Concordia is emulating McGill in offering bursaries to students from the ROC to counter the tuition hikes.
Updates from December, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
Notes for the weekend before Christmas from CityCrunch, TVA, Sarah’s Weekend List, CultMTL.
Driving horrors of the weekend include avoiding the Île‑aux‑Tourtes bridge.
jeather
You can probably just repeat “avoid the Île‑aux‑Tourtes bridge” every weekend until the new one opens.
Ian
Well that takes care of the driving horrors update until 2030 at least. That’s when the bridge is “expected” to be finished.
jeather
I thought it was expected to have use by the end of 2026, though we all know how that works out.
Kevin
Jeather
There will be some weekend closures until they patch up the bridge decking and put in some super poutres to help hold it together. So by the end of January it’ll be up to 3 lanes total (out of 6) — and they figure that by the end of 2024, they’ll have replaced enough of the rot that they can open a 4th lane.Wonderful foresight in fixing a bridge that more than 10 years ago was known to have holes so large you could literally put a car through them.
jeather
I’ll believe those dates when I see them.
bumper carz
Easy to just bike over to the Anse a l’Orme REM station when it opens and take the train.
It’s only a half hour bikey from Dorion, and you get to see Ile Perrot’s *early bungalow belt* on your ride!
Ian
If you were going to bike that you might as well take 1ère Ave and stay off the bridge altogether, but I’d pay good money to see you do that return commmute at the end of the day in a February squall and be as glib about it .
Nicholas
There are some pretty big free transit incentives here. Free buses and trains both locally, to the West Island and to the metro/downtown, plus even a free two-trip ticket for connecting travel when departing western train stations.
Kevin
Free transit is meaningless for contractors and others who have to bring their tools and supplies to multiple job sites each day.
Ian
Also worth noting it’s not the cost of the bus that regular commuters are complaining about. I have students whose bus commute suddenly got 30-45 minutes longer each way.
bumper carz
@Ian: “I’d pay good money to see you do that return commmute at the end of the day in a February squall and be as glib about it .”
I have biked several times from Chinatown to Hudson in snowstorms, and then crossed the ice bridge and continued on to Oka, Deux Montagnes, and all the way back through Boisbriand, Laval, the REM St-Denis…. all the way back home…stopping at Tigre Géant to buy socks…and no one gave me a cent for this.
So you are not being honest about your willingness to pay people to bike in winter.
Ian
You’re not honest about that being your regular commute, and I didn’t see it …
But as a gesture of good faith I will make a $20 donation to the west island food bank of your choice and post the receipt here. Let me know if you would prefer bumper carz or qatzelok as the donor name.
Kate
qatzelok, surely you’re not so deluded that you think everyone is fit to cycle long distances in winter?
Nicholas
I’m not a fan of free transit, as I’d prefer the money to go to better service. (And the train service is incredibly commuter oriented.) But it’s hard to add more than marginal extra service at the margins on a short time frame. Free service will attract more people (which will get them out of cars and free up space for people who have to drive). And the times you need vars off the bridge most is rush hour, which the transit service serves best.
Just because transit can’t be used for every single trip, such as people bringing their tools, doesn’t mean it can’t be helpful for some, which gets cars off the road and eases traffic for everyone else. Also I’ve seen electric cargo bikes for people who work with tools, as well as a larger one with a centralized toolset for those who need it, so it can work in some cases. People would have laughed a decade ago if you suggested delivering bulky packages by bike, but now they’re all over the Plateau and expanding, and they can deliver packages faster, cheaper and more environmentally than trucks. Not for every trip, but more is possible.
Ian
While you have many good points, the Plateau is much higher density and more centralized than the areas served by this bridge. Shorter trips for different needs. That said I know a lot of people in the West Island that bike all over for fun and yes, do local errands using electric bikes, 3-wheelers, you name it. Still not ideal for crossing a bridge in winter unless you are a fit person with no kids and nothing particularly big or heavy to carry.
Qatzi, still waiting. How about West Island Mission in Pointe Claire?
wimmoi.org
bumper carz
@Kate: “qatzelok, surely you’re not so deluded that you think everyone is fit to cycle long distances in winter?”
