CTV summarizes various highway closures expected over the long weekend.
Updates from June, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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On Forget The Box, blogger Maria Amore notes that Ontario voided all rental leases prohibiting pets in 1991, and links to a petition from the SPCA to pressure Quebec to do the same.
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Chris
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steph
I’ve heard that la Regie du Logement won’t actually evict people with small pets who defying a lease that says ‘no pets’. It’ll likely still put you in sour standing with your landlord.
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qatzelok
Property value is more important than animal life? Is this true of larger animals as well?
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Chris
qatzelok, right or wrong, to many people, the answer is ‘yes’. So many rental units are going away already, and few are being built. The more control taken away from landlords the more chance they won’t rent. I know I wouldn’t rent out my place with the risk of piss and shit everywhere.
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Adam
Good grief, if you have a pet then don’t sign a lease in a building that doesn’t allow pets. Is this really so complicated? Many people don’t want to live around animals because of allergies or noise. There are landlords that want to cater to them. What is the problem? What right does anyone have to tell them that they can’t do that?
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Ephraim
Likely this will happen hand-in-hand with landlords getting deposits. It’s likely the biggest reason that landlords are afraid, the damages.
If the Regie doesn’t evict people in violation of their lease, you are more likely to get a landlord who will want to take possession and stop renting, which is exactly the problem we are seeing. There are two sides to every sword.
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Some of the folks from Spacing are repeating (and, I think, expanding) an exploit from last summer: walk the region starts them Saturday morning in Kahnawake, thence through segments of the south shore, the islands of Montreal and Laval and fetching up eventually in Lachenaie. Radio-Canada will be following them on this map. 75 km, three days’ hike.
No, I’m not involved. Saturday I’m doing my last OpenFile shift of the summer, so I can’t embark on the first day; I’m pondering joining them for some of Sunday if I can figure out a public transit way of connecting up with them (and getting home). Anyway, Joël Thibert and Alanah Heffez will be tweeting the walk, so you can follow them even if I decide it would be less strenuous to sit on a terrasse and watch the Euro 2012 final Sunday instead…
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Midnight Poutine has some amusing notes on picking strawberries around Montreal.
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Around Moving Day there are always grouchy landlord stories in the media, and this year it’s landlords wanting security deposits against a longstanding view in Quebec that what you owe your landlord is the current rent and nothing more. This too will pass.
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Robert J
Security deposits are a bad scene. Landlords can always find a reason to keep them (this is done systematically by many landlords in countries that have security deposits).
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ant6n
I thought they can ask for the last rent?
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Jack
Damned Landlords!
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steph
IANAL: Since landlords are not allowed to hold onto a security or last months rent, don’t hesitate to sign the lease, hand over the funds, and then use those funds as an advance on your next months rent. They’ll be SOL if they try to bring you to the Regie for non payment. It’ll likely still put you in sour standing with your landlord, but you’re dealing with a crook anyways. Or sign the lease and cancel the check. A contract clause that is against the law (regardless of agreement by both parties) can’t be enforced by a court.
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David Tighe
I must say I dislike intensely the tone of some of these letters. ” landlords are crooks” (!). In my opinion it must be hell to be a landlord in Montréal. If I left for a long period of time I think I would rather leave my apartment empty rather then rent it to somebody who refuses to pay rent and then won’t leave when I return. Or be reimbursed for repairs over such a long period that I would be dead before the last payment. Do renters realise how much it costs to maintain a building nowadays?
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Jack
Thanks David, I always say to my tenants I was a tenant for twenty years and know the difference between a crap landlord and a decent one, I’ll try to be a decent one. After that it is just a laboratory of the human condition.Super nice people who understand others and can see things from other perspectives.Others who tell you that you are responsible for cleaning their bathrooms and are a prick for raising the rent $5.I think one thing that has struck me after ten years is my increasing capacity to say no.
Seventy percent of Montreal landlords are like me, resident-proprio and I think in ten years if the housing bubble continues you will see less and less of these species and more conversions and that will have a dramatic impact on the city. -
Adam
I would never be a landlord in this city. The consensus seems to be that anyone who’s renting out property for rent is barely human and deserves to be severely punished for committing such a grave offence. Seriously, agreeing to pay a deposit and then claiming it’s your second month of rent? What kind of a person does that? My landlord asked for a year of post-dated cheques, before I’d signed the lease on a place that people were lining up to move into. I said no, but offered to do six months. I still got the place and she didn’t even wait for those cheques before I signed the lease anyway. She also asked for a key deposit. I said no. That’s the way responsible adults do it. People with no morals or scruples make an agreement and then back out of it because they can get away with it. They should be ashamed of themselves.
