Latest news with #ValériePlante
CBC
8 hours ago
- Business
- CBC
Under revamped rules, short-term rentals are available in Montreal for the summer
Social Sharing Starting today, most Montrealers wishing to rent out all or part of their main residence for a short period of time will be allowed to do so as long as they hold a permit. The city's tourist accommodation bylaw, passed earlier this year, says short-term listings — whether they advertise a bed, a room or an entire unit — will only be allowed in Montreal between June 10 and Sept. 10. After struggling against illegal short-term tourist rentals, Mayor Valérie Plante said she hopes the city's rules will simplify enforcement and bring more units back into the housing market given the current housing crisis. "I feel like we're doing what is right. We're on the right side of the story," Plante told reporters last week. "We're going to make it very simple this time. So, after Sept 10, if there's an ad out, if you're putting it out there — that's it, it's illegal." The city charges $300 to process a host permit. As of Monday, it had received 890 applications and granted 329 permits, a city spokesperson said in a statement. A list of the documents needed for the permit application is available on the city's website. Though the permit is a universal requirement, some boroughs have their own rules and regulations while others, like Lachine, Saint-Laurent and Saint-Léonard, have prohibited tourist rentals altogether. People who want to rent a home that isn't their primary residence to tourists full-time throughout the year need a different permit and can only do so in very specific areas, like along part of Ste-Catherine Street in the Ville-Marie borough. WATCH | What changes on June 10?: How Montreal is enforcing its new rules for short-term rentals like Airbnbs 5 days ago Duration 1:59 McGill University Prof. David Wachsmuth, who studies the short-term rental market, said Montreal's new rules are a "culmination of a very frustrating process." Quebec's 2021 law regulating short-term rentals created a permit requirement, but lying on the application about your primary residence was fairly easy, and there was a strong incentive for doing so, said Wachsmuth. "In Montreal, it's been true that you make more money with an Airbnb than you do getting long-term tenants if there's no rules in place," he said. "That was the situation before the pandemic, it was the Wild West here, and it was very clear that, in many parts of the city, you're just leaving money on the table if you're not evicting your tenant and replacing them with an Airbnb." For Plante, the system was "clearly" not working. According to her, it took too much time and resources to take down a single illegal ad in Montreal. Quebec has been tightening regulations around short-term rentals especially after a fire at an Old Montreal building killed seven people in 2023. Almost all of the victims were staying in illegal Airbnb units. But changes at the provincial level aren't being done with the objective of easing the housing market like Montreal is doing, said Wachsmuth. He says the new regulations should help rents go down, adding that the strict time window during which short-term tourist rentals are now able to operate in will also make it harder for people who want to break the rules to fly under the radar. Plante said the City of Montreal will adjust its by-law as needed based on how things unfold.
Montreal Gazette
4 days ago
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Letters: Rights group should stick to defending anglos instead of wooing francophones
Re: ' Anglo-rights association QCGN rebrands as TALQ ' (The Gazette, June 3) With the CAQ government targeting the anglo community in the courts and elsewhere, it seems like the wrong time to blue-wash the QCGN 'to reach out to francophone Quebecers.' I doubt Quebec nationalist politicians will care. Some years ago the EMSB adopted the slogan 'Être bilingue, c'est gagnant!' The CAQ government still wants to abolish English school boards. Perhaps the QCGN should spend less time trying to engage Quebec nationalists and more time defending the community it's supposed to represent. Its budget should be focused on the court battles forced on the anglophone community and forging connections with federal politicians instead of paying consultants for a rebrand. The time for TALQ is over. Pietro Bucci, Rivière-des-Prairies Ramp failure not just an oversight The ramp in Place des Montréalaises designed for cyclists and wheelchairs 'doesn't have a barrier preventing people from falling off and poses a danger,' The Gazette reports. That sounds like not just an oversight, but more like incompetence or workers not doing their job(s). Further, the square will be 'impossible for wheelchairs to use during the repair process.' Mayor Valérie Plante says the work will be completed during the summer. Great, maybe in time for people in wheelchairs to use it in snow and ice? Looks to me like another example of Plante's failures. Bob Vanier, N.D.G. GP blunders are indefensible Mayor Valérie Plante addressed the lack of organization during last year's Grand Prix weekend, saying the city has learned from its errors and will do better this year. What an inadequate and laughable response. Any learning curve had long since passed by the time the police closed access points to Île Notre-Dame, and the fire department forced several restaurants on Peel St. to shut their terrasses. What happened was inexcusable in my view and yet another example of the way Projet Montréal has managed our city. Ian Copnick, Côte-St-Luc Lack of parking hurts merchants Re: ' Hydro work hurts T.M.R. businesses ' (The Gazette, June 2) Retail businesses all over Montreal have been hurt for far too long by never-ending construction projects. What if a mayoral candidate in November's election had the vision and courage to announce a plan to enable better parking options for shoppers patronizing those suffering businesses? Empathetic and business-friendly leadership — what a concept! Barry Beloff, Montreal Students' needs must come first Re: ' Dear Miss Teacher, Why can't I fail too? ' (Opinion, May 31) A thank you to Maïka Forget for bravely sharing her experience with our education system. My two young adults can certainly validate her story. After serving for more than 10 years on my kids' school boards, I could see things had vastly changed since I was in school. Everything was now focused on grades, rankings and competition, which leached the fun of learning out of them. As long as their grades were good and they were impressing teachers, no one seemed to care about the anxiety that was slowly consuming them. We need to invest sufficiently in our education system to serve students, not bureaucrats. Students are not a product; they are people. Karen Bleakley, Dorval Submitting a letter to the editor Letters should be sent by email to letters@ We prioritize letters that respond to, or are inspired by, articles published by The Gazette. If you are responding to a specific article, let us know which one. Letters should be sent uniquely to us. The shorter they are — ideally, fewer than 200 words — the greater the chance of publication. Timing, clarity, factual accuracy and tone are all important, as is whether the writer has something new to add to the conversation. We reserve the right to edit and condense all letters. Care is taken to preserve the core of the writer's argument. Our policy is not to publish anonymous letters, those with pseudonyms or 'open letters' addressed to third parties. Letters are published with the author's full name and city or neighbourhood/borough of residence. Include a phone number and address to help verify identity; these will not be published. We will not indicate to you whether your letter will be published. If it has not been published within 10 days or so, it is not likely to be.
