A coroner’s report is strongly recommending platform doors to prevent suicides in the metro. This isn’t the first time the suggestion has been made, but nothing in this brief report talks about the cost and who would pay for them.
Updates from October, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A legal standoff between the city and the tenants of the Monastère du Bon Pasteur is blocking the restoration of the building, damaged by fire 2½ years ago. Ninety people – seniors and residents of a housing coop – have still not been able to return home. Details of the standoff are given in the item but would be too lengthy to explain here.
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Kate
Simon Paré-Poupart, the garbage man who wrote a book about it, says we’re still throwing out far too much stuff.
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Kate
Soraya MF is promising to reduce road construction sites by using artificial intelligence. Is it possible that the road construction situation here is so complex that it needs IA to keep track of it?
Blork
It’s not like they’re doing such a great job with “natural intelligence.”
patatrio
It’s striking how little substance there is to Ensemble’s positions on anything… deferring the solution to using AI is so half-baked. I reached for their platform to see if there was more information supporting this strategy, and this is literally it – we will use AI to solve this, and appoint an additional manager and coordinator. All I can take away from this pillar of their platform is there is no plan to solve construction sequencing, and the first 100 days of Ensemble will be chaos.
Joey
Shame on Metro for passing along the ‘plan’ without even thinking somewhat critically about it.
Joey
(Though I suppose one shouldn’t expect too much critical thinking given that “Cet article a été produit par l’intelligence artificielle et édité par un journaliste.”)
Ian
The problem with “AI” is that it’s not actually artificial intelligence and tht it means a LOT of different things.
We have had traffic-analyzing software for many, many years that is used to coordinate light sequences, for instance. Thsi is not AI, but is called AI now. Similarly, I have a scheduler app I use in my academici life that shows when room bookings are in conflict,. Thsi could be as simple as that,. upsold as AI, and poorly reported.Either way it’s a hell of a sight better than what the city currently ahs for tracking sites and how they overlap which AFAIK is nothing. What is Rabouin suggesting? How about Sauvé?
@Kate Soraya MF is pretty baller, did you mean M-F ?(haha)
Mozai
“using AI”? She didn’t say “on the blockchain” ?
Kate
patatrio, your comment also applies to Soraya’s promise to give more powers to the boroughs, as if that would solve anything – and if she’s even allowed to do that.
She’s also promising to link up Cavendish – I think by now she has a few people skimming back through years of earlier, unfulfilled civic promises, and giving them a go.
Kevin
AI is just a rebranding of existing tools. Autocorrect. Map directions. Translating.
People with lots of stocks are deluding themselves this will not lead to another bubble.
jeather
There’s a fight brewing about building on the Blue Bonnets site, which was supposed to only be after they linked up Cavendish.
steph
Can we use AI to automate intersection lights instead of paying cops overtime salaries? (call it AI, I don’t care, hire a cadet, create a special minimum wage job for switching the lights that isn’t cop salaries)
Kevin
steph
And traffic is always worse when cops manipulate the lights.I have only negative, surly, conspirational ideas as to why Montreal continues to pay cops OT for this duty.
SMD
@steph, Alex Norris was denouncing expensive traffic police OT way back in 2017. «C’est du gaspillage pur et simple de sommes énormes pour des tâches qui ne requièrent pas l’expertise des policiers, a réagi le conseiller municipal de Projet Montréal, Alex Norris.» He then proposed to create a special traffic brigade to replace them. Now, there’s a good idea that Projet should recycle!
@Kevin, note that Norris became the councillor responsible for public safety and the police after that, so presumably had to keep the police union on his good side.
steph
They need to be reminded to keep their constituents on their good side. ACAB.
DeWolf
I don’t think it’s a conspiracy: it’s just the simple fact that the police union has enormous power. Like, they’re powerful enough to throw elections if they really want, simply by summoning up the power of the Quebecor media machine.
They’ve already managed to convince a lot of people that Montreal is super dangerous and their power hasn’t even been challenged in any meaningful way.
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Kate
Montreal is not the only city on the island with a mayoral race.
In Hampstead, grocery store scion William Steinberg wants to win back the mayoral chair after losing it in 2021. Steinberg says running Hampstead is “like a hobby”, enough said.