And before anyone says something ridiculous like “some people have no choice”, I invite you to walk around the city and try and count the number of signs that say “à louer.” There are literally more rental options in this city than you can count. If you don’t like what’s being offered, look elsewhere.
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Robert J
All I’m saying is leaving a deposit puts the tenant at risk. In France, they keep your “deposit” until after you pay your last month’s rent then give it back if they feel the apartment is in good condition. They often bill you for minor repairs that needed to be done regardless of the tenant.
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Kate
ant6n, landlords can’t legally demand the last rent, although I understand it often happens, especially in areas where foreign students who don’t know the official rules are renting places, or where there’s a lot of competition for space and people are willing to bribe their way into a place they like.
I realize it isn’t easy for landlords, but if anything they should fight the rising tide of dubiously legal condo conversions, because that trend coaxes away the people with solid credit and regular income, leaving people with less economic stability to be rental tenants. And you wouldn’t want people renting from you who aren’t solid with the bank.
Jack, I’m sure you’re a good landlord, and the time may come when I’ll be asking if you have any vacancies coming up.
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rad
i knew a landlord a few yrs ago and i asked him 1 night in a bar if he gives back the security deposit his tenants payed and he said NEVER!
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Against all kinds of solid advice that asbestos is dangerous stuff, the Quebec government has just given a $58M loan to the owners of the Jeffrey Mine to restart the mine and extract asbestos for export.
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Jack
Is this April 1st, if not check out the “Daily Show’s” tour of Asbestos.I am a proud Quebecer and Canadian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7wpU5TmU3A
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Kristian has an important blog piece this week on the proposed giant development along Ste-Catherine between Crescent and Mountain. Bottom line is that people seem apathetic about it – maybe because a lot of people party around there but few people live there – and nobody signed the city register to begin the public consultation process. People may not realize how much this is going to change the vibe around a major piece of western downtown.
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david m
over the next five years, insane change is coming to that area.
1) above saint-cath, the ogilvy block that christian mentioned will be redeveloped, including 50% of the east side of crescent street there, with replacement commercial space;
2) below saint-cath, the parking lots and mad hatter site will be redeveloped – bringing in a few dozen residents and ground floor commercial to extend the streetwall on the west side of crescent all the way to brutopia;
3) also below saint cath, the entirety of the surface parking on the east side of drummond street north of réné-lévesque will give way to two largish residential projects over ground-level commercial, extending the drummond street commercial area further south;
4) on the north side of réné-lévesque between montagne and drummond, a huge two-tower residential project will rise over 40 stories (with grade-level commercial);
5) across the street, on the south side of réné-lévesque between montagne and drummond, a slightly shorter two-tower residential project will rise over street-level commercial;
6) behind that project, on the same block, the north side of canadians ave between montagne and drummond will see a large hotel and residential complex rise;
7) across from that, on the site of the current habs centennial square, a very tall residential tower will rise;
8) oh, and almost forgot the surface parking at bishop between réné-lévesque and saint-cath, where the commercial streetwall will extend south under mid-rise residential developments.would be nice if people got involved in some mitigation (especially on the crescent street treatment in the ogilvy project), but as a general rule, montrealers are extremely hostile to development, so pro-development types like myself sort of don’t mind that they’d keep to themselves.
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Kate
I have wondered this and ask again: who in Montreal can afford these elite condos who hasn’t already bought one?
Someone once told me a lot of them are bought by people who don’t live here, as pieds-à-terre for occasional visits, or to rent out for revenue or for whatever reason you buy real estate in cities where you don’t live. But it’s not great for a city having a lot of residential space bought up on spec and lying fallow.
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Robert H
Je ne comprends pas pourquoi si peu des gens ne s’interessent davantage à tous ces grands changements qui viendront a ce coin du Centre-ville. Comme tu l’as dit, Kate, c’est probablement parce qu’il n’y a relativement assez des personnes qui y vivrent. Je me demande aussi qui va acheter tous ces nouveaux condominiums (et d’où vient l’argent?). Tout de même, je crois que ces projets seront une amélioration pour un endroit criblé des stationnements aux mauvaises herbes et les murs aveugles marqués avec le graffiti. Bien que je me hâte de voir les travaux démarrer, c’est important que le citoyen qui veut être entendu n’attend jusqu’à les alentours d’où se croisent les rues Sainte Catherine, de la Montagne, et Crescent deviennent pendant les prochaines années Le Quartier des Grues.
