Tourism businesses in Montreal expect fewer Americans this summer, but more international visitors and more people from the rest of Canada.
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Kate
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Kate
Mark Carney is appointing his cabinet on Tuesday morning, and it’s known that he’s also naming subsidiary secretaries of state in some categories.
On the island of Montreal:
Mélanie Joly (Ahuntsic-Cartierville), External Affairs since 2021, is now Minister of Industry and also in charge of economic development in Quebec.
Marjorie Michel, elected in Papineau for the first time, is Minister of Health.
Steven Guilbeault (Laurier Sainte-Marie) remains minister of identity and culture, and also official languages.
Anna Gainey (NDG-Westmount) is secretary of state for childhood and youth.
There may be others to note later. There are other Quebec ministers: François‑Philippe Champagne remains finance minister, for example. Nathalie Provost (Châteauguay-Les Jardins-de-Napierville), a survivor of the Polytechnique massacre, has been named secretary of state for nature.
H. John
Anna Gainey (NDG-Westmount) is one of the ten secretaries of state, i.e. Secretary of State (Children and Youth). Her husband, Tom Pitfield, has been serving as the Principal Secretary to PM Carney.
H. John
Rachel Bendayan, Outremont MP, served as Minister of Immigration for Carney’s first, short lived cabinet, but didn’t make it into this one.
Kate
Thanks, H. John. I’ve corrected on Gainey.
I also thought it notable that Chrystia Freeland is back.
Kevin
Here’s the full list of Quebecers.
François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue
Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages
Mandy Gull-Masty, Minister of Indigenous Services
Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions
Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement
Steven MacKinnon, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Marjorie Michel, Minister of HealthAnna Gainey, Secretary of State (Children and Youth)
Nathalie Provost, Secretary of State (Nature)
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Kate
A fatal stabbing happened recently at Bordeaux Jail, the alleged attacker being another young man who was behind bars for a stabbing at a high school. It doesn’t get a homicide number because jail homicides usually do not.
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Kate
A man who killed his mother and a neighbour last year in Vaudreuil‑Dorion has been found not criminally responsible. CBC notes that Fabio Puglisi had been found NCR twice before on previous offences, and was walking around off his meds, and La Presse that Puglisi was released from hospital two months before the killings, despite still showing symptoms of mental instability.
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Kate
The Gazette asks whether the cross did indeed turn purple when Pope Francis died, but the answer is even more confusing – maybe it did, but not on purpose?
I was struck by this, in the coda, a statement from the dear old Société St‑Jean‑Baptiste: “(The cross) represents the francophonie”. It does?
Joey
I guess the SSJB is desperate for some decision to exclude Muslim Quebeckers from the preferred status afforded to white French-speaking Catholics.
Ian
I guess that’s to make sure that they aren’t violating secularism laws, lol.
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Kate
French media platform Konbini has produced a map of Montreal spots à visiter that may result in a few confused tourists this summer.
Ian
My guess is that AI was probably used instead of research.
MarcG
It looks like they were shamed into removing the map image from IG. I gave a quick scan of the other slides and they seemed like decent recommendations.
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Kate
The downtown commercial association, Montréal centre-ville, was planning to pay $50,000 for street cleanup services, but the budget has been topped up by an extra $150,000 by Ville‑Marie borough, keen on keeping the area looking nice.
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Kate
CTV has a profile of Ljubica Milicevic, the woman killed on the weekend by a falling branch.
Derek
But I suppose enquiring minds would like to know how the tree’s doing?
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Kate
Tuberculosis and syphilis are on the rise in Montreal, half the TB cases found in people not covered by the RAMQ.
I would hope that when contagious diseases like TB are detected, we don’t care about coverage and make sure those people are treated, but the articles don’t say.
jeather
Treatment for regular TB is quite inexpensive (mean 804/patient for patients in ON/BC/QC), for various forms of drug resistance it goes to 20k and for multi drug resistant, 120k. The problem is that treatment of the first kind requires months of minimum weekly appointments, and failure to follow up leads to drug resistance. But it’s quite treatable if you can manage the follow through — the problem is how hard that is for many people (for good reasons).
