Body found in fire ruins
A woman’s body was found in the fire ruins on Place Youville on Sunday evening, but no identification has yet been announced.
There’s a lot more work to be done on that site, with six more people still missing. Police say people from Quebec, Ontario and the U.S. are among the missing.
shawn 15:09 on 2023-03-20 Permalink
Oh boy the mayor says ‘the solution will require collaboration between Montreal, Quebec, and especially Airbnb…claiming the latter need to do more to ensure its users comply with the law.’
Kate 15:31 on 2023-03-20 Permalink
She’s got to know that her city hall AND Quebec City have been negligent on this dossier, and now it’s taken seven deaths for them to maybe snap out of the apathy.
Ephraim 18:36 on 2023-03-20 Permalink
No… Revenu Quebec has been negligent. They are the licencing authority. You can go on to AirBnB and put in a date, look up what’s available in Montreal and see listing after listing without the licence number. Officially the fine is $2500 per day, not per occurrence. You have 400 reviews, that’s $1M in fines. But it’s RQ they can simply do an audit to see if you paid your income tax on this, so bring us a copy of your bank statement and let’s ROLL OUT THE FINES.
They have the names of the owner of that apartment building, he has the names of the tenants, just start going through them. Use them as the example… they killed 7 people with their negligence. But there is only ONE government office responsible… this dossier is at Revenu Quebec.
Kate 19:50 on 2023-03-20 Permalink
Ephraim, so why is it that the tax people, who can be so relentless when pursuing private individuals, are soft on Airbnb operators? I can’t believe this has been happening now for years if it’s not unspoken policy, but why would it be policy to pass up so many fines?
walkerp 07:39 on 2023-03-21 Permalink
Probably pressure from the minister who gets pressure from some real estate/airbnb lobby. Or could be straight-up corruption.
There is clearly more than just an oversight going on with the way airbnb has been allowed to flourish.
Ephraim 08:07 on 2023-03-21 Permalink
Kate – Because it’s hard to police and the government, didn’t give them enough teeth. The fine is good, but they have to comb through the listings looking for those that lack numbers and then try to connect the dots. Instead, RQ should require AirBnB to report to report income as well as number of days rented and average length of rental. At that point, considering that it’s a $2500 per day fine for not having a licence, either everyone will have one, or dread getting that tax form and having to go bankrupt.
Also, suddenly AirBnB would enforce it, because can you imagine the lawsuits for not warning people that their income would all go to RQ to pay their fines?
qatzelok 09:59 on 2023-03-21 Permalink
I really don’t think we should let Airbnb off the hook. They have managed to weasle their way into the entire world’s housing stock, and many of the operators are organized crime-ish.
Also, what percentage of Montreal’s buildings are owned by organized crime? More than the Catholic Church’s 15%?