Artists demonstrated Saturday at the Quebec culture ministry to demand more grant money in a more sustained form. In the news at the same time: Quebec is boosting funding for Fête nationale celebrations.
Updates from February, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
Patrick Lagacé and Toula Drimonis both weigh in on the solidarity shown among Montrealers enduring an historic snowstorm.
A Globe and Mail journalist writes with awe about the efficiency of Montreal’s snow removal crew, but someone ought to tell him that citing Josh Freed multiple times won’t recommend his piece to Montreal’s anglos.
Philippe Sabourin explains how the city works out street priorities for snow removal, and why some boroughs are quicker to clear than others.
-
Kate
It’s said that few people watched the debate among the Projet Montréal leadership candidates because it was held on Thursday at the same time as the Four Nations hockey final. Le Devoir sums it up, but given that this is Projet and everyone has similar positions on housing, homelessness, transit and so on, it seems likely that party members will be choosing a leader based on charisma and vibe and not on policy, because there will be only the most subtle differences in their priorities.
Le Devoir also calls Montreal ungovernable and the mayoralty a thankless task. Marco Fortier also tells us that Soraya Martinez Ferrada is on her way to coronation as new chief of Ensemble, no other plausible candidate having raised a hand, while reminding us that there’s still time for some new party to emerge to challenge Projet in November.
Taylor
Ungovernable is pretty rich given Montreal’s democratic tradition is well-respected and recognized internationally, not to mention for having considerable citizen engagement at the municipal level, including a sophisticated multi-party municipal legislative arm with parties distinct from larger political machines.
Moreover, and quite unlike other major Nation American cities, Montreal has found a ‘sweet spot’ between urban and subsurban dominance, with a powerful executive and central government balanced with a fair degree of autonomy for suburban boroughs.
And all of this is occurring within a framework of regional government where the mayor works together with agglomeration partners, coorinating broad land-use strategies, arguably North America’s best public transit system, metropolitan police and fire services, as well as water treatment.
And topping it all off, it’s a city of 1.8 million people – massive for a single city govt in North American terms – and the province hates us for who we are, so we basically get the shaft from one upper level of govt.
Ungovernable? C’mon.
Joey
The author makes some good points assessing the current political and economic context, as well as a major structural issue – namely, that the province treats it like dirt, and it lacks the resources to allow its mayors to deliver on the desires of the population. For all the reasons you mentioned, Montreal is well structured – but the antagonism from Quebec City makes it impossible for its mayors to govern the way it’s citizens would like. And, more to the point, the article isn’t about structures or governance or democratic engagement, it’s about inadequate resources.
Kate
You’re right on this, Joey.
I don’t know enough about the legal relationship of other cities to their state or province or other administrative subdivision to know whether Montreal is stuck with a particularly unfavourable deal. And do cities which exist under only one level of national government have it easier or harder than those, like ours, which exist under a subdivisional government?
Is Montreal’s situation different under Quebec’s civil code than cities are in other provinces? I have my doubts here, because city mergers were forced on Ontario towns in much the same way they were on Quebec towns, around the same time, but the details may differ.
My impression is that Quebec put Montreal under a kind of tutelage in response to the fiasco of funding the Olympics, and has never let go. But I don’t know how true that is – whether the legal framework changed, or just the attitude.
And of course the phenomenon of hinterlands fearing and distrusting the big city isn’t unique to us, so that’s another thing.
DeWolf
All Canadian cities share the same fundamental problem as Montreal, because municipalities are creatures of the provinces. I’d argue that Toronto has it much worse than Montreal, because its relationship with the Ford government is antagonistic to the point that Ford has actively meddled in municipal politics in a way few Quebec governments have: unilaterally reducing the size of city council, arbitrarily removing very popular bike paths, etc.
Another example: now that Calgary consistently elects left-wing mayors, the conservative provincial government can’t help but use their powers to meddle in public transit and other areas.