(A book about TB just came out and the author’s been interviewed on many of my podcasts; numbers are from this study.)
Kate
Thank you, jeather.
Nicholas
To become a permanent resident you have to have a medical, which includes a chest x-ray for TB. Temporary residents don’t get this. So making it harder for people to get PR, as we love doing here, means fewer people coming from places where TB is endemic are getting tested, and so bigger chances for sickness and spread.
Joey
All Quebeckers are required by law to have comprehensive prescription drug coverage. If you can’t get it from your or your spouse’s/parents’ employer (or some other organization, like a student union or a professional organization), you are automatically enrolled in the RAMQ drug coverage plan, with your premium collected via your income tax submission. So, in theory, all Quebeckers should have drug coverage for TB, though the out-of-pocket expenses, i.e., the co-pay, won’t be zero (though any costs in excess of about $100 a month are covered entirely by the province). And, as always, drugs prescribed and administered by hospitals are free of charge.
Interestingly, the obligation to have drug coverage – and the eligibility for the provincial drug plan – applies to all individuals residing in Quebec on a permanent basis. My understanding is that TB circulates more often abroad and in Northern Canada. It looks like refugees are indeed eligible for RAMQ drug coverage, as would those living in Northern Quebec, so I’m not sure why the proportion of patients without coverage has jumped from 9% to 48% – I would suspect that these are individuals who are eligible (even required) to participate in the drug plan but, for whatever reason, don’t. That would make it a problem of public drug plan policy *administration*, not of the policy itself, right? Dr. Drouin suggests the problem may be inadequate private insurance for international students, which sounds plausible and is a ‘problem’ the CAQ is hellbent on solving by reducing international post-secondary enrolment in Quebec.
Kevin
I don’t know who counts it, if any, but I know several doctors who have patients who repeatedly need to reapply for RAMQ coverage because they are out of the country for too long and their coverage expires.
CE
I left the country for four years and didn’t have RAMQ coverage for six months because they make you wait for some reason before you can reapply. I was supposed to get private insurance but took the chance so was completely and entirely uninsured for those 6 months.
Ephraim
@Nicholas – Yes and they don’t generally know the difference between TB and TB vaccinations. If you have been vaxed for TB, you show up as TB positive, so you need to get a chest X-Ray to prove that you don’t have TB. We know someone who had trouble with that… and their Doctor fielded the question from the government… repeatedly!
SMD
The regional public health director is calling for TB care to be covered for all: « La Dre Drouin croit que le Québec devrait mettre en place un programme universel de traitement et de suivi de la tuberculose. Elle fait valoir que l’Ontario, la Colombie-Britannique, l’Alberta et le Manitoba assurent une « couverture complète » aux personnes sans assurance médicale. » https://lp.ca/jsX677
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Kate
The remuneration of Marie-Claude Léonard, top boss of the STM, rose by 6.5% from 2023 to 2024. Its unions are not happy.
jeather
Executives should have total compensation increases limited to the union salary increase where that exists.
Kate
They may be getting around that idea with “bonuses”.
jeather
That’s why I said total compensation. (This does allow stock option games, of course.)
max
Wild numbers. It’s not just the rise. But the overall amount. One thing that’s never discussed in these articles is the market distorting impact on these kinds of salaries. People with these salaries are buying up all the assets, and making the market contort around them with the centripetal force of their purchasing power.
I read a research paper at Institute for New Economic Thinking about how the central banks raise of interest rates failed to curtail spending because it was driven mostly by such a small group of super high income individuals that the interest rates didnt impact them. And if it were increase enough to reach them, it would tank the rest of the economy.
These dynamics are going to generate some crazy politics…
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Kate
A storefront on Nuns’ Island was set on fire early Monday. Notice how both TVA and CTV refrain from naming it, but show it in photos.
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Kate
It’s mind-boggling to read the reasons why it can cost a million dollars to replace a traffic light at an intersection. Even the study done before anything is changed “keeps three or four employees busy for two to three months.”
