Airbnb is pushing back against the city’s restriction of short‑term rentals to the summer only. Ensemble is on the side of Airbnb.
Tuesday, the city’s new bylaw was passed to bar short-term rentals nine months of the year.
Updates from March, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The PQ’s Paul St-Pierre Plamondon suddenly bursts out on safety in the metro. Did he miss last week’s news about the STM’s decision to bar the homeless from its stations?
azrhey
Read the article, not sure I am liking the equivalence of homelessness in the metro with safety (or lack thereof) in the metro. Sure there is some correlation, but in the 37 years I’ve been living in Montreal, 8 of which as a minor, I have been sexually attacked 3 times and mugged twice. None of those 5 incidents involved a homeless person, or a someone in a mental health crisis or some such!
So yes, lets find out a solution for homeless persons, and for mental healthy crisis. Please, should have been done yesterday! But Fixing THAT won’t automagically fix the safety issue in the metro. And compared to the other half dozen or so major metros of the world I am familiar with, Montreal is EXTREMELY safe.Chris
There is actual safety and there is perceived safety. I totally agree in actual fact the metro, and our city generally, is extremely safe. But then there is perception…
I know one person that has stopped taking the metro because she is uncomfortable around mentally unstable people flailing and shouting and because of smells. I know one other person that refuses to sit on any platform bench anymore.
The STM needs revenue and ridership and the homelessness problem contributes neither and in fact probably worsens both.
MarcG
Free idea: Mandatory public transit use for politicians.
JP
I vaguely recall that Pierre Pettigrew did use it regularly but was attacked on the metro…
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/289168/pettigrew-agressionMarcG
Interesting, thanks. The article doesn’t say if he was targeted or if it was random.
CE
Jack Layton used to ride the subway. I remember the media making a
Bit of a del about Paul Martin taking a limo to an important meeting with Layton, who got there by subway. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ndp-liberal-talks-went-down-to-wire/article18222098/
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Kate
Luc Rabouin promises a different style of leadership for Projet, with verbiage about uniting the environmental, social and business worlds.
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Kate
The Bureau de l’inspecteur général de la Ville (BIG) is not satisfied at the city’s management of construction sites, despite noting some improvement last year.
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Kate
Lots of pieces about spring floods in various areas on Monday after the rain and runoff Sunday: Drummondville, Beauceville – dramatic photo in La Presse – but, so far, nothing in town.
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Kate
Laval has made a move towards extending the orange line by getting several major landowners to agree to excavations for free. There’s no map of the imagined future stations.
DeWolf
La Presse has a map: https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2025-03-17/prolongement-de-la-ligne-orange/laval-s-allie-a-six-promoteurs-pour-convaincre-quebec.php
I mean… yes. Imagine how many tens of thousands of people you could house in the redeveloped properties around these metro stations. This is exactly how transit is developed very successfully in places like Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Kate
Thanks! I hadn’t seen that.
Bert
The thing is that the whole area just north of the 440, on St Elzéar is now a high-rise condo hot-spot. I can’t see that walking from there to a station, which would be presumably at Carrefour Laval, would be well received. There are places where there are no sidewalks. There is no footpath over the 440.
There could be a quick local-loop bus service, but multi-modal is not ideal. The plan should consider a stop on the north side of the 440, between Marché 440 and Labelle, where the new residential is. Use Carrefour as a day-time parking lot and don’t have the people on St Elzéar drive 5 minutes to get to Carrefour.
Blork
It’s been decades since I relied on the Orange line to get me downtown from the Plateau, but even then it was becoming unbearably crowded during rush hours. So what is this going to do?
I’m not against expanding the Metro by any means, but when you just keep extending an already crowded line, you just make it more crowded. (In this case, since it closes the loop, some riders will opt to take the western side of the Orange line, but I think the net result will still be more crowding on both ends of the Orange line.)
If only we could run express lines like they do in some other cities. Imagine if, during rush hours, 2 out of 3 trains coming in from Laval skipped every station after Sauvé until they got to Berri-UQAM. That would allow people in Villeray and the Plateau to actually have a chance of getting on the Metro without having to wait until after 9:00AM, or to endure sardine-squishing.
Unfortunately that will never happen because it would essentially need a set of parallel tracks between Sauvé and Berri-UQAM, and that ain’t never gonna happen.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: what we need is more lines, not more stations on existing lines. But I also know it’s futile to say that, as it’s all too expensive.
Joey
Increasingly it seems like the only way we can improve circulation (or, as the mayor likes to put it, mobility) in Montreal is to greatly expand our bus network. Even if the province were enthusiastic about investing in the Pink Line, the problems around expropriations and the inevitable construction delays and over-expenditures would probably mean it never gets done. How long have we been talking about extending the blue line, which is an idea with basically no real opposition (unlike, say, a new metro line for Plateau bohos, cue the Journal). Bus lanes, in theory, are cheap and relatively easy to implement, though I’m sure there will be PTSD following Pie-IX, which I gather is much more than a bus lane project. Maybe the SRB on Henri-Bourassa will encourage our transit policymakers to embrace the bus. If you’re on a major street and it’s rush hour, you should never be waiting more than 2-3 minutes for a bus. Maybe once we’ve got the bus network fixed we can set our sights on more underground transit, but even then…
CE
The Orange line really only has chronic crowding on the east side between Jean-Talon and Berri-UQAM, the west side isn’t as bad. A loop would take some pressure off the east side by sending some Laval commuters to the west. I’m also hoping that the second phase of the REM will take some of the north-south passengers who transfer to the Blue line. Imagine you work near McGill station and need to get to Acadie. You’ll go from two transfers and 13 stops to one transfer and 4 stops. It’ll be a no brainer for a lot of people.
Ian
This is a very good point. It was only after the line extended to Laval that the southbound east side of line became unusable. I used to catch the metro at Laurier when I worked downtown, but after the extension I just took the bus instead as it was faster – I would often have train after train pass me with no room to get on.
Bradley
@Blork They can do what they do in Copenhagen. Essentially, they run two trains from the terminus, the first one is express-skipping stops, and the second one behind it is local and serves all of the stations. At some point near the middle of the line, the first train changes to a local and the second train changes to an express, giving them time to catch up to each other at the other terminus.
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Kate
The Polytechnique has received a record $50 million donation to create a “disruptive innovation hub” since disruption has already brought us so many benefits. Allison Hanes thinks so.
Mozai
“If the poor can’t use it, it’s not disruptive.”
Orr
Invoking the Shrek system of governance: “Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make.”
Ian 22:03 on 2025-03-17 Permalink
They’ve got a point, they should be banned all year.
Ephraim 12:05 on 2025-03-18 Permalink
Well, how about this idea, AirBnB share data? When an application comes in, or a change of address, they share the information with the city: The city therefore can increase the tax roles of those locations based on the number of days that it is rented commercially, the city has the name and address of the owners and the police are provided with a name and number for any complaints. So, it’s legal, it’s taxed at a commercial rate and the owner is 100% accountable.
(I doubt that will satisfy anyone, because it makes it 100% fair to the citizens of the city, rather than the individual homeowners.)
Vazken 22:37 on 2025-03-18 Permalink
Excellent, I’ll know not to vote for Ensemble, Airbnb was a great idea perverted into a rental nightmare.
AirBnb and Uber should be banned
maggie rose 04:30 on 2025-03-19 Permalink
Something to ponder perhaps? Billionaire co-founder of Airbnb Joe Gebbia has joinded Musk’s DOGE team.
Ian 06:43 on 2025-03-20 Permalink
Disruptive types attract, I guess. Funny how disruptive is usually a code word for “tax dodge”.