The community is divided on the prospect of year-round pedestrianization of Wellington Street.
Updates from May, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Despite the recommendations of the Charbonneau commission report, the city is still heavily dependent on engineering consulting firms. The value of contracts has increased eightfold since 2012.
Nicholas
It absolutely can make sense, if you’re doing a unique, small project, to hire a firm with expertise: maybe you’re checking to see if your historic windmill or canal locks need work, and you won’t do that again for decades. But everyday things like roadways, sewers and waterworks, bridges, building construction, etc.: all that stuff should be happening all year, every year. And even a large unique project, if it takes a decade then hire some full time staff. The consultants have an incentive to increase billable hours. Not that city workers sometimes don’t have bad incentives themselves, but get people working for us.
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Kate
The STM maintenance workers’ union plans to strike June 9.
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Kate
Plans for airport expansion may doom the hoped‑for nature park nearby.
su
A small example of how the global middle class consumer population growth ponzi scheme is decimating what is left of the biosphere. Infinite growth on a finite planet.
su
ACI World projects 22.3 billion passengers by 2053. !!!!
New 30-year forecasts highlight robust growth, despite short-term uncertainties
Montreal, 26 February 2025 – Airports Council International (ACI) World today unveiled its anticipated Airport Traffic Forecasts 2024–2053, projecting significant long-term growth in global passenger traffic. Over the next three decades, global passenger numbers are expected to reach 17.7 billion by 2043 and 22.3 billion by 2053, the later nearly 2.4 times the projected volume for 2024.The new forecasts, which cover 99.8% of global markets across 161 countries, highlight a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.4% from 2024 to 2043, with a slightly slower CAGR of 3% from 2024 to 2053. The projections indicate a steady upward trajectory in global aviation, driven by factors such as rising middle-class travel demand in emerging markets, strengthened international travel, and continued investments in airport infrastructure.
Ian
While I agree that air travel is very problematic in terms of ecology, this particular “nature park” is small potatoes considering the vast majority of Quebec’s land mass is so wild it isn’t even accessible by road.
Nicholas
I’m not sure what to say here. My first thought was Ian’s, that this area is 230 hectares (about half being a highly manicured golf course), in a province with a land area of 136,512,800 hectares, nearly all of it left to nature. One in half a million, or 0.0005%, for the second most important airport in the country, and you can’t easily move it. And the quote about “increased health risks for everyone working and living in the area,” I mean, it’s fully surrounded by industrial with tons of trucks every day, and after that there are some homes, yes, but this isn’t a mixed residential and commercial neighbourhood. It being a reserve could make sense, though I get the bird strikes, but who wants to go to a park next to the airport? I go to Terra Cotta sometimes, it’s really nice, but the planes and the cars on the 20 don’t help the experience, and this would be worse, just 500 m from an active runway.
But then I saw their plans…solar panels??? I gather Quebec has experience in bringing clean energy long distances to where the people are, and a fair amount of clean energy, do we really need this here? Can’t we put that somewhere else? Is that the greenwashing commitment? Fuel storage seems reasonable, but page 110 of the report says they have a fuel hub north of the golf course, on Saint François Rd just west of André Ave, that is connected by underground pipes to oil refineries in the east end and also to the airport, for efficient refueling. I guess they will need different pipes for the new fuels (though “The current kerosene infrastructure is also capable of processing SAF [sustainable aviation fuel]”), but there seems like some adjoining lots that are empty and could be used for that. I’m not an airport fueling logistics expert, but the plans on pages 113-115 seem a little vague.
Chris
>this area is 230 hectares…
And for comparison, about 10 000 000 hectares are on fire every year in Canada.
Em
While there’s a lot of land in the province, you still need green space in the south where there is a lot of biodiversity and ecological pressures.
Meezly
I guess I can blame our capitalistic mindset in trying to find practical worth in 230 hectares of “undeveloped” land. It’s not about how much wildland Quebec already has. This parcel of land is home to 200 species of birds and other flora and fauna. They don’t need to cross a highway to get to Tim Hortons. But perhaps this piece of land is part of the migratory routes for birds and monarch butterflies. We hear how important it is to have pockets of wild spaces in the concrete sprawl of urban areas so migratory animals can stop, rest, refuel. Perhaps in our eyes it’s just 230 hectares of undeveloped land, but to other living beings, it’s a green oasis.
Kate
Nicely put, Meezly!
Kate
Yes, and people need access to a little nature now and then. Especially those of us who don’t drive.
Ian
Going to a field by a golf course by the airport wouldn’t be my first choice, but apparently some disagree.
