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Affichage des résultats pour les étiquettes 'yesterday'.
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Lu sur Reddit : https://www.reddit.com/r/montreal/comments/4rcpiu/community_thank_you_to_the_kind_soul_that/?st=iq9kth1j&sh=1cf6b1a0
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C'est un bon cas d'étude pour les écoles de gestion... via Bloomberg Target Will Abandon Canada After Racking Up Billions in Losses Target Corp. (TGT) will abandon its operations in Canada after less than two years, putting an end to a mismanaged expansion that racked up billions in losses. The Canadian business is seeking court approval to begin liquidation, the Minneapolis-based retailer said today in a statement. The move will lead to a $5.4 billion writedown. This is the first major strategic shift made under Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell, who took over for Gregg Steinhafel last year. Steinhafel had seen Canada as burgeoning market for Target, the second-largest U.S. discount chain, because so many Canadians already knew the brand and would cross the border to shop at American stores. Fixing the Canada unit, which amassed more than $2 billion in operating losses since 2011, has been a top priority for Cornell. After taking the reins in August, he spent a portion of his early days at the company touring operations in Canada. The woes plaguing the company’s 130 stores there ranged from empty shelves to prices being higher than locations in the U.S. “We were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021,” Cornell said today. “This was a very difficult decision, but it was the right decision for our company.” Target announced its foray into Canada in 2011 with the purchase of 220 locations from Zellers Inc., a subsidiary of Hudson’s Bay Co., for about C$1.8 billion. The deal cemented the chain’s first expansion outside the U.S., where it had about 1,750 stores at the time. Target’s shares have rebounded since taking a hit following a data breach during the 2013 holiday season. The stock had gained 21 percent to $74.33 over the past 12 months through yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Townsend in New York at mtownsend9@bloomberg.net
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http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/monument+defaced/3012787/story.html Whoever did this should be sent to Guantanamo.
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(Courtesy of The Globe and Mail)
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St. Lambert mayor Sean Finn follows tradition by stepping down
un sujet a posté MTLskyline dans L'actualité
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Lambert+mayor+Sean+Finn+follows+tradition+stepping+down/1977123/story.html I was really hoping that he would seekk re-election. In that case, I hope Finn's ally, councillor Philippe Brunet wins the election. Or former local Conservative candidate Patrick Clune, who is rumoured to be running. As long as its not a "No" side committee member. -
Think big, Tremblay urges Montrealers People are too ready to slam projects: mayor By JAMES MENNIE, The GazetteMay 23, 2009 Citing a high-profile scheme for a $1-billion downtown casino and entertainment complex that spectacularly crashed and burned after it couldn't shake off public criticism, Mayor Gérald Tremblay has challenged the city's business community and Montrealers in general to support projects that can offer the city "unlimited returns." "You remember the Cirque du Soleil project?" Tremblay asked an audience of about 400 businesspeople who yesterday attended an overview meeting organized by Montreal's Board of Trade of the city's major development projects. "How many of you, individually or collectively, have said: 'I should have written something (in support); I should have taken a stand'? "If that had happened, perhaps we would have ended up with a different project that would have brought people together and created wealth. "The problem is that we only, or almost only, hear from people who are against something; we rarely hear from those in favour." Tremblay's remarks, coming in the middle of a five-hour presentation extolling the virtues of such projects as the Quartier des Spectacles, the 2-22 project slated for St. Laurent Blvd. and the development of the Université de Montréal's science centres, were a stark reminder of how major projects can collapse because of an apparent lack of public support. The Cirque du Soleil entertainment and casino complex had been the object of public criticism and government study ever since the idea was broached in 2004. When a provincially commissioned report found in 2006 that even more study was needed, both the Cirque and Loto-Québec pulled out of the scheme. A year later, Tremblay found himself in the usual position of asking Montrealers to put aside their "negative attitudes" as he announced the $1-billion Griffintown development project, the single biggest private investment in the city's history. But that project, too, was beset by criticism and has since been put on hold because of the economic downturn. Saying he's "fed up of hearing that we're doing nothing in Montreal," Tremblay yesterday told his audience there are still plenty of other projects out there. "Go visit the city of Montreal's website, you'll see 130 projects with a total value of $60 billion. They told me not to talk about them because it's too ambitious. "But too many people continue to look at the $60 billion as an expenditure rather than an investment with unlimited returns." Speaking to reporters afterward, Tremblay said he challenged his audience because "it's easy to work behind closed doors, but it's something else to say, loud and clear, that you're proud of Montreal, that there are good projects out there for the city and that we want to be a part of it. "It's important that citizens have their say, but once they've done so, a decision must be made, and when that time comes, it's nice to hear occasionally from the private sector." jmennie@ thegazette.canwest.com © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette
