can’t keep a schedule.
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Kate
Although large industries are already paying for city water, smaller ones have yet to start getting that bill. Next year the city will be sending a “facture à blanc” to businesses to alert them to their water usage and prepare them for the real billing, meant to start in 2024.
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