On The Rover, Christopher Curtis has a backgrounder on Hampstead politics and the failure of local media to report on them.
Pointe Claire residents yearn for peace and stability.
I’ll add any others as I find them.
MarcG
NathanielH
About Steinberg, the dismissive tone is not helpful. He’s quoted as saying that he loves the job of being mayor, so it is like a hobby, and is not in it for the money, which ties into his allegation that the current regime are using town funds to pay for junkets, such as trips to Tel Aviv and expensive meals. This is what he says is making him run and it sounds reasonable.
Kate
Steinberg’s old plan to demolish a couple of perfectly good apartment buildings where people had been living for years failed to impress a lot of people. He’s no hero.
Joey
The incumbent mayor’s social media feed makes Trump look like a reasonable moderate.
(And he clearly made that hobby remark in the context of not being motivated by the mayor’s salary.)
Kate
I suppose Wlliam Steinberg wanted to demolish those buildings and put up much larger condo buildings as a hobby?
Ian
Let’s not forget Steinberg’s went broke from labour unrest, I am sure Billy is no hero of the working people. Then again, it’s Hampstead so probably nobody cares about working people anyhow.
Meanwhile in Vaudreuil, Karine Lechasseur looks pretty progressive
Chris
Larger housing during a housing crisis and record population increase? that’s the biggest criticism against him?
Ian
He was trying to tear down low-rent to build luxury, Chris.
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Kate
Six Flags, the American company that was handed La Ronde on a plate some years ago, is facing hard times, making the future of the amusement park uncertain.
Thinking aloud here, would this be so terrible? Maybe once the rides were taken out, that part of the island could be re‑greened, or else the concert venue aspect of the island transferred to the La Ronde side, and the St‑Helen’s side re‑greened. There could be wins.
Tangentially, the Gazette has an op‑ed Tuesday about the lack of showmanship in the current campaign, and the failure of anyone to present big new shiny projects for the city. Raphaël Melançon even goes so far as to praise Denis Coderre’s urge for the spotlight. Too bad that making the city livable for its residents is never going to be as flashy as a car race or a granite stump.
Joey
It would be a shame to lose the city’s amusement park. Besides, it sounds like the problem has to do with the corporate merger of La Ronde’s owner (no surprise to see it got loaded up with debt and is now looking to sell off assets), not that the park per se is on the decline.
Kate
I haven’t been there in years, but it has gradually lost all the features that made it distinctive.
Aren’t amusement parks, as such, a pretty 20th-century idea? Is anyone building new ones anywhere?
Taylor C. Noakes
Isn’t it under an emphyteutic lease agreement? So if Six Flags bails doesn’t it revert back to the city?
The city getting out of the amusement park business was in line with the privatization fad of the 80s/90s, but considering the success they’ve had running other municipal attractions, to say nothing of the ample local talent in the events mgmt & entertainment/tourism sectors, I think they should try to run it themselves. Maybe they could bring ticket costs down, or try to revive some of the elements that made it distinct from other amusement parks.
La Ronde’s pretty decent for a small amusement park. It has some great rides. There’s a lot of stuff for younger kids too. It would be great if they revived the Jardin des Etoiles as a live music venue.
I’d like it if Parc Jean-Drapeau and the next city admin got working on an improvement plan for that whole tip of the island, because the big parking lot at the very end is a waste of space that could be an amazing public park. There’s also the pavilion inside the bridge support structure that hasn’t been used for eons. And the threatre in the basement of the Canadian pavilion (on Ile Notre-Dame) that’s similarly been mothballed. Endless potential, it just needs a master plan and for the people running it to really conceptualize of the entire space as one massive attraction for the entire metro region. It feels to me that since Man and His World closed, it’s been a big space used by many diverging and disparate interests, and, outside of some marketing efforts, rarely planned and conceived as a cohesive whole.
And to answer your question Kate, yes indeed, Universal just opened a new theme park in Orlando, and, reflecting the times we live in, it has apparently traded in the conspicuous consumption of the traditional midway for… plants. Lots and lots of trees, shrubs, bucolic landscaping.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91339682/universal-new-epic-theme-park-plants-outnumber-rides
So integrating Les Floralies with La Ronde, and making a new La Ronde 2.0 more like the Botanical Garden, would in fact be on the cutting edge of modern amusement park design.