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Plan Nord' exploited Mining, energy Charest would expand Hydro-Québec output WILLIAM MARSDEN, The Gazette Published: 14 hours ago Premier Jean Charest ventured into solid Parti Québécois territory yesterday where he announced his government's intention to supercharge Hydro-Québec with $19 billion in new energy projects as part of his plan to open Quebec's north to massive development and resource exploitation and make the province an economic powerhouse. "We are the party that forges Quebec's future," he told an audience of Liberal faithful huddled under a large white tent erected in the rain-soaked Port of Sept Îles. As part of a continued string of staged events where local Liberals pack the crowd, the premier used the opening of new port facilities in Sept Îles, which were actually completed two years ago, to hammer home his vision of turning Quebec's north into an economic powerhouse of mining and energy exploitation. He calls it the "Plan Nord." His said new energy expansion plans that will add 3,500 megawatts to Hydro-Québec's grid by 2035. That's enough power to run about 600,000 homes - or Quebec City. Charest traveled in a chartered plane from Montreal to Sept Îles Thursday with his wife, Michelle, and then flew yesterday to the town of Gaspé to tour a Danish factory called LM Glasfiber that makes windmill blades. From Montreal to the Gaspé, every time he tours a plant, the Liberals make sure workers are lined up to shake his hand for the cameras. The Liberals campaign slogan, "The economy first, yes?" festoons his podiums and he never fails to mention the need for a majority government to navigate the province through the international slowdown. Yet in most of the areas he visits, the economy is doing well. With the exception of forestry, most other resource industries continue to thrive. So Charest warns of an "approaching storm." But it's a hard sell. Unless you are at sea, it's hard to see the hurricane before it hits and Charest finds himself frequently questioned about the embattled health-care system. This problem he blames on Pauline Marois and the PQ when they retired thousands of nurses and doctors in the late 1990s, creating a huge deficit of medical staff. He argues that without wealth generation Quebec cannot maintain its social services. Yet the expansion plans he announced yesterday won't see the light of day until at least 2015. So he tries to appeal to Quebecer's pride. "Quebec's north is mineral resources, it's energy for the future, clean and renewable energy. It's energy that we have developed and it's energy that is in our genes," he told the audience to great applause. "We have to plan for the future, for the future of our children," he said. Hydro-Québec is about to embark on several giant projects that will add another 4,500 megawatts to the grid, increasing its overall capacity of 38,000 megawatts by about 12 per cent. They will exact a high environmental price, environmentalists say. Charest hopes the grandeur of his economic vision will entrance Quebecers to support his Plan Nord strategy. He links it with signing labour mobility agreements with France and Ontario, which he claims will help open new markets for Quebec's resources. But even here it often sounds as though he wants to give jobs to foreigners. Yet it's hard to gage audience reaction, since they are all Liberals.
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New housing plan unveiled The Gazette Published: 9 hours ago A plan by the Metropolitan Montreal Community that would cost $500 million over the next five years to build, renovate and repair 10,000 low-income and social housing units in the greater Montreal area was unveiled yesterday. The agency co-ordinates urban and regional planning for 82 municipalities in and around the island of Montreal. Paul Larocque, who heads the CMM's housing commission, announced the five-year plan that would see 20,000 units built across Quebec. The greatest need, however, is on the island of Montreal, where the occupancy rate of existing social and low-cost housing units is 100 per cent. "The challenge is enormous," said Michael Prescott, Montreal city council executive committee member. "We need the co-operation of all levels of government to assure stable financing if we are to realize our objectives by 2013." Most of the funding is already secure. The Quebec government has set aside $26 million a year under the five-year Accès Logis program to build new housing units and has earmarked another $96 million a year until 2013 to renovate and repair existing housing units under another infrastructure program, Habitations à loyer modique. It appears the federal government is on board. On Sept. 4, the Harper government allocated $1.9 billion to extend programs to combat homelessness in Canada, including in Montreal, but in the middle of an election campaign, it hasn't bothered to tell anyone. "We are well on our way to meeting our needs," said James McGregor, a vice-president with the Société d'habitation du Québec, the principal government agency responsible for affordable housing in Quebec. "But we only found out about the federal government's participation through the CMHC website. It's a very curious thing." No one from the department of Human Resources and Social Development was available to comment yesterday.
