Researchers at the École de technologie supérieure are going to reproduce the natural habitat of the pothole with a device that can change temperature quickly to test different formulations of asphalt.
Updates from January, 2026 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
The Journal hid GPS trackers in some typical items of donated clothing in Montreal and found out where they ended up.
-
Kate
Cold weather is the news of the day. CTV reports that some activities are cancelled (beware loud commercial autoplay) although I’ve seen indications that Igloofest will go on; the mayor is expressing concern for the homeless; notes on keeping your house warm.Saturday morning, Quebec pulled a record amount of current to face the arctic temperatures. (Or so the headline claims, but the text mentions the true record from February 2023.)
Mark Côté
Hydro outage in NDG going on 8.5 hours
Kate
Cold day for that to happen. Hydro-Quebec map right now shows patches of NDG and most of Côte St‑Luc is dark, and a patch of TMR as well, all with a vague promise of power being “gradually restored”.
Mark Côté
On FB Hydro said power might be out all night for some customers :_(
12 degrees Celsius in my lower duplex right now.
Mark Côté
Although to be fair that’s 36 degrees warmer than outside.
Kate
Yikes, Mark.
I’m flattered you’re using up a bit of your charge to come read the blog, though.
jeather
13,000 people in CSL and NDG without power, and on Reddit posts people say they hear not before noon tomorrow
https://montrealgazette.com/news/power-outage-hits-15000-homes-in-cote-st-luc-amid-arctic-cold-snapMark Côté
Around 9 pm last night the Hydro app changed the estimated time for restoration at my address from 10:15 pm to 2:15 pm Sunday. I booked a local pet-friendly hotel, packed up the cat and a few supplies, and headed over. Breakfast this morning seems to be mostly people in the same situation. I popped back home this morning to check on the taps and it was a crisp 5.5 degrees.
Kate
Glad to know you and your cat have a place to go, Mark.
Mark Côté
And updated to 8:15 am tomorrow.
Chris
Mark, leave your water running a small stream, so your pipes don’t freeze.
-
Kate
The city’s blue collar workers are planning a one‑day strike on February 4. Salaries are the main issue.
-
Kate
Ste-Catherine Street has recovered some of its flair, having posted extraordinary Christmas sale numbers and seeing the appearance of new stores and the revival of old ones.
How long will it be before Ensemble takes credit for this revival? And will the revival calm down some of the demand for a return to the office as a means of resuscitating the downtown core?
Blork
I think it’s been reported elsewhere (as well as in that La Presse article) but the REM seems to be playing a big part in the revival. It should come as no surprise since the biggest obstacle for most people when it comes to downtown shopping is simply getting there. Unless you live close to a Metro line it’s not easy for many, especially people who live in the farther reaches of the city.
Those people have been going to suburban malls simply because they’re easy to get to if you have a car (and most people who live in the less dense areas do have a car, or at least access to one). But malls can be boring, whereas downtown can be fun.
I haven’t seen any data on whether or not the REM has increased traffic to the Dix30 but I suspect it has not, at least not significantly. Compare taking the REM to McGill station vs. taking the REM to the Dix30.
McGill station: as soon as you arrive, you’re there. Right smack downtown, with the downtown malls and street shopping right there. If the REM goes down, there’s still the Metro, plus plenty of stuff to keep you busy for hours, including the option to take the Metro to the Plateau or elsewhere. You have shopping, sight-seeing, movies, shows, parks; lots of variety.
Dix30: After you arrive you still have to walk 400 metres or more (across bleak and windy parking lots) before you get anywhere. And once you’re there, it’s more bleak and windy walks to get anywhere else. Lots of walking and most of it not fun. There’s some variety but zero surprises because everything has been manufactured to loosen your wallet. If the REM goes down you are trapped.
Kate
Blork, thanks for describing the scenario at Dix30. I’d been talking with a friend about buying all‑day passes and going to explore the extent of the REM network, but when I started looking at the location of the stations outside the city core, I realized something I already more or less knew – that once you’re in the suburbs, distances between features are meant to be driven, not walked. You do not want to be doing this on a day like today.
Once I’d reported on the placement for most of the stations, we stopped discussing it. We might get back to the idea in May or June.
Nicholas
A hot tip is that an evening or weekend pass covers all zones, which will often be cheaper than buying individual AB or ABC tickets or a day pass for AB or ABC. So if you can time your outing you can save.
