The ARTM is beginning consultations on how to improve public transit to the Sud-Ouest part of town – a tram or bus rapid transit to Lachine from Angrignon. A possible metro extension is mentioned too, but is probably a long shot.
Updates from January, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Onetime comedy impresario Gilbert Rozon will be facing half a dozen court cases starting late this year and into 2025. Women are accusing Rozon of rape and other sexual assaults; he’s counter‑suing other women for defamation.
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Kate
Snow removal operations are resuming Monday on streets. Or, as this lede says, “has resumed snow removal operations after halting over the weekend to concentrate its efforts on the sidewalks” – as if clearing snow from sidewalks isn’t true snow removal?
TVA says some drivers are annoyed. When are they not?
dwgs
The story is untrue anyway, snow removal was going on all weekend in NDG.
Nicholas
Interesting note at the end of the TVA article that boroughs are not allowed to do snow pickup if sidewalks aren’t clear.
I also suspect that it saves a lot of money not to do pickup on weekends, and just do sidewalks, which takes fewer staff and no outside contractors for the trucks. Overtime adds up on weekends.
And to be fair to drivers, it is annoying when they put up no parking signs and keep them up for three days. Can’t recommend the app enough.
jeather
I saw snow removal from the streets in both the Sud-Ouest and Ville Marie this weekend.
Ian
Outremont was symphony of horns last night.
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Kate
Michel C. Auger has a good column Monday on Denis Coderre seizing the main chance.
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Kate
La Presse reports that some local calls to 911 over VOIP services have gone to an answering service that functions only in English, which can be a safety issue when the caller only speaks French.
bob
Paranoid nationalist histrionics to follow…
Kate
To be fair, nobody operating a phone service here should be channeling emergency calls to a service that doesn’t handle French.
On the other hand, the customers trying to save a buck by using VOIP ought to have asked about how those services handle emergency calls.
Ephraim
Hey, it’s less than $9.50 a month for what appears to be a voice line. The service that I use offers E911, but does warn to change your address if using the SoftVoip app. But my calls do go directly to 911.
But also, included, they offer an (English Only) CAPTCHA for calls. I haven’t heard from a politician, a telemarketer or a fake CRA scammer in years! (I do have to manually turn it off if I’m waiting for a call back from a machine). Press (random number) to connect your call now.
Andrew
On the VOIP provider website, and I assume the agreement the customer signs, there’s a very broad disclaimer that they don’t guarantee anything about reaching 911 at all.
Ephraim
@Andrew – Correct. For example https://www.voipmuch.ca/911_policy.asp
jeather
I’m curious how it would work with me — for reasons I have never entirely understood, my home ISP is geolocated to Toronto. I don’t have a home phone of any sort, but would it think I was in Toronto if I called 911?
carswell
@jeather It’s based on where your ISP’s server is located.
I recently switched to TekSavvy whose server somewhere around Hamilton, so websites (Google Maps, shopping sites, etc.) assume that’s where I’m based unless I’ve fired up my VPN and selected one of its Montreal servers. Would imagine that’s how it works with VOIP too but can’t confirm.
jeather
I’m also Teksavvy! I don’t mind it because I can see all those websites that are blocked in Quebec.
dhomas
If you’re using e911 with your VoIP provider, you must register your home address or the address where your VoIP service will be used. Since VoIP is internet-based, you can use it from anywhere, hence the reason you need to register your address. Your VoIP provider will generally pass along your registered address to the local 911 provider. It is NOT based on your device’s IP address (like in the Teksavvy example above).
There is a cost associated to e911 for providers, which some might pass along to their users or might bake into the cost of their service. For example, my provider, voip.ms, charges 1.50$/month for e911 service:
https://wiki.voip.ms/article/E911Transat Telecom does not seem to use e911 at all and just sends all their 911 calls to a 911 centre called Norther 911, probably as a cost-saving measure (see above). IMO, e911 should be mandatory for VoIP providers, but it’s difficult to enforce. You can buy a VoIP service from pretty much anywhere in the world. Transat Telecom being a Quebec-based company, though, should have e911 enabled and quit being cheap before someone dies from inadequate emergency service.
rob
I don’t get french service eithe when I call 911 from facebook messenger. neither from viber, wattsapp, signal, instagram, myspace, ICQ or AIM.
dhomas
@rob: I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic, but those are pretty much all mobile apps, some of which can’t even access 911 (ex WhatsApp: https://faq.whatsapp.com/1153602608602452/?cms_platform=android&helpref=platform_switcher).
If you are on mobile, you ALWAYS have access to 911, even without a SIM card or active subscription (the SIM card is used to tell the provider who to bill the call to, and 911 calls are not billed to the end user). Those calls are routed to a local PSAP based on the cell tower’s location. So, you would get French service.
jeather
Thanks for the info, dhomas.
Taylor 16:55 on 2024-01-15 Permalink
It’s maddening how these decisions seem to be based more on whichever way the wind is blowing and never on a comprehensive strategy designed to remove cars from roads and lower the city’s emissions footprint
Kate 17:27 on 2024-01-15 Permalink
I don’t want to get too cynical, but I find myself assuming that public consultations like this are mostly PR exercises, ass‑covering so that later, when an unpopular decision is handed down, they can always say “but we held consultations!”
Nicholas 19:18 on 2024-01-15 Permalink
It’s worth pointing out that “Sud-Ouest” actually means not just south of the Canal but from Dorval to the West End (south of CSL Rd/Boulevard/Pine) all the way through downtown to the Main, and then back along the river. NDG, though covered by this study, is completely ignored because there is already a “high use” of public transport, so no need to make it faster, more frequent or more comfortable, and they’ll probably use this study to justify no further investments for decades, even though it has a high capacity rail corridor that could cheaply be expanded to greatly increase service.
Ian 20:08 on 2024-01-15 Permalink
I guess that’s why the article included a map of “Grand” Sud-Ouest?
Nicholas 16:55 on 2024-01-16 Permalink
When I hear Sud-Ouest I think of the borough, so Grand Sud-Ouest had me thinking the borough plus everything south of the canal (Verdun and LaSalle). I can’t think of anyone who thinks Quartier des spectacles and the airport and Westmount and NDG and the Lachine Industrial Park are Grand Sud Ouest, but here we are.