Taylor C. Noakes writes a great appreciation of the work of Claude Cormier and its transformative effect on this city.
Updates from October, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The Globe and Mail’s Konrad Yakabuski tackles Montreal’s insoluble problem with its airports.
Nicholas
That piece is so bad. I sent it to my friend in aviation (he”s never worked in Canada in aviation but used to live here so knows the airport and airlines well) and he got so worked up he’s now having trouble falling asleep.
Joey
@Nicholas how so?
Nicholas
The columnist doesn’t seem to know much about aviation, and it sounds like he saw some trouble with traffic and got the prof’s publicist’s press release about a history book and ran with it. Kate, forgive me for this rant.
The airport is not “landlocked, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods, with little or no space to grow”: it’s mostly surrounded by highways, rail lines and industrial, with only the neighbourhood north of Cardinal at all within expansion range. There’s space to extend the international/transborder horseshoe to the west by moving some of the catering buildings on Stuart Graham further northwest. The domestic jetty (island) used to be double the size (you can see the old gates on the satellite view) and there are options for the main domestic terminal, not counting adding more flexibility with swing gates or creating a satellite terminal where the deicing area is or the old 10/28 runway (which is now a taxiway). As for runways (which he talks about with aircraft movements), there’s space for one on top of the Dorval Golf Course parallel to the two main ones (plus some wetlands), or even just to the south of 6L/24R, or 6R/24L with some removal of some industrial along Cote de Liesse.
The terminal being old is not a huge deal: domestic can be spruced up when redone, but international and transborder is much newer and just fine. (Also, heating and cooling airy, high-ceiling buildings is not cheap.) Lines at customs is a huge problem everywhere: YYZ, YVR, JFK, EWR, IAD, LHR, AMS, CDG…. I’ve done a lot of flying in my day, including in the last four years, and YUL is by far the best of the airports I’ve listed. (Connections are also way shorter than in YYZ, which not only has long distances to walk (not even counting changing terminals in some cases) but had worldwide newsworthy lines in 2022!)
I haven’t read the professor’s book, but I’m not sure why a 24-hour airport is necessary? Unlike the big European airports, we don’t really have a ton of demand for flights arriving or departing at 3 am (there are only 2 flights departing and 8 arriving between 11 pm and the 1 am curfew, though to be fair I could imagine a few more flights departing before 6 am). YYZ has a 6 am curfew as well, and it’s rather common worldwide; I remember flying into YYZ at 05:59:45 and we had to max the engines and do a go around so as not to land before 6 and pay a $10,000 fine.
As I mentioned, there is space for more runways for more flights. Also with more traffic we could increase the size of planes on many routes, as, the article notes, Heathrow has done. (Building actual high speed rail should remove demand for all those flights to Toronto and Quebec.) And the columnist notes, in consecutive paragraphs, that the airport spokesperson notes the number of movements is down by one-sixth this year alone even though the number of passengers is up (we’re upgauging planes!), while complaining that the era of larger planes has ended. Anecdotally, I have noticed larger planes this year, and fuller planes, from YUL.
As for car traffic, we have a 2027 solution to that, but, like, drivers complaining about other drivers getting in their way never ceases to amaze me. Be the change you want to see in the world and choose a different option!
Anyway, he ends his essay with a Nothing Can Be Done, because it’s too late to adopt his and the prof’s preferred Mirabel solution. So, great, thanks for that, wonderful column! I mean, I’m going to continue lamenting the choices made in rail transportation in this province and country for decades to come, but I don’t have a newspaper column, just blog comments run by a benevolent overload (sorry, Kate!).
DeWolf
There’s also a lot of conjecture. For instance, Yakabuski suggests that ADM could have used the $3 billion it has spent on improvements to Trudeau by maintaining Mirabel and building a rail link there instead. But the rail link would have eaten up most of that budget, and Mirabel’s terminal would have needed improvements and expansion anyway, so it probably would have cost more in the long run to keep Mirabel operating.
Another example: “The REM’s arrival could help ease congestion if more passengers opt for public transit over taxis or their own cars. But that remains a big ‘if.’ Chances are most REM traffic will consist of existing transit users.” This is a completely baseless comment. Sure, it’s entirely possible that nobody switches from using their personal cars or taxis to the REM, but that would be an astonishing outcome. Hardly a “big if.” Just look at the success of the UP Express in Toronto, which has a far more limited route than the REM.
Kate
Nicholas, no apology necessary. In fact, I should thank you for writing such a reasoned response.
Joey
Thanks Nicholas, interesting stuff.
Orr
The need to cut fossil fuel by 50% by 2030 and 99% by 2050 will solve this problem, right?
Ha, who am I kidding, air travel expected to grow 50% by 2030 and 100% by 205, of course IATA and ICAO say (with a straight face) that fossil fuel use for air transport will be down 50% by 2050.
Numbers do not add up but then I’m not doing industry-lobbyist math.
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Kate
The Journal alleged this week that a police screwup has interfered with the investigation of the fatal fire in Old Montreal earlier this year. The article is tightly paywalled so I didn’t link, but now Radio‑Canada summarizes it in a piece on police chief Fady Dagher denying any mishandling of the case by his minions.