Kate
If I understand the ARTM fare grid correctly, and the REM doesn’t extend outside Zone C, a 24-hour pass would cost $17.75, not unreasonable money for a day’s jaunt. We wanted to be able to get on and off the train as we fancied, too.
Sadly, my friend is from England, so had visions of getting off at random stops to find quaint shops or pubs to linger at, but my inspection of the REM station sites shows that you’re expected to get off the train and go to your car, so in most cases there’s nothing but a huge parking lot within reasonable distance.
It might be kind of interesting to walk around Île Bigras in the summer, mind you. I’m hoping they find some way to ferry people from that stop over to the Île Bizard nature park.
Blork
Your perception of the suburban REM stops is correct. That’s not to say there aren’t quaint villages out there at the edge of the known universe (or at least the edge of the known ARTM zones) but since the REM line and stations are new they’re not going to stop in the villages — where construction would have been expensive and very disruptive. It’s not like in the UK or Europe where the villages often grew up around the old established lines and stations.
Going south is particularly bad. The area around the Panama station is literally a parking lot and highway dystopia. Next stop at the Dix30 isn’t much better but at least there’s that whole new Griffintownesque “town” on the east side that seems to have popped up overnight, and the wind-blown parking lots of the Dix30 which end with a couple of serviceable shopping and dining areas for the kind of people who like Disneyland and cruise ships.
Kate
The older bits of Laprairie look nice, on Streetview, but you’d probably want to take a bus from one of the Brossard stations – it’s some distance from any of them.
I don’t think the idea was to go drinking at Dix30, either.
DeWolf
On the DM branch, it’s mildly interesting to walk around downtown TMR, and there’s at least one good café around there. While the area around Bois-Franc isn’t entirely pleasant to walk around, there a lot of interesting grocery stores and restaurants. It’s also not far from the riverfront which is quite nice. A little further along, Île-Bigras is fun for a jaunt.
Your English friend might be pleased by Grand-Moulin. From there it’s a 20-30 minute riverside walk to Vieux-Terrebonne, which is a genuinely nice neighbourhood with pubs and cafés and historic buildings.
Kate
DeWolf, it looks like Terrebonne is a long way from Grand‑Moulin on the map. Grand‑Moulin is just north of Île Bizard whereas Terrebonne is north of the eastern half of Laval.
Blork
@ DeWolf: There’s a downtown TMR? Where?
The village of La Prairie is indeed quaint, but tiny. You can see pretty much the whole thing from this spot: https://maps.app.goo.gl/qKMXEwLYf1wL8YLM8
Take a walk down that street, hang a right at the next corner, walk a short block, hang another right and walk back to the main street and you’ve pretty much seen it all. There’s a nice little old-fashioned candy shop to the right of the big church that also serves ice cream cones (not house-made). That’s a nice place to stop in on a warm day. I don’t think it’s worth the ride to go there on public transit unless you’re really curious or want to check it off a list or something.
The old village of Boucherville is also a quaint place to walk around for 10-15 minutes on a warm day. It’s weirdly quiet, which is almost unnerving sometimes, as if you just dropped into a Twilight Zone episode and you’re the last person left on Earth. No quick way to get there though, but getting there by bike can be interesting.
Blork
FYI, this is pretty much ground zero of Old Boucherville. That building with the Quebec flag has a decent café in it (Café St-Laurent), which specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches. https://maps.app.goo.gl/W2ppfU9FmsWLrizy7
Turn 180 degrees from this view and it’s about 150 metres to a nice little park on the river’s edge with a view of the Boucherville islands. (I once saw a sturgeon as big as a human break the surface, roll over, and go under again from that spot.) That’s also where the bike path that runs along the river passes by.
CE
Right at the TMR train (now REM) station there are some shops and services and a very nice rose garden. There is also, oddly, a large lawn bowling club. It’s a planned town based on British garden cities. Pretty much everything you need for day-to-day life is there. It’s worth a visit, especially now that it’s easily accessible by REM. Lots of nice houses to check out ringing the centre.
I once went to the old centre of La Prairie to check it out based on a previous comment by Kate. It’s cute but not very big. They have a nice archeology museum that’s worth checking out. The problem is that no matter where you are, you can hear the roar of the highway. The locals don’t notice it anymore but someone at the museum told me that before the highway was built, they had river access and there was a very nice beach. It was all lost when they built the 15.
