A survey asking about sovereignty shows that the passion for Quebec sovereignty has cooled, and younger people are less interested than those 55 and older.
Updates from April, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
There are a couple of post-ice-storm pieces: CBC asking what we have learned and TVA lingering over the fallen branches and damage to trees and parks.
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Kate
In L’actualité, Pierre Fortin shows how Concordia and McGill have more money than their francophone counterparts largely because they attract so many more international students. That’s bad enough, but some of those students subsequently decide to stay here, without knowing French. Something has to be done to make this more fair, implies Fortin.
I wonder whether the anglo universities also attract more philanthropic donations.
Kevin
In the past few years McGill got a $200 million donation, U de M got a $159 million gift, and Concordia got $15M and $30M donations. UQAM ran a campaign to collect $100M
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Kate
Parking downtown and in Old Montreal is to be more expensive and the eligible hours are extended. Item doesn’t say exactly when the new regime begins, just that some bar owners are not happy.
Update: The plan is now on hold.
Kevin
The Gazette piece has more details: starts in two weeks, councillor Sasseville didn’t know about it, and Destination Centreville didn’t know about it either
Spi
A spokesperson for Mayor Valérie Plante’s office said it has asked the parking agency to put the operation on hold. In the meantime, the city will speak with business owners and review the pricing process before making a final decision, said Marikym Gaudreault.
“Our priority is economic vitality and consultation with our partners. In this case, steps have clearly been skipped at the administrative level with the installation of stickers,” she said.
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Am I suppose to believe that the people in charge at l’Agence de mobilité Durable green lighted this without any political feedback? When it’s obvious on its face that this would have political blowback and be controversial.
In principal and as a matter of policy I’m all for increasing the cost of parking closer to what it should be and using pricing power to insure availability of parking to those wanting it the most. At the same time you are systematically increasing/taxing people with limited mobility.
Uatu
Well on the plus side it could mean that more people might use the REM and any increased use especially on evenings and weekends might translate into more money for the thing. I’d be great especially for the folks like me on the shore that are forced into using it.
shawn
I do believe Glenn Castanheira and the city councillor weren’t informed, as they state in the Gazette article. Castanheira is such an advocate for downtown.
Tim
I definitely have taken advantage of the free parking on Sunday mornings. It’s a great time to shop since there are very few people around. Sometimes I’ll get an early lunch. I won’t be doing that in the future if it costs 8-12 dollars for the privilege.
CE
8-12 dollars for a a chunk of prime downtown real estate to store a piece of heavy machinery for half a day sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
Faiz Imam
The only thing that i dont like about this is falt rate pricing all day.
I know it makes it much easier to understand, but the demand for parking doesn’t stay flat like that.
Prices should vary depending on how busy it is, if thats at 10pm we should pay at 10pm.
On the flip side if at 1pm on a monday a area is empty the cost should be less or free.
The point is to optimize the use of a scarce resource.
Also street parking should be more expensive than underground parking, so people are incentivized to seek it out and leave the street for those that are willing to pay for convenience.
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Kate
Prodded into response by Liza Frulla’s recent statement about the deterioration of the disused Institut des sourdes-muettes on St‑Denis, Benoit Dorais says the city wants to act. Unfortunately, Dorais, who’s in charge of housing at city hall, hasn’t got much to say in this piece, except that they’re working on a plan.
The building belongs to Quebec, which offered it to the city in 2018, but – not wanting the inevitably steep bill for renovations – the city declined the offer. Quebec’s offer of a free building apparently didn’t come with any funding.
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Kate
With milder weather comes new homeless camps.
Without being snarky, I have one question: where do the homeless get their tents? Even a Canadian Tire tent costs at least $100, and nicer ones from Mountain Equipment
CoopCompany start at three times that.MarcG
Mountain Equipment *Company*. No longer a co-op, sold to ‘muricans.
Kate
Right. Sheer habit, I still have my coop card here somewhere. That was a sleazy move.
Tim
The “sleazy moves” were all the terrible business decisions and mismanagement that brought the co-op to near bankruptcy and forced the sale.
nau
I can think of 3 ways homeless people can get tents:
1) They already have the tent before they become homeless.
2) They can see that they’re going to become homeless and buy a tent before it happens.
3) Someone or some organization gives them a tent. When I changed cities back in the 90s, I had a mostly useful if not especially waterproof old tent that I wasn’t going to take with me, so I left it (with a note detailing its limitations) in the free box at a punk house I frequented. I imagine someone was quite happy to get a free tent.
So I don’t see why someone who’s say graduating from their Canadian Tire tent to a better one might not decide to donate the old one to a homeless organization or if they’re bold enough drop it off at an encampment or at least drop it off at Renaissance where it might get bought by someone foreseeing a stint on the street.EmilyG
Sometimes homeless shelters post donation requests, and tents are often one of the requested items. So some of the tents might come from shelters.
Blork
Also consider that just because a person is homeless that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re flat broke. They might have some money tucked away. Maybe hundreds. Maybe thousands. Or they might have a small regular cash flow from some menial work or even begging. But if they used it on rent they’d be broke in a month or two, whereas a $300 tent is a one-time expense, not a recurring one.
nau
Yeah, as the cost of housing increases, the homeless population expands to include people who aren’t dealing with serious mental illness or substance dependency but rather are poor and down on their luck. They can’t afford a place to live but they can still maintain a more organized homeless lifestyle. If you’re on twitter or access it via nitter, you can look up a guy under the handle sqwabb who is homeless in Vancouver but has an understanding with a parking lot that if he keeps it clean and provides some level of security at night simply by being there, he can sleep there with his bike and trailer that he uses to collect cans which with no rent to pay provides him with enough income to buy food and pay for the storage locker where he keeps spare parts, dumpstered treasures and other stuff he needs less frequently or seasonally. He doesn’t use a tent AFAIK but if he decided one would be useful, he’d certainly have the wherewithal to get one.
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Kate
Le Devoir tells about a Montreal North centre that assists newcomers and asylum seekers with no public grant to sustain it. This story reminds us that the people who reached Roxham Road often did so after a thousand‑kilometer trek, often with children, and often with all their meager possessions on their backs, so that even slave labour in Canada seems better than what they had before.
New arrivals also often have a lot of trouble finding a place to live.
Chris
Not ‘seems better’. For many it’s objective better. 🙁
Kate
I meant “seems” in the sense of what they hope for. They can’t know what it will be like till they get here, and – going by this story and many others – it isn’t always a bed of roses here either.
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Kate
A crash in Côte-des-Neiges involving two pedestrians and two vehicles sent four people to hospital Friday. The corner of Decarie and Jean‑Talon is a menace, always has been.
Early Saturday an SUV driver died when his vehicle smashed into an immobilized dump truck on the 40 in Rivière‑des‑Prairies.
So far, no shootings and no arson…
Blork 23:12 on 2023-04-15 Permalink
Isn’t that consistent with similar surveys over the past couple of decades?
Kate 09:10 on 2023-04-16 Permalink
It’s not a surprise. I hadn’t seen a recent survey though.