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Westmount building plans hush-hush Court testimony. Westmount neighbours battle over scenic view JAN RAVENSBERGEN, The Gazette Published: 6 hours ago Anytime a Westmount homeowner wants to renovate part of a building or add an extension, their plans are considered confidential - and not the business of any of their neighbours. That's longtime Westmount policy, architect Julia Gersovitz, chairperson since 2001 of the municipality's powerful planning advisory committee, testified in Quebec Superior Court yesterday. Other than Westmount urban-planning staff, city councillors and the mayor, "we at the (advisory committee) do not discuss the cases that are brought to us with anyone because it seems to us that would be a breach of confidentiality," Gersovitz told Justice Robert Mongeon. Two other architects and city councillor Cynthia Lulham sit with Gersovitz on the committee, which she told the court operates by consensus, never takes votes and is responsible for vetting all proposed building-exterior work that requires a municipal permit. Gersovitz is a historic-preservation specialist who is a longtime board member of Heritage Montreal, a practising architect and an auxiliary professor of design at McGill University. A green light her committee gave last March to homeowner Steven Goldberg to add another storey to his home at 27 Bellevue Ave., near the top of Mount Royal, did not require any consultation with nearby homeowners whose panoramic views of Montreal, the St. Lawrence River and the Montérégie vista would be affected, Gersovitz testified. "We have no mechanism for that," she told the court. In a case that has aroused considerable interest, Mongeon has been asked by Mireille Raymond, of 20 Sunnyside Ave., to quash Goldberg's permit. A higher roofline, Raymond contends, would substantially destroy her south-facing view of the city and environs. Hearings on the case continue today. In a related development, at an 8 a.m. council meeting yesterday, councillors Nicole Forbes and John de Castell reversed positions they'd taken Aug. 25 - and voted in favour of a modified version of the permit for Goldberg which would allow him his extra storey. The council vote was 5-2 in favour. On Aug. 25, a similar motion had been defeated 4-3. While de Castell complained about missing information earlier in the Goldberg permit process, he told council that "from everything that I've learned in this file, it (the Goldberg permit) appears to be legal." janr@thegazette.canwest.com
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Housing market seen following commodities Value of building permits drops. Homes in Montreal, elsewhere overvalued by 10%, Merrill Lynch economist says ALIA MCMULLEN, Canwest News Service Published: 8 hours ago An outright decline in commodity prices could spell disaster for Canada's housing market, which already appears to have entered a "sustained downturn," David Wolf, an economist at Merrill Lynch Canada, warned yesterday. He said while the risk of a housing market crash was small, an "outright bust" in commodity prices would make the scenario "a rather more serious threat." The recent trickle of data has shown a significant slowdown in the country's housing market, following its record pace of growth. Demand has eased, supply continues to creep up, credit conditions remain tight, and house-price growth has turned flat with declines in some regions. The value of building permits in June fell a seasonally adjusted 5.3 per cent from the previous month, indicating that construction activity in the coming months probably will be lower, Statistics Canada figures showed yesterday. The data is notoriously volatile, but the trend rate of growth for residential building has declined since the beginning of the year. "Canada's housing market is entering a sustained downturn, in our view," Wolf said. "It does look like Canadian houses finally got too expensive, and builders too aggressive, for the underlying demand environment." He estimated that markets with the strongest price growth in recent years, such as Regina, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Sudbury, Ont., and Montreal, were all more than 10 per cent overvalued. On a national basis, Wolf predicts house price growth to remain flat. Merrill Lynch expects commodity prices to moderate over the medium term, a scenario that would aid in the housing market downturn but not cause an outright bust. Others, such as the CIBC, have a more bullish forecast for commodities, namely oil, expecting prices to continue to rise. This would continue to support Canada's terms of trade by bringing in higher export revenue relative to the amount spent on imports. But Wolf said the risk of a housing crash would become "a serious threat" if the recent correction in commodities continued because it could cause the terms of trade to deteriorate. The price of light crude has fallen about 18 per cent since peaking at a record high of $147.27 U.S. a barrel on July 11. Light crude for September delivery settled at $120.02 U.S. a barrel in New York yesterday. "The takeoff in commodity prices since 2002 has driven an enormous improvement in Canada's terms of trade, accounting for much of the strong growth in Canadian national income that has, in turn, provided the fundamental underpinning for the housing market boom," Wolf said. A Bank of Canada working paper by senior analyst Hajime Tomura earlier this year argued that a decline in the terms of trade would likely cause house prices to fall. It said "if households are uncertain about the duration of an improvement in the terms of trade, then house prices will abruptly drop when the terms of trade stop improving."