The times, they are a-changin’
jeather
I don’t think they’re making a lot more, but amusement parks are really popular and get a lot of upgrades (faster/taller/upside downer roller coasters etc) instead of new ones.
Joey
I’m not sure ‘distinctive features’ matters a whole lot to most amusement park visitors, especially kids. As the article explained, most of the new focus is less. Apparently there are 50 new parks built globally each year, with most of the new parks in North America being indoor to allow for full-year operation (also, presumably, to make waiting in lines bearable in extremely hot places). The most high profile expansion seems to be more experience-driven than ride-driven (like the new Universal Epic Universe park in Florida that ‘immerses’ visitors in themed areas, including a Harry Potter thing and a Super Mario thing; Disney added Star Wars ‘worlds’ to its parks in the last 10 years). Source: https://zipdo.co/amusement-park-statistics/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
walkerp
I’d be much more bummed about losing La Ronde than losing le stade Olympique.
DeWolf
I’m not an amusement park guy but they are still extremely popular, and there are a lot of people who *really* like amusement parks.
Plus there’s the heritage question. Le Monstre is one of the world’s largest wooden roller coasters and even if the park shut down, it should be preserved in some capacity. You can’t just knock it all down.
Kate
Taylor C. Noakes: “There’s also the pavilion inside the bridge support structure that hasn’t been used for eons.” Taylor, as far as I’m aware it has never been used. How much vibration does that space get from the traffic going past above it? It certainly carries a lot more traffic, and heavier vehicles, than were originally envisioned by the Harbour Bridge design.
Taylor C. Noakes
@Kate – I thought it was used briefly when the bridge opened but I could be wrong.
Either way – might be a great place for a rock venue
Taylor C. Noakes
So I looked it up and holy smokes, that building is massive, and has been completely empty since the beginning. They wanted it to be a casino! And its main halls could accommodate 6,000 people
Joey
I know you can rent the Canada Pavilion for events – is the basement not included?
JanSolo
If SixFlags were to quit La Ronde and hand it back to the city, I wonder if they would request that their two biggest investments (Vampire and Goliath) be dismantled and transferred back to some other SixFlags park. Since these are the biggest and best rides at the park, it might make it non-viable for the city to keep the site running as a themepark without them.
Regardless, I think it’s probably a good thing for Six Flags to go. They have chronically under-invested in La Ronde for years. Whoever takes over will face a bill for several dozen million dollars just to bring the park back up to a standard that is competitive with other regional amusement parks.
Josh
I’ll just say that an amusement park that you can ride public transit to pretty easily to is a tourism asset. Other than Coney Island in New York, I struggle to think of any others in North America that are as close to a mass transit station as La Ronde is. I bet it’s at least a contributing factor for some families who decide to vacation in Montreal.
Kate
Funny thing, many amusement parks were initially built as trolley parks. Privately owned streetcar companies built the parks or encouraged them to be built at the far end of long routes to give their passengers a reason to take the streetcar on weekends and holidays. Montreal had several of these – Sohmer Park, Dominion Park and Belmont Park.
Ian
The old rides are pretty decrepit, sadly, but there are some great new(er) rides. I’m a roller coaster fan so I am happy in that regard. I do miss the monorail as an easy and pleasant way to get from one end of the park to the other especially with smaller kids. though.
Goliath is a great ride but then again, so is the Monster!
Jeremy Aubin
As a theme park fan, I see great potential in La Ronde. Even if Six Flags were to keep it. I’ve seen good improvents over the last 2 years in regards to cleanliness and ambience. The main issue in my eyes as to do with it being viewed as heritage by the city and lobbying groups instead of infrastructure. A theme park is not meant to stay the same forever. Attractions aren’t meant to last past a certain point and rundown buildings with asbestos (Probably) need to be dealt with eventually. The current dynamics make it hard for Six Flags to do anything worth while. I’ve been to many other Six Flags and most of them are really nice and lots of fun.
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Kate
Le Devoir is focusing on Luc Rabouin on Tuesday.
TVA also has an interview with him.
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Kate
The STM maintenance union plans to strike again in November, this time for a month.
…Oh no. The strike is scheduled to start on October 31. I had Halloween plans that involved taking public transit that night.
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