Taylor C. Noakes on the trouble with trams as a solution for the east end.
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Kate
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Kate
The city plans to raze part of the Boisé Steinberg so it can extend Assomption Boulevard and possibly Souligny, all with an eye to moving vehicles more fluidly around the port.
Slight update: There was talk about this on CBC radio Wednesday. No matter how often the issue arises, the city or the province will always say more roads will “ease traffic” even though experience and endless studies show that they do the exact opposite.
Ian
While it is generically true that more highways mean more traffic, improved traffic flow is still a possiblility.
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Kate
The city has listed the “affordable” rents it wants to establish at the Îlot Voyageur as: $1054 for a studio, $1288 for a one‑bedroom, $1853 for two bedrooms, and $2097 for three bedrooms or more. Not sure what “or more” implies as I doubt they will be offering more than three bedrooms.
They’re hoping someone will build around 700 units on the site.
Michael
The overton window has shifted regarding the word “affordable”. A few years from now affordable will be $1500 for a 1 bedroom.
Ian
Considering how much rents drop only a few blocks east that’s pretty spendy, although it is a fair rent in Centreville in general… plus you can get crack or fent just across the street so super convenient if that’s what you’re looking for.
Chris
Michael, not sure it’s really a case of ‘overton window’ so much as just inflation. A haircut used to cost 15¢, shall we use that metric to judge ‘affordable’ today?
Kate
I would have thought the affordability horizon ought to relate to minimum wage. Can someone making $15.25 an hour afford a $1054 studio? And I’m assuming here a single person with no dependents to look after.
DeWolf
Somebody working minimum wage would probably qualify for the 20% of apartments reserved for social housing. The “affordable” apartments are likely targeted to people earning a bit more than $15.75 per hour.
I look at these rents and think they aren’t particularly cheap, but when you consider they would be for a brand new downtown apartment with appliances, heating and air conditioning included, they’re not that bad either.
CE
When I moved to Montreal, Minimum wage was somewhere between 7$ and 8$. I looked at a 2 1/2 (not downtown) and the $600 they were asking for it was definitely out of my price range. I ended up getting a 4 1/2 with a friend for $800 (we felt $400 each was a bit overpriced but it was nice so we splurged).
Kate
DeWolf, do people who are employed even qualify for social housing?
Ian
Meanwhile on CBC … some context about what is “reasonable”
“Both Kanig and her husband work, but with a combined monthly income of $2,500 it’s just not enough.
Forty per cent of those earnings go towards paying rent for their two-bedroom apartment but that doesn’t include hydro bills.”https://globalnews.ca/news/10384292/working-quebec-family-cost-of-living/
Tim
That family truly is the working poor. I’m guessing that one or both of them are working part time jobs.
Here are some numbers for a full time (40 hours/week) worker making minimum wage (assuming paid vacation):
15.25 $/hr * 40 hours/week * 52 weeks/year = $31,720 $/yearUsing a marginal tax rate of 26.5% (https://www.taxtips.ca/taxrates/qc.htm), the take home pay is:
$31,720 * (1-0.265) = $23, 314 $/year
$23,314 $/year / 12 months/year = 1942 $/monthjeather
Just to point out, if 2500 is 40% of their take home pay, they are each earning 60% more than minimum wage — which just goes to show how inadequate it is.
Mozai
“A haircut used to cost 15¢” If you’re gonna use haircuts then use haircuts. How many haircuts at the 15¢ era (1910s?) did it take to buy a month’s worth of a roof over your head? How many of today’s haircuts does it take to buy a month’s worth of today’s roof over your head?
Nationwide, rental prices have increased about 10% year-to-year for the past two years. https://images.rentals.ca/images/2_March_2024_Rentals.ca_Annual_Change_in_Avera.width-800.png Has inflation devalued our dollars by 10% every year for the last two years? Are haircuts 21% more expensive than they were in April 2022? (Maybe they are! I cut my own hair, and finding historical haircut prices is very difficult.)
Tim
@jeather: I do not follow your numbers. The example I used is for one worker, not two.
jeather
2500 is 40% of 6250, or 3125 each, which is about 60% higher than your monthly estimate of what a single person working full time for minimum wage earns. That’s about 25$/h each at full time.
Tim
I still don’t follow. I re-read the article and it says that the family is paying 40% of their $2500 income on rent. That works out to $1000 per month.
MarcG
It says their combined monthly income is $2,500, not the rent.
Ian
It’s not clear from the article whether 2500 is gross or net.
2500 * 12 = 30000
“If you make $30,000 a year living in the region of Quebec, Canada, you will be taxed $7,360. That means that your net pay will be $22,640 per year, or $1,887 per month. Your average tax rate is 24.5% and your marginal tax rate is 34.4%.”
https://ca.talent.com/tax-calculator/Quebec-30000
To take home 2500/m you need to be making 41300/y using the same calculator.
jeather
Ohhh, I misread it and then did the math backwards.
DeWolf
@Kate, yes of course:
https://www.omhm.qc.ca/fr/soumettre-une-demande/criteres-dadmissibilite
A single person or couple earning less than $38,000 can apply for social housing, which is scaled up depending on how many people are in your family (eg a family of four earning less than $53,000 is eligible).
DeWolf
I don’t really understand how a working couple can have a combined income of just $2,500 unless they’re both only working 20 hours a week at minimum wage. The article notes one of them has a job at a CLSC… do CLSCs really pay so little?
Tux
Jesus christ affordable for who. I still remember making 40k a year and while the lowest price on that list would have been *doable*, *affordable* is quite the stretch.
Kate
This is why we have working people still needing food banks. If your income is all soaked up by rent and basic bills, you won’t have much left over for groceries.
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Kate
RCMP operatives are in town Tuesday in what TVA claims is a major operation against the Mafia. The Mounties haven’t said which group they’re targeting.
Further report from Radio‑Canada.
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Kate
The purchase of Just For Laughs for its debts in 2018 turns out to have been an unprofitable deal. The organization sank into heavier debt during the first two years of the Covid pandemic and has not recovered.
Ian
Admittedly, that’s one heck of a gag.
Andrew
I’d really like to know how Howie Mandel made out. He was in all the media as the new co-owner in March 2018, but disappears when Bell and the Molsons bought their share in May 2018.
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Kate
Toula Drimonis writes about the Olympic stadium money pit for the Walrus.
Ephraim
Goo goo g’joob (Sorry… someone had to say it)
Kevin
Toula is correct: it’s a dump and always will be.
Take the money and spend it on something we need, instead of continuing to throw good money after bad.
Joey
The businessmen who run the CAQ don’t seem to be familiar with the sunk cost fallacy.
Ian
Or maybe they are hoping the public aren’t.
GC
Not that Legault cares what I think…but, yes, I think it’s time to let it go. If the tower can be saved, sure, but the stadium is just a cash black hole. The $2 billion to demolish it does seem crazy, but of course the CAQ won’t consider a study to replace the one that is twenty years old.
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