Taxi drivers held a demonstration Monday at the airport over the strictures imposed on them by Taxelco, which has a monopoly over managing taxi services there.
Updates from January, 2026 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
The mother of Tadjan’ah Désir, who died five days after being pushed off a balcony on New Year’s, spoke out Monday at a hearing at the Palais de justice. CTV caught a poignant part of her statement: “Now I have to return to court Thursday. And only Friday will I be able to bury her.”
-
Kate
Rents are said to be dropping, with the average price for a one‑bedroom in Montreal given here in one grid as now at $1,953 but in another at $1,723. An average studio in Quebec is said to be $1,428.
CE
A friend of mine who lives in Toronto said that she knows people who are negotiating with her landlord to lower their rents when their leases come up for renewal. Her landlord sent her a letter saying they were increasing her rent and she’s going to move out because similar apartments are renting for less than she’s currently paying.
Nicholas
I don’t know what’s up at CFCF but they keep putting out misleading and inaccurate stories. The CTV Montreal story says average rents are down. But this is not average rents, i.e. the average people are paying for rents — it’s asking rents, or rents listed on online platforms (so rents no one is paying, but landlords hope someone will pay one day!), specifically rentals dot ca, which did this report that they’re cribbing from. They link to a CP story on CTV Business that mentions the word “asking” ten times, but CFCF doesn’t use the word “asking” at all. It’s like the Business desk posted a national CP story on savings account interest rates and CFCF used it to talk about mortgage interest rates.
The actual rent for any type of apartment on the Island of Montreal in 2025 was $1,283, up 12% from $1,147 in 2024, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corportation, a government entity. (Click on Quebec, then Montreal, then scroll down to the XLSX file and download it and open the third tab, Table 1.1.2.; there are tons of interesting stats in there.)
It is good that landlords are realizing they can’t demand as much as they used to be able to. But rents people pay are rising, but lower than market rents, which are higher but dropping slightly. If only the digital reporters rewriting others’ stories for their market understood what they were writing about we wouldn’t get these basic errors that undermine the entire article. But when you cut your reporters to the bone and don’t have beat reporters and make people put out multiple stories a day, you make mistakes like this.
-
Kate
The Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel will close overnight Monday from 10 pm to 5 am for repairs and inspections.
-
Kate
City taxes are to rise by an average 3.8% and bike paths have fallen way down the list of urban priorities. The Gazette is more sanguine about this administration vs bike paths.
Taxes are rising faster than inflation.
More fines are going to be collected.
More analysis of the budget to come.
Response to the budget from Craig Sauvé on Facebook.
-
Kate
An arson on Sherbrooke East is the only local news I can find on Monday morning, world news dominating every platform. An item for the incidents map.
The city budget comes down later and we’ll have a look at that.
PatrickC 10:35 on 2026-01-13 Permalink
The article speaks of having to install an advertising screen facing the back seat that “also” serves as payment terminal. But isn’t it really the other way round? The advantages for the passenger of being able to tap their payment (and tip choice) on a large stable screen instead of on a little handheld are obvious. That said, it would be interesting to know more about the revenues from the ads, who pays for the terminals (as a capital cost, it should be the taxi company, or are they rented?), etc.
CE 10:57 on 2026-01-13 Permalink
Someone was just telling me about those screens with ads yesterday. Is there any way to turn them off. She said they were so bright and annoying that she wouldn’t take a taxi in Montreal again.
Joey 13:57 on 2026-01-13 Permalink
Is Taxelco a front for some ride-sharing service that is trying to kill the taxi industry once and for all?
Meezly 19:53 on 2026-01-13 Permalink
Today I had planned on using Teo Taxi to book a taxi for what was a 10-12 min ride from my daughter’s school to the orthodontist. The app said it was going to charge me $38!!! Lyft said it would cost $10. I went with Lyft. But that was the first time I saw such a wildly inflated price for a short taxi ride.
jaddle 23:09 on 2026-01-13 Permalink
Ugh… video ads ads ads everywhere. When they started putting them on gas pumps it was bad enough, but when trapped in a taxi??? This is just horrible…. If ever the taxi industry wanted to push more people towards uber and lyft, this would be a great way to do it. I’ll be biking as much as possible.