Health minister Christian Dubé has appointed a mediator in an attempt to stop most of the emergency room nurses at Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital from quitting en bloc. CTV talks to one nurse forced to do three 16-hour shifts in four days, not unusual there. Radio‑Canada adds that a head nurse that had been the topic of a collective complaint letter about toxic work conditions had been moved to another job, but this may be too little too late.
Updates from January, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Quebec’s chief coroner has ordered a public inquiry into the death of Nicous D’Andre Spring last month at Bordeaux jail.
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Kate
After years of planning and construction, the seniors’ residence being built above Rosemont metro was inaugurated Monday. Odd that Le Devoir hasn’t got a photo, but the mayor tweeted one showing the view from the St‑Denis side (many commenters are not impressed with the aesthetic).
Update: La Presse notes that the project came in on budget.
Blork
I have to admit I’m not a fan. I particularly don’t like the scale of the building (made worse by those odd lines) and now it imposes itself right up to the sidewalk. If it was set back from the street a bit it might not be so bad, but as it is, it feels like some giant block from outer space that was dropped there by aliens to lord over us.
Ephraim
I assume it’s built right to the sidewalk because it’s a metro station, to shelter those waiting for buses
DeWolf
I live nearby and pass next to it quite often. I like it – I think the details are well done. There’s actually a wide sidewalk on the St-Denis side that runs underneath the building in sheltered arcade, which is nice in the rain. And it interacts well with the plaza (still under construction) in front of the metro entrance.
It’s very imposing but I think that’s a perfectly appropriate corner for an imposing building. And it’s hard to argue with more social housing.
shawn
I like it too. The design seems to me to be in a somewhat ubiquitous contemporary style. Not complaining it’s just funny to be old enough to see different default modern styles in my lifetime.
Spi
One of the rare occasions where they made the most of it and added some real density where possible. I hope whatever construction inevitably replaces the saint-denis bus depot is equally as ambitious.
Blork
Hmm. I have to wonder how much the building’s purpose influences people’s opinions of it. I suspect if the building housed the “Legault pavillion for research into the privatization of medical services” or the “Richard Martin school of parking and wokeness studies” then we’d all be hating on it like it’s the ugliest thing the city has ever seen.
What I see are tiny windows, cladding that looks like the building isn’t finished (at least from the photos; I have not seen the building up-close for a while), and lines and forms that seem to be “by committee.” It looks like a bunker or a prison, not housing. It’s a post-modern Borg cube!
Kate
Spi, if you read the second half of the La Presse piece i mentioned, you’ll see that the bus depot is already being replaced by a vastly expensive underground bus garage.
(Had the STM been able to foresee the cost expansion of that project, given what it’s facing now in deficits, I’m sure they would’ve been fine with parking their buses at the old garage for another ten years.)
Spi
I’m well aware of the bellechase garage, by replacement I’m referring to whatever project will takeover the land that the bus depot currently sits on.
Poutine Pundit
I don’t mind the building–those lopsided angular buildings certainly aren’t my favourite kind of architecture, but it does have more style than most condo buildings, and it does fit in with Marc Favreau library and the type of development along the south side of Rosemont.
The main problem with that area is boulevard Rosemont itself: six lanes of traffic, narrow treeless sidewalks, and all this in an area with a growing amount of pedestrian traffic. They should give this area the same kind of treatment they gave to the northern exit of Laurier metro station. This part of town does not need an east-west highway.
Blork
Sounds like I’m the only one who objects to the (apparent) design principle that people in social housing don’t deserve sunlight and views. Seriously, those tiny windows are medieval. It’s like a prison or an old Scottish castle with no central heating. So only people with money can have 21st century windows?
Kate
Spi, I thought the point of putting the bus garage underground was to create a park‑like space on top.
qatzelok
It sits on its lot beautifully, and it picks up on the materials, window proportions and massing of the row houses of that part of Rosemont. And it respects sober contemporary design punctuated with whimsical and colorful details. And on budget.
I would declare this project a huge success. And if suburban moaners don’t like it, it’s probably because it doesn’t have a lawn with hostas in front of it. Or enough parking. : )
Joey
@Kate, from that article:
Des sources au fait du dossier dénoncent aussi une « instrumentalisation politique » de la STM par l’administration Plante, qui a demandé un changement de concept en 2018 pour que le garage devienne en partie souterrain.
Les devis de cette nouvelle mouture auraient été préparés de façon précipitée, me signalent ces sources.