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Small-town life looking good to boomers Statistics Canada report; Montreal Island is bleeding population to outlying regions, new studies show David Johnston, The Gazette Published: 2 hours ago The Montreal metropolitan region, once a magnet for people from the rest of Quebec, is now losing more people to the outlying regions than it is gaining, Statistics Canada reported yesterday. Leading the way in this U-turn in the province's demographic history is the restless pitter-patter of retiring baby boomers in the Montreal region. Many are cashing out of the local real estate market and buying cheaper properties in outlying towns, or simply moving back to their home towns in the regions. Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary are seeing some of the same boomer-fuelled trends. In Quebec, the chief beneficiaries have been Joliette and St. Jean sur Richelieu, both situated a short hop outside the Montreal metropolitan region. The two towns ranked among the 10 fastest-growing medium-sized towns in Canada from 2001 to 2006, according to a Statistics Canada analysis of 2006 census data made public yesterday. "All of our own studies confirm what Statistics Canada is saying," Daniel Desroches, town manager of St. Jean, said in an interview yesterday. Overall, the metropolitan region registered a net loss of 29,195 people to other regions of Quebec from 2001 to 2006. This loss represents the birth of a new trend. The Montreal region had registered an overall gain in intra-provincial migration from 1996 to 2001, although relatively minor, as well as major gains in the decades before that. Despite the losses from 2001 to 2006, immigration, or international migration, has more than compensated for the region's internal population losses to the rest of Quebec and Canada. "What we can say is that most of those people leaving for the rest of Quebec are moving to smaller towns - not larger cities like Quebec City and Sherbrooke that have their own census metropolitan areas," said Patrice Dion, an analyst in the demography division of StatsCan. Some towns that had relatively minor population gains from 2001 to 2006 have since begun to show signs of a vigorous new construction boom, real estate experts say. Lachute, for example, 80 kilometres northwest of Montreal, has awarded $19 million in new housing construction permits this year, double last year's total at this time, which was double the comparable total for the first six months of 2006. The StatsCan study made public yesterday also confirmed previous studies showing a slowdown in the so-called exodus of Quebecers to other provinces. The inter-provincial losses from 2001-06 were the lowest recorded in any five-year census period since 1971-76, Dion said. From 2001 to 2006, Quebec lost only 8,000 anglophones to other provinces - fewer than 2,000 a year, compared with up to 50,000 a year in the late 1970s. But as a StatCan study made public last December showed, new influxes of anglophones into Quebec from other countries between 2001 and 2006 slightly outnumbered the 8,000 losses, meaning English Quebec is growing today for the first time since the early 1970s. StatsCan also examined population movement within the Montreal metropolitan region. It looked at all the household moves from one municipality in the region to another and found clear winners and losers. The city of Montreal was a heavy loser, mainly to off-island suburbs. But Boisbriand, St. Joseph du Lac and Pointe Calumet, all off-island suburbs, were also big losers. The only town on Montreal Island with a net gain of population from other parts of the region was Ste. Anne de Bellevue. Beaconsfield and Dollard des Ormeaux suffered mild losses, as did Westmount and Montreal East. Off-island suburbs Longueuil, Oka and Ste. Anne des Plaines also suffered slight net losses. The one bright spot for the region was its net gain of 12,795 people in the 15-to-29 age group. These gains came from both the rest of Quebec and the rest of Canada. They reflect continuing poor job prospects in some outlying Quebec regions for young people as well as strong interest nationally in Montreal as a city for post-secondary studies, Dion said. djohnston@thegazette.canwest.com - - - montrealgazette.com - - - Not-So-Small Towns Small and medium-sized urban centres experienced significant population growth from 2001 to 2006, figures from the 2006 census show. Here are the urban centres that experienced the biggest gains from population shifts within Canada: City Province 1. Okotoks Alta. 2. Parksville B.C. 3. Grande Prairie Alta. 4. Wood Buffalo Alta. 5. Chilliwack B.C. 6. Vernon B.C. 7. Joliette Que. 8. Red Deer Alta. 9. St. Jean sur Richelieu Que. 10. Courtenay B.C. Other centres in Quebec in the Top 50 23. Drummondville 30. Granby 32. St. Georges (Beauce) 37. Sorel-Tracy 38. Victoriaville 44. Cowansville 49. Rivière du Loup 50. St. Hyacinthe source: statistics Canada