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david m
tout à travers l’amérique du nord on témoigne la repopulation du centre-ville, sa bonification et son agrandissement au dépens de la banlieue. et même si chez nous autres ça a pris un peu plus de temps (disons une décennie de plus), la tendence est actuellement en plein essor, comme démontre l’explosion actuelle de projets immobiliers. c’est-à-dire que où il y a dix ans un professionel typique (ou un couple) dans sa trentaine chercherait à acheter sur le plateau, en hochelaga, dans saint-henri ou bien plus loin dans les villes fusionnées à montréal, aujourd’hui ils cherchent aussi à vivre tout prèt de où ils bossent, où ils passent leurs temps libre. le mépris envers des condos ne cesse à diminué.
et il y a, bien sur, des investisseurs qui cherchent à tirer profit là-dedans, mais eux ils ne forment qu’un petit pourcentage des actifs – face aux prix des unités agées, les primes d’acheter au neuf dissuadent ceux qui pense à court terme.
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Doobious
I read somewhere that fully half of the units in the Le Seville complex have been bought by Chinese, either as investments or student residences. Extrapolate at your own risk.
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In a case where a contractor is suing the city to collect on extras it claimed, it turns out the contractor did work it hadn’t been contracted to do then billed for it. The city paid for some of this work before wising up and trying to get some of the money back.
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Richard Bergeron says Jacques Duchesneau met with him in 2009 and named some names of people he should be wary of, should he become mayor. This follows from Gérald Tremblay saying he met with Duchesneau at that time but that Duchesneau didn’t mention any names.
It’s not unusual for two people to have very different memories of such a conversation three years later. I wonder if it’s possible Duchesneau tried to warn the mayor, but the mayor was just not able to take in what he was hearing, so doesn’t remember it happening that way.
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walkerp
Yeah, um, no.
He’s lying. I mean he obviously knew the people he should have been wary of so when Duchesnau is telling him what he already knows, he’s not going to do anything but nod and listen.
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JaneyB
Ah such a lovely palette of choices… Tremblay was either a) lying b) clueless c) forgetful or d) unable to absorb new information. I think any one of these is a serious deficit in a mayor.
It does strike me as remarkable that the chair of the executive committee could be arrested on suspicion of mafia ties and corruption and that the mayor could be completely surprised. I mean, really. As for the Duchesneau meeting, who would not pay attention to advice from the former Chief of Police on untrustworthy/corrupt colleagues? It boggles the mind! Tremblay is either lying or a total idiot – and both are bad in a mayor. It is so ridiculous, I feel like laughing…
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Kevin
In the first chair we have the man who poses as a bumbling incompetent, but who may be a secret mastermind. In the second chair we have the woman who destroyed the city. In the third chair we have the man who thinks 9/11 was an inside job.
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Old Port chief Claude Benoit lives it up, according to a Journal investigation, choosing top hotels and eating at the city’s top restaurants. They also claim that Benoit handed off contracts to a friend without any bids.
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Tux
Plus ça change…
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Notre-Dame hospital is defending itself against accusations its security wasn’t up to scratch after two patient homicides and an attack on a third. Idelson Guerrier, formally a suspect in the attack only, is now in Pinel for a 30-day assessment, according to CBC radio news.
Notre-Dame’s psych chief Paul Lespérance says these incidents are affecting how the public feels about mental illness and he’s probably right.
But one thing occurs to me this morning about Idelson Guerrier: he checked himself in voluntarily at Notre-Dame, by all accounts. Apparently the man knew he was in a bad state. Had he not gone into hospital, something even worse might have ensued.
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Adam Naiberg
I believe his family checked him in and he simply went along with it. They don’t generally keep you confined to a psychiatric unit if you’re not considered a threat to yourself or others. But it’s a world we don’t know much about.
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Kate
We’re fortunate if we don’t.
Society is still on the rebound from the horrors of locking up the mentally ill, but we clearly haven’t yet found a balance between not locking everyone up, yet providing services and safety to those who need it.
It’s very rare that something happens like these incidents at Notre-Dame. It seems now that whenever something happens there’s an outcry to tighten security up generally, never mind that all major hospitals have psych wards and that they’ve all operated here for decades and decades without incident, and that insisting on sharing everyone’s files with the police breaks all kinds of patient confidentiality principles.
People freak out and are willing to sell other people’s privacy cheap. It’s a tendency we’ve got to resist as a society.
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Sure, let’s give landlords another reason to convert their property to condos.