The SAQ may have to destroy $300,000 worth of American booze it can’t sell but which is bound to expire eventually.
Any reason they couldn’t sell it back to Americans and at least recoup a few bucks? (Just kidding – there are so many laws and excise rules around booze that this would be impractical.)
Update Friday: Quebec’s finance minister says it will be donated for charitable events and training in Quebec hotel and catering schools.
Quebec public security minister François Bonnardel says he knew nothing, nothing as costs for the SAAQclic project blew up out of control. People gave him incomplete information! It’s all somebody else’s fault!
When you’re minister, the buck stops here. Or it should.
Meanwhile, Quebec’s adding $95 million to the Digital Health Record (DSN) program led by Santé Québec.
Who’s pocketing all these stray millions? That’s where we should be looking.
Wednesday it was reported that a man in his 70s was found gravely injured on the platform of Pie‑IX metro. Thursday, there’s news of the arrest of a teenager too young to be named.
The men charged in connection with a planned armed standoff near Quebec City and who warned of ‘another Waco’ are facing heavy charges and will be back in court next September. Details of groups planning armed insurrections and training for armed assault are given in this piece. Three of the four that were arrested are behind bars awaiting their court date.
Meantime, the minor arrested Wednesday will also stay behind bars facing three terrorism charges as the prosecutor announces he intends to press for adult‑level sentencing. There was high security as the unnamed kid appeared in court Thursday.
Isabelle Hachey considers bike paths as political playthings for an ambitious candidate.
The Rover has what could have been an informative piece about the closure of a store on Park Avenue because Maxi (a Loblaw brand) is moving into the area: ‘We Can’t Compete’: Small Grocer Shutters as Maxi Moves In.
OK, but they don’t tell us which grocery is closing or moving – even the caption to the photo says “This image has been edited. The store name and contact number have been removed.”
Yes, it’s a story about the bludgeon of capitalism. The new Maxi will also stress kosher goods, competing with existing kosher groceries like Lipa’s, and it has already pushed out the store in the headline. And it’s a story about how the city is powerless to do anything about it.
I know the two stores along there that are run by people from the Indian subcontinent. I’d always shop at one or both if I happened to be in the area, and I’m sorry one of them is gone. But… I don’t know which one.
(I looked on Streetview and it’s Épicerie Mile-End that’s gone, the one closer to Bernard, that was at 5710 Park Avenue.)
Yes, that’s the one. A great little store but suffered from being on the far end of the block (for me) from Supermarché Mile-End, which is also excellent. I talked to the owner and they said they had been not doing great since the pandemic but the oncoming Maxi is what decided it for them finally. He said they have a new location in Rosemount.
Maxi sucks. I used to think the Provigo on Mont-Royal was sort of crappy but now it seems luxurious compared to the Maxi. When I go in there, I feel like I have been teleported to Mississauga or something. It’s so gross and inhuman.
Would be good to find the new location, but I don’t know their name.
I suspect walkerp and I live fairly close to one another.
Épicerie Mile-End closed over a month ago, it’s not the Maxi that did them in. It’s that thier fridges kept breaking down, that their produce was often moldy, that the packages on the shelves had often already expired, and that their stock was patchy – sometimes they had soy milk, sometimes not – the kind of thing that makes your reliable local grocery less reliable. They struggled a lot over the last few years and things kept getting worse until they finally shuttered. I thibk the last 3 shopping trips I did there I had to return food that had already spoiled. To be real their main competition was Supermarché Mile End just down the street which has amazing produce and dry goods, and a much larger selection.
TBH I don’t mind Maxi compard to Provigo because although like Provigo they are owned by Loblaws, each location has some leeway on what it stocks. They do have all the discount stuff, but the one on Parc will sell Kosher – should be interesting to see how that works given they are between Lipa’s and Fooderie. The Maxi up at Jean-Talon sells a lot of Indian and related southeast Asian food. Much better selection of rice than Provigo, for instance.
The former 5 saisons on Bernard will also become a Maxi. I’m not sure what their angle will be although the 5 saisons was a lot of amusingly chichi stuff so maybe that will be their schtick too.
I’ve had a look in the Quebec business registry, and I see that the business has voluntarily dissolved. I also see the name of the owner, but since they did not want it mentioned in the article I won’t post it here. But it’s public info in the government listing.
Supermarché Mile End is amazing. The store isn’t all that big but it’s got everything. If I lived closer by, I’d shop there all the time.
Ian is right. As much as I’m not a fan of Maxi or big corporate supermarkets in general, you can’t blame it for the closure of the Épicerie Mile-End when it shuttered before either of the new Maxis had opened yet. It just wasn’t as good as Supermarché Mile-End on the same block or PA just a few minutes’ walk down the street. Hate to say it but the Rover story is grasping at straws.
Also, incidentally and anecdotally — for the past three years I’ve been living in a kind of paradise for grocery shopping. I’m a five-minute walk from the Jean-Talon Market and its galaxy of bakeries, butchers, delis and so on. I’m five minutes from two Latino supermarkets and a Chinese-Vietnamese supermarket. Milano is less than 10 minutes away. There’s a crummy Metro and a pretty okay IGA within a few minutes. And there’s a whole bunch of fruiteries, butchers, etc. on top of all that.
And even with this panoply of food, I still often go to Mile End specifically to shop at PA and Supermarché Mile-End.
I don’t think I’m that unusual. Montreal is a city with an abundance of grocery options because we are all used to buying our food at several different places, several times a week. We don’t have the big-box, one-stop-shop culture you see in most other parts of North America and I hope we never do.