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Small-town life looking good to boomers Statistics Canada report; Montreal Island is bleeding population to outlying regions, new studies show David Johnston, The Gazette Published: 2 hours ago The Montreal metropolitan region, once a magnet for people from the rest of Quebec, is now losing more people to the outlying regions than it is gaining, Statistics Canada reported yesterday. Leading the way in this U-turn in the province's demographic history is the restless pitter-patter of retiring baby boomers in the Montreal region. Many are cashing out of the local real estate market and buying cheaper properties in outlying towns, or simply moving back to their home towns in the regions. Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary are seeing some of the same boomer-fuelled trends. In Quebec, the chief beneficiaries have been Joliette and St. Jean sur Richelieu, both situated a short hop outside the Montreal metropolitan region. The two towns ranked among the 10 fastest-growing medium-sized towns in Canada from 2001 to 2006, according to a Statistics Canada analysis of 2006 census data made public yesterday. "All of our own studies confirm what Statistics Canada is saying," Daniel Desroches, town manager of St. Jean, said in an interview yesterday. Overall, the metropolitan region registered a net loss of 29,195 people to other regions of Quebec from 2001 to 2006. This loss represents the birth of a new trend. The Montreal region had registered an overall gain in intra-provincial migration from 1996 to 2001, although relatively minor, as well as major gains in the decades before that. Despite the losses from 2001 to 2006, immigration, or international migration, has more than compensated for the region's internal population losses to the rest of Quebec and Canada. "What we can say is that most of those people leaving for the rest of Quebec are moving to smaller towns - not larger cities like Quebec City and Sherbrooke that have their own census metropolitan areas," said Patrice Dion, an analyst in the demography division of StatsCan. Some towns that had relatively minor population gains from 2001 to 2006 have since begun to show signs of a vigorous new construction boom, real estate experts say. Lachute, for example, 80 kilometres northwest of Montreal, has awarded $19 million in new housing construction permits this year, double last year's total at this time, which was double the comparable total for the first six months of 2006. The StatsCan study made public yesterday also confirmed previous studies showing a slowdown in the so-called exodus of Quebecers to other provinces. The inter-provincial losses from 2001-06 were the lowest recorded in any five-year census period since 1971-76, Dion said. From 2001 to 2006, Quebec lost only 8,000 anglophones to other provinces - fewer than 2,000 a year, compared with up to 50,000 a year in the late 1970s. But as a StatCan study made public last December showed, new influxes of anglophones into Quebec from other countries between 2001 and 2006 slightly outnumbered the 8,000 losses, meaning English Quebec is growing today for the first time since the early 1970s. StatsCan also examined population movement within the Montreal metropolitan region. It looked at all the household moves from one municipality in the region to another and found clear winners and losers. The city of Montreal was a heavy loser, mainly to off-island suburbs. But Boisbriand, St. Joseph du Lac and Pointe Calumet, all off-island suburbs, were also big losers. The only town on Montreal Island with a net gain of population from other parts of the region was Ste. Anne de Bellevue. Beaconsfield and Dollard des Ormeaux suffered mild losses, as did Westmount and Montreal East. Off-island suburbs Longueuil, Oka and Ste. Anne des Plaines also suffered slight net losses. The one bright spot for the region was its net gain of 12,795 people in the 15-to-29 age group. These gains came from