Global News
4 days ago
- Global News
Montreal prepares for bus and metro disruptions during upcoming transit strike
See more sharing options Send this page to someone via email Share this item on Twitter Share this item via WhatsApp Share this item on Facebook Montreal is bracing for a transit strike that could severely disrupt bus and metro service starting Monday. Service will be reduced or eliminated outside of peak hours for several days between June 9 and 17 if a planned maintenance workers' strike goes ahead. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Montreal's transit agency is advising people to walk, bike or work from home if possible. The agency's 2,400 maintenance workers are asking for better working conditions. Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has said she's hoping for a quick solution to the labour dispute. Regular service will be maintained during the Canadian Grand Prix, which takes place in Montreal next Friday to Sunday.
CTV News
4 days ago
- CTV News
Montreal increasing police, intervention worker presence downtown this summer
An officer from the SPVM gets out of his patrol car in Montreal on October 8, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi) The City of Montreal announced it will increase the presence of patrol officers, EMMIS intervention workers and its 'cohabitation team' in the downtown area this summer. In a news release, the city said it wants the population to feel safer and is deploying 'more resources than last year,' including private security, to 'address the needs and concerns of all parties involved.' This includes 'the local population, tourists, business owners and employees in the city centre.' About 30 more Montreal police (SPVM) officers are slated to patrol the Ville-Marie, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Sud-Ouest boroughs, including members of the ECLIPSE violent crime division. The city stated that it has also invested $1 million in new 'social cohabitation teams' for busy areas of the Ville-Marie borough, which will comprise 13 social workers working 450 hours per week. They will 'add a more in-depth level of intervention to the work being done by EMMIS workers,' the city said. Officials said the workers come from organizations like l'Anonyme, l'Itinéraire and the Société de developpement social de Ville-Marie. The city increases its police presence downtown every year, Mayor Valérie Plante explained. 'We know that the summer months are a challenge,' she said. 'This summer, we are more committed than ever to mobilizing all our skills and resources to go even further … Every effort is being made to ensure that everyone can fully enjoy the summer in a vibrant, clean and safe city centre.' However, some community organizations question why they weren't included in the city's strategy. 'Contest of rights' David Chapman, executive director of Resilience Montreal, said he understands that increasing police may help some feel safer and reduce unnecessary 911 calls. However, he added the $1 million spent on brigades trained by the SPVM would be better put to organizations that have a rapport with the unhoused in the area. He also said there is a big difference between the public's perceived sense of safety and actual risk. 'For example, we may read in the media about a stabbing at the Atwater Metro, and often these reports don't include very important details, like the stabbing was between two drug sellers who are competing for, sort of, the crack trade in the area … The general public just reads 'Stabbing at Atwater Metro,' and they conclude, 'Well, I better not go anywhere near Atwater Metro because clearly it's unsafe for me to be there,'' Chapman said. 'But for everyone else … you are not at risk.' He emphasized that the workers at Resilience are trained in de-escalating conflict and are familiar with the people in the area. He added that vulnerable people are increasingly criminalized. Chapman said he once saw someone call the police out of concern for a man sleeping on the sidewalk near Resilience Montreal, who ended up in the backseat of a cruiser. 'Housed citizens will say, 'I have a right to health and life, a certain quality of life, and this right is at risk.' And the homeless will say … 'I too, have a right to this sidewalk, and I have a right to be here.' So then, what often happens is it just sort of degenerates into a contest of rights, which is not productive,' he said. 'The best way for this security and for a sense of public safety is actually if community organizations themselves are funded to hire people who can de-escalate.' 'Not only new police officers' Robert Beaudry, responsible for homelessness with Montreal's executive committee, said the homeless population has increased everywhere in Quebec, and the city wants to have a balanced response. He stressed that the increased patrol and private security officers should have 'eyes and ears for criminality, not homelessness.' 'It's not only having new police officers or private security, it's as well having more social workers,' he told CTV News. 'We, as well, offer opportunity of reinsertion for people who are in vulnerable situations.' He said the new brigade is made up of people who are already involved in the borough and know the needs of those in the streets. The Ville-Marie borough is spending some $30 million on cleanliness year-round, a $4 million increase from last year, according to the city. With files from CTV News' Maria Sarrouh.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Montreal prepares for bus and metro disruptions during upcoming transit strike
MONTREAL – Montreal is bracing for a transit strike that could severely disrupt bus and metro service starting Monday. Service will be reduced or eliminated outside of peak hours for several days between June 9 and 17 if a planned maintenance workers' strike goes ahead. Montreal's transit agency is advising people to walk, bike or work from home if possible. The agency's 2,400 maintenance workers are asking for better working conditions. Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has said she's hoping for a quick solution to the labour dispute. Regular service will be maintained during the Canadian Grand Prix, which takes place in Montreal next Friday to Sunday. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025.