I bet that sturgeon gets a bit bigger each time you talk about it Blork!
Blork
Well, it was as big as a walrus! 😉
Kate
Friends who cycle through TMR tell me that Connaught Park, the bullseye on the layout, is nice. It’s right beside the REM station.
Thank you for the map locations and info, Blork.
Incidentally, Connaught Park is named after the same person that Prince Arthur Street is named after: Queen Victoria’s third son, who was Governor‑General of Canada from 1911 to 1916.
DeWolf
Vieux-Saint-Eustache, not Vieux-Terrebonne. Whoops!
DeWolf
Also, aside from Saint-Eustache, you can also walk from Grand-Moulin to what was historically known as Laval Beach (today listed as Berge aux Quatre-Vents on Google Maps). The riverfront is nice and the adjacent residential area was originally developed with summer cottages so it’s a pretty eclectic mix.
Tim S.
I have taken the REM out to Dix30 a few times to meet up with South Shore folks, and while I would have designed it differently, the accessibility from transit is not that bad (snowstorms and polar vortexes aside). Maybe a 4 minute walk, one big ugly street to cross, and you’re in the little manufactured village. Not travel from England worthy, but I don’t hesitate to make the trip when it comes up.
Kate
Tim S., thanks for the details. Friend has been living here for decades, but is still partly in England, culturally.
DeWolf: That makes more sense!
GC
Thanks for the tip, DeWolf. I’m also not heading out there in the polar vortex, but it sounds like it could be a fun day trip in milder weather.
-
Kate
Radio-Canada says the Barsalou building was inspected by Ville‑Marie borough a dozen times since 2024. And now the building is a heap of ruins.
-
Kate
Why is it that most politicians making a statement are photographed with a crowd of supporters posed around them? Right now I’m seeing Mayor Martinez Ferrada and PSPP portrayed this way, and even Charles Milliard, hustling to become head of the PLQ.
But you know who’s not photographed like this? Mark Carney. I spun up an image search and there isn’t a single one of Carney with his cabinet clustered around him like so many bodyguards.
LJ
Maybe because when you are lying through your teeth it helps to be surrounded by head nodders to make your words appear more believable?
Annette
[your pspp link above is the same as the ‘colonialist’ link below, and currently contains no such “so say we all” photo. is this correct?]
Kate
It did when I posted it, but they changed it, as sometimes happens. Thanks for telling me. I’m putting in a different link now.
-
Kate
Mixed blessings: Simon Jolin-Barrette says he won’t be in the running to head the CAQ.
That decision, however, leaves us with Christine Fréchette or possibly Bernard Drainville magically becoming premier on April 12. The idea of Drainville running this place would be comic in a more stable geopolitical setting, but right now, it’s appalling.
On the other hand, we have PSPP planning to start a new fight with doctors and calling Mark Carney a colonialist. How Quebec nationalists absolve the French of colonialist guilt is an abiding mystery.
bob
What are you talking about? The Quebecois nation sprouted out of the virgin Quebecois soil like a mushroom after a gentle Franco-Catholic rain. It was then despoiled by the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jews, whose colonialist depredations know no equal in human history.
Kate
That’s definitely a calendar quote.
Deborah
I hope not.
The development of the Québécois nation is a complex historical process rooted in French colonization, British conquest, and interaction with Indigenous nations, not a process of “despoilation” by a specific group, particularly not the Jewish community.Ian
I just hope PSPP’s fantastic ideas drive down rents like the last referendum.
-
Kate
Weekend notes from Le Devoir, CityCrunch, Montréal Secret, CultMTL, CTV (last one will autoplay video – loudly). -
Kate
Mayor Martinez Ferrada plans to replace Projet’s guidelines for including social housing in new developments in hopes of speeding up construction projects.
Do governments that promise great things in return for removing regulations ever deliver?
su
They deliver for the investor class
-
Kate
Bravo! Quebec has succeeded in deleting the crown from the province’s coat of arms. I feel so much happier here now.
Poutine Pundit
Forward, comrades!
First the crown, then down with the relics of the Capetian past! Sweep away the three fleurs‑de‑lys — old emblems of French feudal monarchy!
Rise up and cleanse the flag of outdated symbols! Let the white cross of the old order be removed, as we advance boldly in the Cultural Revolution of laicité!