Robert H
Relative to Montreal’s chronic conflicts with a hostile provincial government, I wonder if the same dynamic exists in, say, Manitoba? Winnipeg dominates that province to a greater extent than any other Canadian city dominates its jurisdiction. No other city in the country contains more than half of its province’s population within its municipal boundary (excluding it’s suburbs) while also being the seat of its provincial government and biggest university. In Manitoba, it has no rival. Even Toronto has to coexist with Ottawa.
-
Kate
CBC has a nice piece on Leonora King, who died at the end of 2024, for whom there’s to be a memorial on Saturday.
I never knew Leonora well, but even in the small amount of interaction we had, her energy and her compassion were apparent. She was a dynamo of community activism, and her death is a loss to Park Ex. She was only 42.
Taylor
I did a double take when I saw her name, as the famed Canadian missionary and physician of the same name died a century ago: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/leonora-howard-king
I wonder if it’s just coincidence or if the latter Leonora King was named in tribute to the former.
-
Kate
Pierre Ny St-Amand, who drove his Laval city bus into a daycare two years ago, killing two children and injuring others, will not have a jury trial. The Crown and the defence are both agreed that he was probably not criminally responsible, so there will be a trial before a judge, laying out the facts and hearing from psychiatrists and victims’ families.
-
Kate
More news video from Radio-Canada: the police college in Nicolet has a mockup metro train and station where potential metro security agents are trained. Mentioned in passing is that they hire actors to perform as troubled or troublesome people, but they don’t tell us where those folks get their training.
-
Kate
I’d been wondering about the state of the city’s snow dumps right now. CBC’s got a brief video about the mass quantity of snow and how long it will take to melt.
24Hres talks about the volume of snow the city’s dealing with.
-
Kate
Complete snow removal could take ten more days: workers are due a mandatory break Friday and Saturday.
Meezly
We just got home after walking around the Plateau. Snow removal crews were out working while we were out. Two cars were towed away to make way for the plows.
JP
Witnessed some snow removal happening on Dudemaine near Acadie as well. I’ve done my share of complaining regarding the snow, snow removal, etc. but the walk in the evening from the bus stop to home felt magical with lots of snow still around but better clearance on the sidewalks to actually walk..
Chris
Forget about removal. When will sidewalks be usable?
Joey
Are they using the street plows to clear the sidewalks before removing the snow? Some sidewalks are higher than the adjacent snow banks on the street. I can only imagine they’ll need to remove it all in one shot – that seems really unprecedented to me. No way could a chenillette do anything useful on my block, for instance.
Kate
Chris, have you walked around your neighbourhood to see how it’s going? My immediate sidewalk’s not been cleared, but once I reach the corner it’s fine. Sidewalks on main streets around here aren’t bad, although narrowed by snow piles on one or both sides.
Joey, I don’t think a chenillette could deal with the sidewalk on my block either. It’s a goat path, solidly packed down by many passing feet.
After the weekend, temperatures are set to go above freezing. That will cause its own problems but might make clearing the sidewalks easier.
Ian
Chenillettes can handle a lot, Bernard at Parc is heavily travelled by foot and was insanely packed down but the chenilletes cleared it right down to the sidewalk fully edge to edge, & spread gravel to boot..
mare
I saw a new model chenillette mounted with a snowblower in front. I haven’t seen it in action but I guess it could blow the snow *over* the snow bank onto the street were it can be dealt with by the giant graders and picked up by trucks.
I hope they use it on my street because almost all the carés d’arbres are staked off because people planted plants in them, like the borough encouraged them to do. Having snowplows or chenillettes going over the plants and raised flower beds for access will anger a lot of people.Also, we have some very enthusiastic people on my block that kept cleaning the sidewalk of the whole block on Sunday during the storm after it was clear that the chenillettes weren’t going to show up. So our block is by far the easiest to navigate of all sidewalks in the neighbourhood (I’ve seen/tried them all). But in general walking the alleyways is even easier because the contracted commercial snow removal firms did excellent jobs.