both the rest of Quebec and the rest of Canada. They reflect continuing poor job prospects in some outlying Quebec regions for young people as well as strong interest nationally in Montreal as a city for post-secondary studies, Dion said. djohnston@thegazette.canwest.com - - - montrealgazette.com - - - Not-So-Small Towns Small and medium-sized urban centres experienced significant population growth from 2001 to 2006, figures from the 2006 census show. Here are the urban centres that experienced the biggest gains from population shifts within Canada: City Province 1. Okotoks Alta. 2. Parksville B.C. 3. Grande Prairie Alta. 4. Wood Buffalo Alta. 5. Chilliwack B.C. 6. Vernon B.C. 7. Joliette Que. 8. Red Deer Alta. 9. St. Jean sur Richelieu Que. 10. Courtenay B.C. Other centres in Quebec in the Top 50 23. Drummondville 30. Granby 32. St. Georges (Beauce) 37. Sorel-Tracy 38. Victoriaville 44. Cowansville 49. Rivière du Loup 50. St. Hyacinthe source: statistics Canada
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Battle lines drawn on environment at premiers rendezvous in Quebec City
un sujet a posté ErickMontreal dans L'actualité
Battle lines drawn on environment at premiers rendezvous in Quebec City LEE GREENBERG and MARIANNE WHITE, Canwest News Service Published: 5 hours ago Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach issued a stern warning against a national cap-and-trade program yesterday, underscoring divisions among Canada's 13 premiers and territorial leaders at the outset of a three-day meeting featuring discussions on climate change strategy. Stelmach and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall scuttled any hope of a unified cap-and-trade program, making it clear they consider the policy a thinly disguised attempt to share in the billions generated by western oil and gas. "There's only one inter-regional transfer of wealth in this country and it's called equalization," Stelmach said. Sam the man and the premiers: An actor portraying Samuel de Champlain mingles with provincial premiers and territorial leaders attending the Council of the Federation in Quebec City yesterday. "There won't be another one from the province of Alberta. And that's as straight an answer as I can give." "We will fight aggressively against any initiative that would redistribute not just wealth, but opportunity, and threaten our 'have' status," Wall added. "Because (our prosperity) is good for the country." The two Prairie premiers placed themselves squarely against Ontario and Quebec, which recently announced their intention to begin a cap-and- trade program in 2010, as well as B.C. and Manitoba, which have both signed on to cap-and-trade programs under the aegis of the Western Climate Initiatives. The group also includes Quebec and seven U.S. states. Cap-and-trade would require companies exceeding emissions caps to trade for credits from greener firms. Both Wall and Stelmach cast aspersions on the viability of cap and trade, touting instead carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Alberta last week announced a $2-billion investment in CCS, also known as sequestration, a process that aims to store carbon emissions by injecting them into deep geological formations. Most provinces have at least something in common when it comes to climate change - they have better plans to tackle it than Ottawa, according to the report released yesterday by the David Suzuki Foundation. As the premiers gathered for the Council of the Federation, the conservation group noted that almost all provinces are stepping up with strong targets and policies in the absence of federal leadership. The report card shows that British Columbia is leading the pack with its carbon tax. The Suzuki Foundation gives a good rating to Quebec and Ontario for their policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their proposed cap-and-trade system. Manitoba also gets the thumbs-up. Not surprisingly, Alberta rated the worst, with Saskatchewan not far from the bottom. "For Alberta to be moving backward is incomprehensible," said Dale Marshall, climate-change policy analyst with the Suzuki Foundation. -