Unite! Transform! Renew!
Kevin
Oh, what scandal of corruption and incompetence is blowing through that the ethnic nationalists are going after symbols that no Quebecer knows about?
Seriously, who even *thinks* about provincial heraldry? Where does this coat of arms even appear?
Kate
Kevin, did the PQ and QS MNAs ever take the oath?
I see on Wikipedia that it says provincial legislators must take the oath “excluding Quebec” but I don’t know how reliable that is.
qatzelok
Meanwhile, Trump and his gangsters are trying to bring back “the Shah of Iran’ concept in Iran.
Is it better to have a monarch?
Kate
Depends on what terms, qatzelok. Two of the Scandinavian countries, Japan, the UAE, the Netherlands and Belgium, all have monarchs, and nobody mocks them. There’s a strong case to be made for having the head of state and the head of government be different people. There’s also a case for stability.
Besides, “the Crown” conceptually doesn’t mean you’re shining King Charles’s shoes. It’s an oath saying you believe in the credibility of our system of government.
jeather
Sadly, Harper and Trudeau both took inspiration from the US and tried to take over all the PR/ceremonial duties possible from the GG, so we’re moving in the wrong direction. (I don’t have any particular interest in a monarchy per se; I do like the split, which is easily done with a monarchy but can be done in other ways.)
GC
I see the CAQ are still focusing their energy on all the little things that will improve our daily lives. *eyeroll*
All my friends who don’t have a doctor will be thrilled.
Kevin
All countries need a head of state, a person who is the physical embodiment of the country’s people, and who performs a largely ceremonial role in the modern day.
I’m firmly behind monarchs doing this role specifically because they are apolitical and largely because they have very little real power. When a citzen feels that everything is going wrong politically and they’re angry at their government, they can at least look to the monarch as a living symbol that the government shall pass, and that they are living with neighbours with a different point of view — not enemies.
I generally feel that people who seek to eliminate monarchs are very well aware of this sentiment, and want to replace the monarch with their own chosen head of state specifically because they cannot abide by any opposition, and don’t believe that every resident is an equal citizen.
qatzelok
@GC “All my friends who don’t have a doctor will be thrilled.”
Quick, get those crowns back on the coat of arms. It’s flu season!
MarcG
I’m not convinced that this government can walk and chew gum at the same time
Annette
How much will this cost, I wonder?
Kate
I don’t think Quebec even uses these arms much any more, so I don’t think it will mean reprinting a lot of government documents.
Toula Drimonis mentioned on Facebook that a number of people asked why the crown was removed but the lion remains on the shield. You could equally ask why Quebec is so attached to the fleur‑de‑lys which is also a royalist symbol – a symbol held by a defunct royal house, at that.
Chris
>Meanwhile, Trump and his gangsters are trying to bring back “the Shah of Iran’ concept in Iran.
The Shah has lots of support in Iran, more than the ayatollahs anyway. And the Shah (claims to) only want to be a transitional leader. It’s not Trump pushing for the Shah, it’s legit local grassroots support. Whether the USA should help them depose the regime is certainly debatable, but your summation is just wrong.
Chris
Many of you are focused on the crown, but notice also that the crown has a christian cross. So the old coat was capped with a christian symbol, symbolically ruling over all. So this also fits with laïcité, and is an example of it not only being about islam.
qatzelok
@Kate: “Two of the Scandinavian countries, Japan, the UAE, the Netherlands and Belgium, all have monarchs, and nobody mocks them….”
Yes, but those are *local* monarchs. Canada has a *foreign* monarch, like Belgian Congo did when its King Leopold decided to kill 10 million of his subjects there.
If you are proposing a *Quebec* monarch to signify stability, I would not be opposed.
Kate
qatzelok, history has provided us with a monarch. Since monarchs are not voted in, what you’re suggesting is a president, not a monarch – something like Ireland’s arrangement, where the president has a seven‑year term and has mostly ceremonial duties, while the taoiseach (i.e. prime minister) does the actual politics in a parliamentary system with a maximum term of five years.
Chris, like it or not, the very first line in the Canadian constitution is “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” And like it or not, Quebec is still subject to that constitution.