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Kate
The falcons on the UdeM tower had four eggs this year, but none have hatched. It isn’t clear what went wrong, but the caption here suggests researchers will examine the unsuccessful eggs to find out.
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Kate
Concordia University is facing a possible layoff of workers as it tightens its belt under current conditions. Fewer people will be able to get a university education in English, though, and that’s a big boost for Quebec.
Quebec has also just passed a bill requiring newcomers to immediately adopt and share Quebec culture and values.
dwgs
You will be assimilated, resistance is futile.
Kate
I was thinking about that. My maternal ancestors came here in the 1840s. I’m still here and still, primarily, speaking English and consuming media in English (except for the blog, where I read everything in French as well). People do not surrender their own culture so readily.
GC
At what point do they have to agree to it? To get any sort of visa? To become a permanent resident? To get citizenship? All of the above?
Kate
The article says “Quebec can use the new law to withhold funding for groups and events that don’t promote Quebec’s common culture.” But I wonder whether that means things like festivals (which would be bad enough) or whether it would encompass grassroots cultural groups, including those that help newcomers to find their feet here.
Ian
You can assimilate to the dominant culture all you want but you’ll never be a white French-speaking francophone with ancestors from mainland France. There are some hoops that are impossible to jump through and all the rest is smokescreens, shibboleths, and dogwhistles.
It’s ethnonationalism, pointe final.
Kate
In my case, I am simply not French. My ancestors come from the British isles, mostly Ireland. I don’t speak my ancestral language – I believe the last person in my bloodline who did was my g-g-grandfather, who died in Galway in 1912. He was illiterate but spoke both Irish and English.
Have I lost something by not knowing Irish? In some sense, but not knowing it hasn’t blighted my life in any way.
Uatu
Better crack down on the francophone guys I know who dated and later married Asian women because according to them they were classier than Quebecois girls lol
Ian
My family got chased out of Europe for being the wrong kind of Protestants in the early 1700s but stopped speaking German altogether in the 1900s. Maybe MBC and I are related haha
MarcG
I wonder if they considered killing the parents and baptizing the children (in poutine sauce of course, now that we’re a secular society) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/84254078/mercy-brisebois?
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Kate
Merchants at the city’s markets are facing rental increases, some of them steep.
Ian
Interesting to see Enseble actually bring some solutions to the table instead of sniping.
Kate
Another Ensemble story I was about to post concerns the party’s candidate for mayor of VSMPE, photographed outside the abandoned old Chinese hospital in the borough, who has ideas about housing, but would probably dismantle some bike paths.
DeWolf
Gariépy sounds like a decent guy who would probably be a decent borough mayor. But I wouldn’t exactly say he has ideas about housing. His idea is to improve relations with Quebec to unblock funding to turn the old hospital into housing, which has been the plan all along. I mean… sure? Of course? But that’s a bit like Soraya saying “I’ll be the mayor that gets along with everyone!” That’s not political vision, that’s just wishful thinking.
Kate
Exactly. What magic would he use on Quebec to get funding, when others have not been able to?
SMD
I also found that photo curious. Why pose in front of a problematic building if you don’t have concrete solutions to propose for it?
Ian
It’s not unlike the virtue signalling of Projet councillors saying “we would love to save ___ if only there was funding” and that gets in the paper too. I find it irritating no matter what politician does it, though.
Joey
Joey’s one and only rule of politics: all politicians are assholes, especially the ones you like
MarcG 07:14 on 2025-05-30 Permalink
Here’s a link to a group trying to organize the voices of people in support of year-round pedestrianization.
su 07:26 on 2025-05-30 Permalink
Sounds like it is specifically the stakeholder partner citizens who are at odds with some of the commercial interests on Wellington.
su 07:38 on 2025-05-30 Permalink
Thanks for the link MarcG. I like this quote
“allow residents to affirm their rights and ownership of public space without the outsized influence of passing drivers and business interests.
jeather 10:44 on 2025-05-30 Permalink
I’m not even sure why the business owners are arguing this time — there are even several nearby lots with regular city priced parking.
Kate 11:30 on 2025-05-30 Permalink
There are parking lots nearby St-Hubert too, but the business owners voted not to close the street to traffic this summer.
JaneyB 11:35 on 2025-05-30 Permalink
If Wellington is pedestrianized year-round, then the recent bike lane system installed all along the parallel Verdun Ave. should be moved to Wellington. Verdun Ave is now a bit tricky for cars, thanks to the permanent ‘danger stick’ pylon-like things at every intersection; turning onto the street from side streets is very tight, especially in winter. One or the other street is fine. Both…less so.