Seems likely that QMI was taken in by unfounded Ensemble allegations.
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Kate
Mayor Plante says the doubling of tuition rates is a serious blow for Montreal and its international reputation. What on earth is wrong with the woman? Doesn’t she want to keep anglos away and protect French?
Update: the finance minister reminds us that McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s are Quebec’s universities too and Paul St‑Pierre Plamondon says of course French‑language universities should be funded better than English ones.
Kevin
She’s allowed to poke fun when the clowns are in Quebec City.
Ian
So here’s a thought. To become a Quebec citizen, you have to live here 3 months and decalre your permanent address to be in Quebec. You can enroll for RAMQ right away, and as soon as 3 months passes you will be switched over to RAMQ which is your proof of citizenship. Of course, this doesn’t work when you are in Quebec as a full-time student.
So here’s what I propose:
Every person that wants to come to Quebec for school gets sponsored by a family from Quebec. We charge them “rent” of, say, 10 bucks a month, starting as soon as the studetn gets their acceptance letter. Some actual rent would have to change hands to make this all above board and legal. As soon as they have a signed lease they can apply for RAMQ online using the address of their new “permanent residence”. After 3 months, citizen of Quebec.
When they do come to Quebec in person to start school, it is as a full-fledged resident of Quebec. Saves $40,000 just like that. I don’t see how this could be effectively or meaningfully policed as it is follows the letter of the law.
Nicholas
To become a Quebec resident for in-province tuition purposes, if you live in another province, you generally have to move to Quebec for 12 consecutive months without being enrolled in a Quebec CEGEP or university. This is Situation 6 from this list. Note there is nothing about RAMQ (which is three months) or voting (which is six months). Being in grade 12 in another province is going to make it impossible to claim Quebec residency. People would have to move to Quebec and do Sec 5 here to make this work, or would have to defer school for a year (some of my out-of-province friends did this, working restaurant jobs).
Ian
hmm good point…
but I see from situation 5 that there are no limitiations on a sponsor…Ian
p.s. I took a year off between high school and university to work and build up some funds to move to Quebec, but I still kept my Ontario residency as they gave more in student loans thant the QC government gave in bursaries. In retrospect I should have gone with the bursaries as I paid off my loans over 10 years with no help from my family …
TBH I didn’t know I could have become a QC resident in the meantime until a friend from here told me halfway through first year 😀dhomas
Just a gentle reminder that PSPP is an alumnus of McGill University. Do with that information what you will.
Nicholas
Sponsor means person who sponsored you to immigrate to Canada, which is going to be a family member (or spouse). At least now all this is made (somewhat) clear online; back in the day I’m sure they weren’t explaining it unless requested.
Nicholas
Paul Wells, in an excellent piece on the incoherence of all this, points out Girard, the finance minister, also went to McGill. Paul also links to this piece from Alex Usher that explains the proposals much better than the rest of the media has done, as he points out especially “given that none of the Quebec dailies (AFAIK) have an education beat reporter”.
JP
To add to what dhomas said, not only is he an Alumnus of McGill, he also went to Oxford and Lund. I’ve always felt like the elites were/are trying to block access to opportunities that they themselves will continue to benefit from. I’m sure their children will pick whichever schools in whichever part of the world they want, be bilingual if not trilingual, etc.
CE
My situation as a student I was similar to Ian’s. When I was accepted to Concordia, tuition for an out of province student was about the same as it would have been as a resident in my home province. It wasn’t until I got here that I found out that I could get Quebec tuition rates and Quebec loans and bursaries if I got residency. My second year, I just took two classes one semester and none the second . The next year, I was able to get the Quebec rate. After graduation, the total I owed in loans for my first year was about equal to what I owed for the next three years as a Quebec resident.
When students from other provinces are planning on studying in Quebec. I always advise them to defer their first year, move to the province and do the subsidized French classes while working then by the end of the year, they’ll have good French and cheap tuition.
steph
I know it’s pennies in the bucket, but our provincial coffers are empty. Do we really need to be sharing these `loop holes`?
Joey
I would imagine that the savings @CE realized would probably more than offset by the diminished lifetime earnings associated with ending school one year later, though obviously at that age people are more concerned with short-term finances rather than long-term earning potential.
Anyway, while this policy is both dumb and incoherent (as Alex and Usher and Paul Wells point out, is the problem that non-Quebecers are leaving too soon after their studies – absconding with the benefits of Quebec’s cheap education without meaningfully contributing to the province’s tax base – or staying too long – diminishing the prevalence of French in Montreal in the long term), it tickles me that all of a sudden the official university position is that increasing tuition will have a major impact on enrolment. Obviously the scale of the increase is different than, say, what Charest was proposing, but I can’t imagine there’s a lot of logical coherence between what the universities are saying now and what they were saying in 2012…
Ian
@steph Recognizing that canadian citizenship actually means something despite what Provincial governments would prefer is not some kind of ental gymnastics to justify getting away with something. If anythign it is a valid act of protest – beyond the fact that we know having a lively student culture has contributed to Montreal in particular and Quebec in general for decades.