Ian
Qatzi, if you think what has happened to Quebec is ANYTHING like what Belgium did to the Congo, you are delusional. If you think this is a “me too” moment it borders on straight up racism. Diminishing what happened (and continues to happen) to the Belgian Congo and modern DRC is not just ridiculous, but pathetically misinformed.
That said, I would love to get rid of the monarchy for Canada at the very least, and think France had some very interesting ideas about how to go about that sort of thing.
-
Kate
A commercial-residential building on Monkland in NDG has been urgently evacuated because of perceived structural instability. Monkland Taverne and the Olde Orchard Pub are located on its ground floor, and have also been closed. More than a dozen households have been forced to leave their upstairs apartments; the Gazette says the building had been without heat for days.
Mark Côté
Olde Orchard announced that they are reopening at 4 pm tonight, and I see Taverne is taking reservations for tonight. Strangely none of the residents have been allowed back in, according to local FB groups.
Part of me wants to support those businesses and go have a drink there tonight in case they have to close again, and part of me wants to stay far away from that building for the foreseeable future.
Kate
If the building is too unstable for people to go home, it seems odd that the city is allowing businesses on the ground floor to reopen. I wonder how much business the Olde Orchard has had on Friday evening.
Kevin
The city’s inspection assessment is that the commerces and the residence have different foundations, which is possible, given the stores have separate basements.
Kate
That’s odd. Were the second and third floor added later?
Kevin
I have looked at the inspection report, and it only looked at the residential side of the building.
It seems evident that the previous owners knew of a problem many years ago and just put in a temporary fix of extra steel support posts – support posts that have now rusted and rotted.
That inspection report says that parts of the foundation are sinking and that this is most visible on the upper three floors of the building, which are spreading apart like a W.Kate
Interesting, thanks. But even if the ground floor is all right, surely it would be in trouble if the upper floors collapsed onto it?
(The building has 3 floors all told, not an upper three floors.)
Kevin
It’s much clearer if you can see the footprint of the building. Most of the residential section is on Old Orchard, and all the apartments are accessed from that street.
-
Kate
The owner of the Barsalou building destroyed by fire this week had been sent two infraction notices about its condition, but it sounds like there were no consequences to ignoring them, till the building burned down.
-
Kate
Arthur Galarneau, who killed his parents and his grandmother in a frenzy in March 2023, has been declared not criminally responsible because of mental illness. The Crown wants him also declared a high‑risk offender so his freedom can be circumscribed. Galarneau is only 22 years old.
-
Kate
A man who watched an STM bus pass him without stopping has been awarded $2,000 – $1,000 for the inconvenience, trouble and stress, plus $1,000 in punitive damages. Obviously this plaintiff did some serious homework to bring the case to small claims court.
I assumed the incident must have happened on a cold day, as suggested by the photo accompanying the article. But no. August 2024.
jeather
Good for him. The decision is here: https://t.soquij.ca/m9AWi
I don’t know how to see the attachment with the link to the video, if it’s even been made public.
James
So every time a bus passes you without stopping, you can make a claim ?
What happens if the bus is already full ? Drivers will regularly pass by stops with people waiting as there is no point to stop if nobody else can board.Seems like STM will be hit with a lot more lawsuits. Better get yourself a body camera so you can have proof.
jeather
In this case, the driver says he didn’t see the man waiting in time, not that the bus was too full to fit another passenger, and the video (whatever it shows) confirmed that account.
dhomas 12:46 on 2026-01-24 Permalink
Or… they can just go outside? ;p
Kate 14:18 on 2026-01-24 Permalink
I think the comic aspect of this is why they put in a phrase like “habitat naturel” for the pothole, but if you want to do formal experimentation, under controlled conditions, a device like the one described would mean that critics couldn’t say the findings were the result of too much randomness on a real city street.
I was wondering how they’d reproduce things like the heavy rumbling of large trucks. Or the deleterious effects of the city accepting low bids for substandard product, either.
mare 01:07 on 2026-01-26 Permalink
The ravaging effects of a snow scraper are also hard to simulate in a lab. And the thousands of cracks in the concrete base layer that never get repaired because it would mean the street has to be dug up for months instead of weeks. So those cracks telegraph towards the surface after a few years, making for endemic potholes.
I saw a crew pour concrete last week, at temperatures of -10°C. That will never be strong concrete, because concrete needs much higher temperatures and at least a month to cure. But nobody cares and the city doesn’t seem to have inspectors with a spine.