Of course not. But I am convinced that almost all suburban prima donnas could cycle their Netflix asses to a REM station. And if their house is nowhere near transit, then they should take up farming and drop out of society since their car makes them a menace to it.
Uatu
I’ll pass on your message to that lady I know in housekeeping. The one who needs a house for her family and her parents that’s priced out of the island and needs a car to get to work for 6am because public transport doesn’t run early enough.
Ian
Don’t waste your breath, Qatzi has already displayed his contempt for real people here. It takes a special man of principle to refuse an offer to donate to charity on their behalf for the sake of making a point.
Where I come from that’s called someone that thinks they can prove they are a mentsch by taking every opportunity to act like a schmuck.
-
Kate
A car was torched early Friday in Rivière‑des‑Prairies in an area which, if you check the incident map, you’ll see has been a hotspot for arson this year.
Also in that end of town, shots were fired at a restaurant that was open Thursday evening and had customers inside. Nobody got hurt.
Thursday, a man was stabbed outside a bar in Lasalle – the kind of bar that seems to exist for people to get stabbed outside of.
Kevin
That’s a Pratchetty description of a bar 🙂
Ian
Yeah, great turn of phrase 🙂
-
Kate
A major rally in support of the teachers and public schooling is planned for Friday at noon at the premier’s office.
Ian
Peculiar that they don’t mention the office address is 770 Sherbrooke Ouest … ironically, right in front of McGill. No wonder he hears English being spoken in the streets of Montreal so often.
Kate
Thanks for noting that. I still have it somewhere in my head that the premier’s Montreal office is in the Hydro‑Quebec building.
Ian
I’ve heard this from a lot of other people about the same age as us, Kate, it’s become a kind of urban myth like PKP living in a secret bunker under Vidéotron headquarters only accessible by a high speed escape elevator to the helicopter pad on the roof.
Kate
They named the street after René Lévesque, and put a bust of him at the corner of the building, so I’m pretty sure he had his office there. Hydro was a big success story for Quebec nationalists in the days of “Québec sait faire”.
Ephraim
@Kate They couldn’t really name Sherbrooke after René Levesque. Edgar Trottier’s death and the subsequent police cover up would be forever in the history books
Ian
It already is, but didn’t that happen on Cedar?
Ian 18:43 on 2023-12-22 Permalink
“Emulating” is a funny choice of words … Especially since McGill is only offering 3k bursaries compared to Concordia’s 4k. “Surpassing” might have been more accurate. Pretty good for what is usually perceived as the lesser of the two universities, and McGill’s substantially higher donor base.
Margaret 09:19 on 2023-12-23 Permalink
I posted this on the McGill Facebook page before Concordia took this step but apart from that change, the same thoughts occur…”I am also hesitant to applaud this move. The university should not have to cut student services to find the money that this government will gain from them via these students. The Legault government will put the spin on it that McGill always had the money to do this and doesn’t need to be decrying the hikes. Also, where does this leave Concordia??? I think it is a bandaid solution and the government will increase the fees again, in stages, thinking McGill will find the $$ for them. I realize student applications are NOW but I think given the lack of research proving Dery’s ministry’s claims, the government’s inability to communicate and consult with the parties involved and the growing sentiment that this government is pulling ill-conceived ideas out of its post by-election panic hat, that this should have been considered as more of a reluctant Plan B until the courts can rule on it.”
dhomas 11:37 on 2023-12-23 Permalink
I hope this is a temporary measure that will only be necessary until 2025, when the CAQ is likely to be expelled from government. Hopefully the next government rolls back these changes. A guy can dream, right?
Kevin 11:50 on 2023-12-23 Permalink
The Legault government’s decision is not about money; it’s an attack on the character of our city.
The CAQ and its voters hate and fear us.
Margaret 16:38 on 2023-12-23 Permalink
The intentional divisiveness of this government is the point I argue with here…our french universities DO need more funding and the government should find that $$$ in the taxes they receive from ALL Quebecers as we ALL have a stake in their flourishing. As we all do in the English universities and the students they bring here.