People love blaming the failure of their business on some external factor: competition, bike lanes, pedestrianization, black people hanging out in front (no I’m not kidding). But peel back the onion and often enough it’s just the owner is bad at business. Competition in grocery is fierce here, but if you do your job well Montreal is a great place to find a niche. If you do it badly, you’ll be eaten alive.
In addition to the issues already described, the Rover piece would’ve been a lot better if it had even *tried* to grapple with the idea that more choice is, ceteris paribus, good for the consumer. Mile-End benefits from more than its share of well-run, indie grocery stores. It will be interesting to see if the new Maxi can chip away at the Kosher grocery business elsewhere in the hood (there are a handful of others not directly on Parc) – I’m skeptical, but I imagine Loblaw did its market research. I doubt it will have any meaningful impact on either Supermarche Mile-End or the two PAs.
The Maxi on Mt-Royal that replaced the Provigo seems to offer a little more variety. I’m not sure if they expanded the shelf-space or just focused on growing the product line. It definitely feels like there’s considerably more “ethnic” food options than before. That said, what walkerp describes is real – there is a considerably stronger presumption of guilt than before (especially around the self-checkout), but I wouldn’t say it’s terrible.
I’ve never been impressed by a Maxi, but I have to admit, I do enjoy stopping at the new Super C on St-Hubert, which was until recently a very “why does this exist” kind of Metro. They have some pretty great deals and it definitely feels more Plateauified than your usual Super C in terms of its selection.
Did no one at CTV reread this headline about how Quebec is about to unveil a health prevention strategy?
Update: OK, in French, as reported in La Presse, it’s the Stratégie nationale de prévention en santé which might be better translated as the national strategy for preventive health.
Which I think is smoke and mirrors. Ideally, you’d have an ongoing relationship with a GP, who’d keep tabs on you, make you take the standard blood tests and so forth, and try to keep you from eating and drinking yourself into an early grave. At best, now, most people have a foot in the door of a clinic where their records are kept, but no promise to see the same doctor (or any doctor) on different visits.
I wonder what it’s like for the wealthy who still have that old‑school type of relationship with an MD. Do they do better than the hoi polloi who, if lucky, might see a nurse practitioner once a year?
They use the same phrase in the article. Probably a bad transliteration, as the article originally appeared in FR (Canadian Press). No doubt they mean a “prevention strategy” in the health sector; as in, a strategy to prevent health problems instead of just treating them after they appear, but FFS work on the name!
Funny, I thought Kate was referring to the “unveil” part and Bill 21
Some thoughts from Ricochet on Mark Carney’s first 100 days.
It’s only thoughts from Linda McQuaig. They fail to mention in the article that she is a devoted NPDer, and tried to run for the NPD a couple of times, so not really neutral. Not to defend Carney in any way – hope we get rid of him sooner than later.
It’s not surprising that Ricochet’s hosting a lefty commentator, Jim.
Patrick Lagacé’s lede Thursday morning: “Au royaume de la notoriété réelle ou imaginaire, la phrase « Sais-tu à qui tu t’adresses ? » n’a jamais clos le bec à qui que ce soit, bien au contraire.”
If you have to ask then you ain’t that important lol
Me and Patrick aligned. 🙂
I can’t resist passing on a story from another discussion of this phrase (the huffy person in question being Susan Sontag). An eminent man once came to see Baron Rothschild about a loan. When told to take seat while the Baron finished writing something, he shouted, “Do you know who I am?” The Baron looked at him and said, “Take two seats.”
Reminds me of a joke.
A man gets to the airport. He goes up to a line of people, and pushes his way to the front, saying to them, “Do you know who I am?”
He gets to the front of the line and the person at the desk there says, “You have to wait in line like everyone else. You can’t just go to the front of the line.” The man says, “Do you know who I am?”
The desk clerk phones their boss, saying, “What do I do? There’s a guy here who doesn’t know who he is.”
Bert 21:42 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
Booze expire? Call it a collectors edition, Booze du Boss.
Ephraim 21:49 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
They should just sell it to the restaurants and bars. No need to order more. It’s here. Might as well sell it.
P 22:18 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
Pour it into river. Make a show of it and record it. Send the video to every red-state governor and make it go viral.
DeWolf 23:21 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
I had the same question as Bert but the article has a quote explaining it:
« Les produits concernés à l’heure actuelle sont principalement des vins rosés, des viniers, des prêts-à-boire, des crèmes, certaines bières et des liqueurs qui ne sont pas conçus pour une garde prolongée », a précisé la porte-parole Laurianne Tardif, dans une déclaration écrite.
I didn’t realize that box wine expires so quickly but I guess it makes sense, given the plastic lining?
JP 23:26 on 2025-08-21 Permalink
I hate the idea of waste…as Ephraim said..maybe the can sell it to bars and restaurants…maybe they can find a way to sell it and proceeds go to a cause of some kind…
walkerp 07:35 on 2025-08-22 Permalink
They should give it to the homeless.
MarcG 08:10 on 2025-08-22 Permalink
Public party, put it in the fountain next to city hall.
CE 08:43 on 2025-08-22 Permalink
On the CBC this morning they said it’s going to be given to non profits and community organizations.
Kate 09:00 on 2025-08-22 Permalink
Just putting up the link now for the donation story.
Too bad I never registered the blog as a nonprofit…
Uatu 11:35 on 2025-08-22 Permalink
Hey grad students! Time to score some points with your profs by supplying free booze for the faculty wine and cheese lol
walkerp 14:38 on 2025-08-22 Permalink
Yes! That gives me a better idea than the homeless. The govt should distribute it out to all the secondaires at the end of next week of the rentrée. So many benefits. Nobody but ados are going to drink nasty banana liqueur, it will help them with bonding in that awkward first week and most importantly, encourage alcohol consumption and eventually sales to a new generation to offset the diminishing global booze revenues.