Couillard pushed Quebec City project to Tories after firm lost Montreal bid DANIEL LEBLANC AND INGRID PERITZ With reports from Tu Thanh Ha in Toronto and Rhéal Seguin in Quebec City June 13, 2008 OTTAWA AND MONTREAL -- The Kevlar Group was losing out on a major federal contract in Montreal in early 2007 at the same time as Julie Couillard started lobbying two senior Conservative officials in favour of another one of the company's projects in Quebec City, according to government records and sources. Kevlar wanted to spend up to $25-million to develop a large swath of land that belonged to Canada Post on the Montreal harbourfront. However, another Crown corporation, Canada Lands, used its right of first refusal and snagged the 60,000-square-metre property in a deal that was officially announced on May 2, 2007, a spokesman for Canada Lands confirmed. Kevlar was believed to be unhappy in Montreal when its postal-site bid was rejected, according to a real-estate consultant. "They [Kevlar] probably invested a lot of time, money and energy in their building proposal, which they thought was the best," said a source familiar with the project. "Then Canada Lands turned around and said, 'We'll develop the site.' " Print Edition - Section Front Enlarge Image More Front Page Stories Couillard pushed Quebec City project to Tories after firm lost Montreal bid About the same time, Kevlar was bidding on another federal project worth about $30-million for a building in Quebec City to house 750 bureaucrats. In the House yesterday, the Opposition expressed clear concerns that the company used Ms. Couillard to infiltrate the government in an attempt to ensure it would win that contract. Ms. Couillard was finishing her training as a real-estate agent at the time, and had obtained an affiliation with the firm's real-estate branch. In the spring of 2007, she started dating, in succession, two senior Conservative officials: Public Works adviser Bernard Côté and industry minister Maxime Bernier. According to senior federal officials, Ms. Couillard directly discussed Kevlar's bid in Quebec City with Mr. Bernier and Mr. Côté. Mr. Bernier has since resigned after classified documents were left in April at the home of Ms. Couillard, who had lived with two men with ties to the Hells Angels in the 1990s. Mr. Côté resigned this week after telling his superiors about Ms. Couillard's lobbying efforts and acknowledging he should have recused himself from the file to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. As The Globe and Mail reported yesterday, Kevlar co-chair Philippe Morin introduced Ms. Couillard and Mr. Bernier to one another in April in a restaurant in Montreal. A source added yesterday that Mr. Bernier and Mr. Morin might have known one another through their respective involvement in a group called the Young Presidents' Organization. Mr. Morin is the son of a well-known book publisher in Quebec. Kevlar officials refused repeated requests for comment yesterday, and did not expand on their previous statement that their link to Ms. Couillard was simply related to her real-estate licence. In the House of Commons, the Liberals accused Ms. Couillard of attempting to "infiltrate the Conservative government." "She tried to influence real-estate contracts at Public Works," said Montreal Liberal MP Marlene Jennings. According to news reports, Kevlar was founded by president René Bellerive in 1996, with Mr. Morin becoming a partner in 1999. The firm has acquired and built a number of commercial buildings and condominiums in Montreal and Quebec City, often with other financial partners. Kevlar and its owners have also donated thousands of dollars to federalist and separatist parties, in Ottawa and Quebec City, with the first recorded pledge to the Conservative Party, for $1,000, coming in the months after the Tories were elected to office. The government did not directly address the opposition's concerns in the House yesterday, except to say there has been no decision on the Quebec City project, on which Kevlar is one of about two dozen bidders. Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan accused the opposition of wasting time by holding a parliamentary inquiry into the matter. "It is about finding sordid stories that can make for good news for those who are into gossip and that sort of stuff, but it is not about the important questions of public policy," he said. Regarding the Montreal project, Kevlar submitted an initial $25-million bid for the site in 2006. After several extensions to conduct due diligence, the firm submitted a lowered offer for the property on Feb. 28 of last year. Kevlar's deal fell through when Canada Lands matched its $18-million offer. "The company that bid on the site put in an offer, and we matched it," said Gordon McIvor, vice-president of Canada Lands.