(I plan to top off the mountain of snow on ‘my’ caré d’arbre and shovel it onto the street before the street gets cleaned so there’s room for more snow in case of another storm. Winter isn’t over yet.)
Joey
Worst offenders so far:
1. Private snow removal companies that dump snow anywhere and everywhere
2. Drivers who’ve parked their cars so far from the curb they impede traffic and, especially, snowplows.
3. People who decided to take out their loosely tied together trash and recycling bags.
Who am I missing?
MarcG
Car owners who shovel the snow from around their car into the middle of the sidewalk
Tim S.
5) contractors who as soon as a street is cleared put up no parking signs along half a block. I guess they want to get back to work too, but don’t be greedy!
Joey
MarcG, they’re 1A.
-
Kate
The C.D. Howe Institute says that the proposed high-speed rail line – they’re calling it Alto – would generate billions in economic benefits over the ensuing decades.
I can’t see how that works, even if some of the interprovincial trade barriers are removed.
Joey
Interesting that CD Howe, a right-of-centre think tank if there ever was one, posits things like lower GGEs, time saved and reduced traffic congestion as concrete benefits of this project. I certainly agree, but it’s nice to get some validation from the conservative end of things in this case – many on the right have more of a knee-jerk reaction to anything that isn’t get in your gas guzzler and drive.
Blork
I’m no expert, but I suspect part of it is something like this:
Today, if you spend $100 on dinner in Montreal and your cousin in Toronto spends $100 on dinner, that’s $200 spent in restaurants but it’s not recorded as “economic benefits of the train” because the train doesn’t exist.
10 years from now (ha!) if you and your cousin in Toronto do a house swap and use the train to get to the respective cities, and you then spend $100 on dinner in Toronto and your cousin spends $100 on dinner in Montreal, that is recorded as +$100 in Toronto due to the train, and +$100 in Montreal due to the train, for a total benefit of $200 due to the train.
Of course in real money spent it’s zero sum, but when categorized it becomes a benefit within the category.
That’s not to say all of the benefits are statistical gas clouds like that, but some of it likely is (because: statistics).
Kate
How would you even track that theoretical expense though, given that it’s in the same currency?
JaneyB
The real moneymaker (for some people…) would be a huge increase in the cost of housing for Montrealers. We would have house prices like they have in Toronto – for sure! I note that the extension of the Hwy 407 from Toronto into Peterborough **doubled** the house prices within 5 years and destroyed rental vacancies altogether. I don’t see much of an upside for people who take the train 3 times a year to the GTA….basically a savings of 3 hours altogether. Interesting concept but terrible consequences for most people.
Joey
@Blork I didnt read their study but it wasn’t in the news summary so I doubt that’s what they’re thinking. That kind of “economic impact” is indeed bullshit (for the most part) and I doubt CD Howe would suggest otherwise, at least in this case.
@JaneyB apples and oranges – one is daily use infrastructure, the other is intercity travel. Is the idea Torontonians will buy up Montreal so they can commute?
qatzelok
Janey, I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Are you saying that infrastructure improvements might make our cities more desirable?
That high rents means that no transit projects should get built?
Wouldn’t the train make travel a lot more accessible for ordinary people?
-
Kate
Two teenage boys attacked two homeless men, apparently randomly selected, in metro stations this week. An alert STM worker spotted them on camera so they could be nabbed and charged.
-
Kate
The Chateauguay girl who was injured in a snow tunnel collapse a few days ago has died of her injuries.
I had a snow tunnel fall on me as a kid, and while it wasn’t that big a deal, there were a few panicky moments till I fought my way out of it. What a way to go.
-
Kate
Report Friday morning says about one third of the snow has been dealt with. Gazette says the city’s 311 line is flooded with complaints.
The reddit post that described snow removal as seen by a worker was read by a lot of people, as he notes in a followup. It’s important for residents to understand that the city is not screwing up and the workers are not loafing.
Even the Journal explains how residents – especially those with cars – are slowing the process down.
Blork
That Journal piece is a good one. It shows the amount of complications and effort that the snow crews deal with, and the extent to which clueless people are, well, clueless.