The price balooned by $330 million dollars.
DeWolf
@Kate, spi is talking about the current bus garage at the corner of St-Denis and Rosemont. It will be shut down when the new Bellechasse garage opens and the land will be redeveloped. The Bellechasse garage will indeed have a park on top.
@Blork, I’m not sure what you mean about small windows and lack of sunlight. The building gets a ton of sun, as you can see in the photo Plante posted, and while the windows are narrow they are very tall – floor to ceiling. Plus all the apartments have balconies.
DeWolf
When the park on top of the Bellechasse garage opens everyone will forgot about how much the building cost. Just the shape and orientation of it will make it one of Montreal’s most remarkable green spaces.
It’s a real shame costs have ballooned, but the original design was basically a giant box with a lot of very big blank walls. Pretty awful.
Spi
Christ Kate, are you being purposely obtuse? The STM currently has a bus garage on the bloc in between Saint-Denis to the east, Henri-Julien to west, Bellechase to the north and Rosemont to south.
The underground garage with a green rooftop that’s being constructed two blocks away on bellechase is meant as a replacement to the aforementioned one. Once the new garage is finished and open, the plan is to redevelop the site of the old depot. My comments have always been in regards to that future redevelopment.
Kate
I apologize, Spi. I admit I pictured the new bus garage as being closer to St‑Denis. I am sorry to have been posting obtuse stupidities.
CE
Who pissed in your coffee this morning Spi?
mare
I’m not crazy about the building but do you know where a lot of other old people homes are built? Along the highway.
Old people apparently really like to watch cars, and pollution at that age is also not a concern anymore. (At least not for the companies that own and rent them.) They’re not only cheap ones either, several expensive privately owned retirement homes have recently been built along the 40, for 3 grand and up per month).In these flats, however ugly you think they look, there’s so much more to see than a boring, nearly continuous, highway traffic jam. You can watch the bikes pass on the REV and the bike path next to the tracks; the speeding cars descending the Van Horne overpass; the crazy merging on Rosemont; and the usual traffic on St-Denis, although that’s much less now they removed some lanes.
Plus the occasional CN train, for a loud counterpoint.It’s also on top of the Metro so there’s no need to own a car or use taxis. I’d move there in a minute if I would qualify.
Uatu
The location is also good for family members to visit without a car. Especially younger ones who don’t have access to a vehicle. It’s like mare says most are built by highways with huge parking lots. It’d be great for a kid who can pass by to visit grandma after school to drop off groceries and talk etc. Also the windows look thin, but in comparison to the smaller building next door they look quite big and each unit seems to have access to a balcony so I think it probably doesn’t look like a jail from the inside.
shawn
On that other topic, I used to live a block from where the big sloping garage is going up/down and I hope to be around to check out the big green roof park. It’s going to be odd. You’ll have a view that tiny Canadian Tire and its parking lot and I guess the Villeneuve lumber store just to the left. Of course a lot of buses going into and out. Behind, you’ll have the rail path and skate park and also the Van Horne overpass. Can’t wait to see how it all comes together….
GC
I nearby and also wonder how it’s going to turn out. (Not the renderings in the proposal…reality.) If nothing else, it might look really great when you’re looking down on it from the overpass. It could be nice if it can link up with the nearby Reseau-Vert somehow. Those few blocks are such an industrial wasteland that I think any green space is going to make things better.
GC
As for the original topic, it really changes the skyline when you look north along Saint-Denis towards it. I don’t think necessarily for the worse, either? It looks a bit out of scale with what’s south of the tracks, obviously, but not at all with the office building across the street. And, to my untrained eye, it seems to fit in well with the library.
I also think it’s great if the target demographic have an option to live somewhere more central. If you’re still able-bodied enough to get out and do things, but maybe can’t or don’t want to drive, you don’t necessarily want to be out in suburbia. I also agree with DeWolf that the covered bit is nice for the locals when you’re popping in and out of Rosemont metro.
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Kate
Nurses held a sit-in Monday night at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, effectively shutting down its emergency room. They say they’re burned out by mandatory overtime, and a lot of them are threatening to quit.
steph 23:41 on 2023-01-17 Permalink
How do you mediate toxic abuse? They need a appoint some sort a stewardship – they’ll quickly realize they’re underpaying the nurses.
Mandatory overtime is forced labour – something we made illegal along with slavery – how is this possible in 2023?