The coffers aren’t empty. The fat raise the MNAs gave themselves is proof of that. This is about ehtnonationalism, not money.
Kevin
@steph
If this was a decision based on money, Legault wouldn’t be giving money to the Olympic Stadium, a third link in Quebec city, and the countless battery/car companies setting up shop from Becancour to Brossard.
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Kate
Covid hospitalizations are rising across Canada with admissions close to last winter’s.
MarcG
Bogoch is the worst. I see 2 obvious bits of misinformation from him in that article:
“We’re going to see a rise in COVID-19 as the summer turned to fall, just as we’ve seen every year since COVID emerged”. This statement creates the false impression that the virus has become seasonal or at the very least fallen into some kind of predictable pattern. Waves have started in September 2020, March 2021, August 2021, Decemeber 2021, March 2022, July 2022, October 2022, and August 2023.
“COVID is not even remotely close now, even with that rise in hospitalizations, to what we saw in 2020 and 2021”. There are currently 3797 people hospitalized. In 2020 the max was 4281
and 2021 it was 4930. I personally consider 88% and 77% “remotely close” but I guess that’s the beauty of using non-scientific language.Chris
Regarding “COVID is not even remotely close now…” Where’s the lie?
He’s clearly talking about in totality, not only hospitalization numbers alone. Trusting your numbers, ok, the hospitalization numbers are indeed ‘remotely close’, but that’s not the whole story. There’s also non-hospitalized numbers to consider too. Those too were a strain on the health system. Just because someone didn’t get hospitalized doesn’t mean they didn’t visit a clinic, need meds, etc. Vaccination rates and natural immunity numbers were also very different then and now.
MarcG
Unforunately you can’t just say things and they magically become true. What evidence is that statement based on?
10% of health-care workers in Quebec have suffered from long COVID since the start of the pandemic. 71% of that subset said that their state of health now interferes with their ability to work, and 16% said that they are now often unable to work. 20% said they had missed at least four weeks of work in the past year, twice as many as among workers without long COVID. A similar proportion consider themselves to have a “poor or very poor” ability to perform the physical or intellectual demands of their job. The majority of cases of long COVID in health-care workers were detected in employees who had been infected with the virus since the emergence of the Omicron variant, who had been vaccinated, and whose state of health had not required hospitalisation. (link)
A study on Canadian hospital staffing and hospital harm trends throughout the pandemic concludes: Rates of harm to patients increased along with rates of staff absenteeism, overtime and use of agency staff. Across Canada, the rate of hospital harm increased to 5.9% in 2020–2021 and 6% in 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 after remaining stable between 5.3% and 5.4% since 2014. In 2022–2023, 1 in 17 patients admitted to hospital was unintentionally harmed during their stay. (link).
Chris
>Unforunately you can’t just say things and they magically become true.
Well duh. Where is the author doing that? Or did you mean me?
>What evidence is that statement based on?
Which statement?
MarcG
If the statement “COVID is not even remotely close now…” is not based on hospitalization numbers, what is it based on? He provides no support. You suggest it has something to do with less non-hospitalization-related strains on the health system but provide no evidence.
MarcG
“Estimated excess mortality dipped in January and February, but the latest 2023 figures indicate it is about 15% to 20% higher than it was in 2020 and 2021, according to Tara Moriarty, an infectious-disease researcher and co-founder of the grassroots group COVID-19 Resources Canada. That’s considerably lower than in 2022, “which was a horrific, really, really bad year in Canada, but it’s still higher than the first few years of the pandemic,” she said.
In other countries such as Britain and France, which have timely death-reporting systems, almost all excess mortality can be explained by COVID-19 deaths, Dr. Moriarty said. The two numbers match up fairly closely to each other.” (link)
Chris
Your link explicitly says they don’t know where the (estimated!) excess deaths are coming from. But you choose to believe they come from covid. Why not choose to believe one of the other ideas they mention, that it could be from the mental-health effects of the pandemic?, or the catching up of delays in treatment of other ailments while they forced society to close down?
So what are you arguing then, that covid is killing and hospitalizing as much as ever?, i.e. that the vaccines don’t live up to their hype after all? 🙂
MarcG
Mental-health effects and delayed treatments continue to pile-up because of the ongoing pandemic (see stats above regarding health care workers). So yes, deaths related to those factors I would attribute to the Covid pandemic even if the deaths themselves are not from the virus.
MarcG
I’m surprised that I have to repeat this but ok: I am arguing that the statement “COVID is not even remotely close now to what we saw in 2020 and 2021” is vague and needs to be supported by evidence but neither the speaker, nor you, has provided any.
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Kate
Three teenagers were shot in Rivière‑des‑Prairies on Tuesday evening, two sustaining serious injuries. It isn’t clear who did it or why.
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Kate
A young man died in a crash in Montreal North Tuesday night, and others were injured in another crash in Rivière‑des‑Prairies. Everyone in these stories is under 25.
Orr 18:31 on 2023-10-20 Permalink
I’m not a big CC fan but Montreal does have a lot of excellent public art and the website https://artpublicmontreal.ca/en/ catalogues them all.