One thing it brings up is the delivery driver who slowed things down. I’m thinking, “but that guy has a job to do too,” but then I think it’s just a matter of him coming back in a few minutes after the snow in front of his destination address has been cleared. No? Maybe? Yes? If yes, then a bit of patience from that delivery driver is all that’s needed, but don’t bet the farm on him ever figuring that out.
Then there’s the woman on the sidewalk who stopped to look at her phone, thereby blocking the sidewalk plow. They even have a photo! The plow is less than a meter away, and she just stops and shuts down the operation. WTF? WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SITUATIONAL AWARENESS???
jeather
Ok but the complaints to 311 are described as “more than 5,000 calls from residents, most of them complaining about illegal snow dumps emanating from driveways and parking lots deposited on city streets and sidewalks and blocking access” not “why is my street not done yet?” It seems entirely fair to complain about illegal snow dumps from private property.
The CBC podcast This is Montreal did their most recent ep about snow clearing through the ages.
jeather
Blork I have absolutely been surprised while walking down a sidewalk by a chenillette. If I have a headband and a hood up, much less headphones, I can’t hear one coming — people stopping for a moment on the sidewalk is pretty normal. (Also, one assumes she stopped before and then the plow stopped when it saw her, ending about a meter away, not that she stopped as the plow was already right behind her.)
Blork
I hear what you’re saying, jeather. Same has happened to me, but only on a busy sidewalk next to a busy street with lots of ambient noise. But did you see the photo? I see no hood or headband, and there doesn’t seem to be any traffic or other sources of noise. The chenillette is half a metre from her. Apparently she stood there like that for 20 seconds, which is a blink of the eye if you’re waiting in line for something but an eternity if you’re just standing there blocking a rumbling chenillette that’s so close you can touch it.
Here’s the photo: https://m1.quebecormedia.com/emp/emp/45660_1430861d222c12-bcc3-44f0-84cb-55128ebce545_ORIGINAL.jpg
Kate
Do chenillettes not have a horn that could be beeped?
GC
Wow. It’s hard to believe she wouldn’t have heard it approaching, in which case she can ignore the horn just as easily. Unless she is actually hearing impaired…in which case the horn also won’t make much difference.
JaneyB
People frequently have earphones in. I’m sure at least half of people do. They are totally oblivious, staring always at their phone as they shuffle slowly along. There’s no horn big enough to penetrate their addiction.
-
Kate
Her political opponents – and the Journal – are trying to make political hay out of Mayor Plante’s trip to Colombia while the city copes with record snowfall.
Is the woman not allowed to have a vacation?
At any rate, La Presse shows her in a tuque and says nothing about a trip to Colombia.
Joey
She wasn’t on vacation, she was on a “mission économique et diplomatique” even though her term is almost up. Anyway, nobody would’ve noticed if her account hadn’t posted that video, which presumably contained absolutely no upside for her or valuable information for her constituents, who are rightfully pissed off at the weather these days. I don’t think it matters at all from a substantive perspective – it’s not like the mayor can make the snow removal teams work harder or better than they are – but the idea that Montrealers want to hear about her day in the sunshine is absurd, and I suspect if it were Mayor Aref Salam posting it your reaction might be a tiny bit different…
Ian
A mission economique to Colombia on the taxpayet dime does seem awfully convenient. You’d think in the current political climate an interprovincial mission economique would be more appropriate but I guess a trip to Moncton would be less hilarious.
-
Kate
A homeless Indigenous man was found dead at Alexis Nihon shopping mall on Wednesday.
Tim S.
I’ve spent 5 minutes now staring at the screen try to think of a useful comment to write, because this deserves one, and I just don’t have it. It’s so just weird that for no obvious reason, we’ve decided to give up as a civilization.
-
Kate
Weekend notes from CultMTL, CityCrunch, La Presse.
The tunnel and a bridge will be closed.
There will be a little more snow.
A look around current indie music venues.
Reply