Nicholas
I’ve seen huge maintenance costs for traffic lights too, and not just in Quebec. One of the advantages of roundabouts: other than occasional landscaping, if you choose to landscape it, there’s no ongoing costs, no power outages.
DeWolf
There are also a lot of small streets around Montreal that have unnecessary traffic lights. I’m thinking of de Gaspé in Little Italy, for instance, or Henri-Julien on the lower Plateau. I assume these date from the days when traffic engineers identified side streets as traffic corridors that could provide relief to major arteries like St-Denis, but now that we’re in the era of traffic calming, it really doesn’t make sense to have these lights.
There’s precedent for getting rid of them: there used to be a traffic light at Esplanade and Bernard (because Esplanade was designated as a traffic funnel at some point in the past) which was replaced by a four-way stop about 20 years ago.
DeWolf
(Actually, looking at Google Street View I can see that the Bernard/Esplanade lights were still there in 2009, but by 2011 they were deactivated and replaced by a four-way stop, and by 2014 they had been removed. I guess these things take a long time.)
Kate
When I first lived in Villeray, 2005, there were no traffic lights on Jarry between St‑Laurent and St‑Denis. Some drivers really picked up speed getting from one to the other. There’s a grade school just off Jarry on the block between de Gaspé and Casgrain, and I think that’s where the first lights went up, and it seemed a wise decision if you live around here. There’s also a crossing guard three times a day during the school year.
Then they added another set of lights a block east, at Henri‑Julien, and another set another block east, at Drolet. These blocks are short! I think most people around here would agree that we don’t need one or both of those sets, but there they are, and with little kids going to that school it would be hard to gather arguments against them.
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Kate
TVA’s Enquête group discovered that Soraya Martinez Ferrada, head of Ensemble and aspiring mayor, has been charging tenants illegal deposits as a landlord.
The idea that this was a requirement that used to be usual and had innocently been imposed is so bogus. Rental deposits didn’t become illegal last year. They’ve been illegal for decades in Quebec.
Later, Martinez Ferrada continued to maintain that she’s the mairesse du logement – whatever that means.
Ian
Well I guess it’s hardly more cynical than the CAQ with France-Élaine Duranceau but who needs it.
I once again say that anyone running for election in the municipal government shoudl have to disclose if they are landlords. It indicates a basic conflict of interest.
Joey
She claims that it she simply made a mistake “in good faith”; La Presse tacitly approves of her rebuttal (https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2025-05-12/depot-illegal-aux-locataires/soraya-martinez-ferrada-plaide-une-erreur-de-bonne-foi.php). How exactly is illegally collecting thousands of dollars from your tenant a “good faith” error – it’s not like this was done in service of some noble project, it was *literally* a cash grab.
Tim S.
I assume that the real estate agent whom she blames for the error has lost their license for such a blatant violation of the law, yes?
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Kate
Presumably for Mother’s Day, the Journal looks at the history of the Montreal Diet Dispensary, founded 146 years ago with the intention of improving the nutrition of pregnant women and new mothers in the city. It’s now called Centre Alima.
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Kate
A 76-year-old woman has died after being hit by a tree branch on Saturday on Queen Mary in that exclave of Côte‑St‑Luc around Macdonald Avenue.
jeather
I was trying to figure out the details. I’m fairly sure Queen Mary west of Macdonald is Hampstead and east is Montreal, and I know that the west side of Macdonald is CSL and the east Montreal, so where exactly was she? I did hear that all three cities kept saying to phone a different one when there were earlier complaints.
Nicholas
jeather, you’re partly right. From the east, Queen Mary is Montreal until Macdonald, then CSL for half a block towards Dufferin, then Hampstead. The CBC article has a photo of the roped off area, the SW corner of Queen Mary and Macdonald, which is part of CSL. CSL well knows that’s their territory, I’ve seen city vehicles there many times.
jeather
I didn’t realise CSL and Hampstead used the same street signs, which confused me. I had no idea any of Queen Mary was CSL, I thought it was just Macdonald.
Kate
Half a block of Queen Mary! Hardly room to change a street sign. What a bizarre bit of topographical tweakery.
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