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Montreal's Cogeco aquires Toronto Hydro Mike King, Montreal Gazette Published: Friday, June 13 MONTREAL - Cogeco Cable Inc. is spreading its network into Canada's biggest business telecommunications market with the purchase of Toronto Hydro Telecom Inc. "This acquisition is another step in the enrichment of the Cogeco Business Solutions Data offering," Louis Audet, president and CEO of the Montreal company, said yesterday in announcing the deal. He said THTI's state-of-the-art network, dedicated workforce and Toronto business market potential "should complement our existing business telecommunications activities in Ontario and allow future growth for Cogeco Cable in this line of business." Cogeco is the second-largest cable telecommunications operator in Ontario, Quebec and Portugal respectively based on the number of basic cable subscribers. Audet said the takeover "demontrates our willingness to seize upon external growth opportunities in our Canadian footprint when they arise and fit well with our business strategy." The deal provides Cogeco with a unique chance to add owned and operated points of presence throughout the greater Toronto area, linked to its other existing broadband facilities extending over the dense Ontario telecommunications corridor from Windsor to Cornwall. At the same time, THTI customers will be able to benefit from Cogeco's extensive fiber network spanning Ontario and Quebec. Shares closed at $39.89 on the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday, up $1.08. mking@thegazette.canwest.com http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=8bb1d48f-5b0f-44ce-a31a-3ee91ef6ef00
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City, 'burbs broker pact 'A win-win scenario' Montreal gets more autonomy and new powers of taxation; island suburbs spared millions in shared costs; property owners to get single tax bill Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay leads Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau (left) and Westmount Mayor Karin Marks to a news conference at city hall. Two deals signed yesterday amend Bill 22, a bid to resolve a power feud between Montreal and the suburbs. LINDA GYULAI AND DAVID JOHNSTON, The Gazette Published: 6 hours ago Peace was declared yesterday by the municipalities of Montreal Island, and with it comes new tax powers, greater autonomy and special status for the city of Montreal. Mayor Gérald Tremblay, the mayors of the 15 island suburbs and prominent Quebec cabinet ministers announced they had brokered an accord to revamp the agglomeration council that manages island-wide services and has been a source of acrimony since the suburbs demerged from Montreal in 2006. Taxpayers in the suburbs would now receive one tax bill instead of two, while their cities and towns would regain control over maintenance of major roads in their areas and be spared millions of dollars in shared costs with Montreal. And, under a separate deal with Montreal, Quebec agrees to grant a long-standing wish of Tremblay and previous Montreal mayors for more clout and for the power to raise revenue through new forms of taxation. Both deals, signed at Montreal city hall yesterday, provide a package of amendments to Bill 22, legislation that was tabled in the National Assembly last year to resolve a power feud between Montreal and the suburbs. The amendments will be submitted to the National Assembly for a vote before the current session ends late next week. "In every step of this negotiation, we were looking for a win-win scenario," Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau said of the deals. "Today, we can say, 'Mission accomplished.' " Montreal acquires new power to tax assets and property in its territory and to claim royalties for use of resources. The deal also allows Montreal to walk away with $25 million a year in aid from the province starting in 2009, the power to unilaterally set the rate it charges for the "welcome tax" on property sales above $500,000 and a cheque of $9 million a year from the province to cover property tax on the Palais des congrès. The new, potentially sweeping tax power was inspired by the City of Toronto Act, Normandeau said. Using that legislation, Toronto is now creating a personal vehicle tax that it will begin charging car owners this fall. The Montreal deal would overhaul the governance of the downtown Ville Marie borough. It would also bestow status on the city as the metropolis of Quebec, which would be written into the city charter. As well, the deal would allow city council to centralize any borough responsibility in case of danger to health or safety by a majority vote for up to two years. And in response to criticism of the way the city bypassed its independent public-consultation office to approve the redevelopment of Griffintown this spring, the deal would extend the boroughs' power to initiate changes to the city's urban plan to the city council and require such changes to be sent to hearings by the public-consultation office. Tremblay refused to say what new taxes he would create. "We're not going to identify an additional source of taxation today," he said, adding that Toronto spent a year consulting businesses and groups before deciding what new taxes to create. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/index.html
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First the Main, now it's downtown's turn Construction. Major projects have merchants, drivers in grumble mode Motorists negotiate the traffic and construction at de Maisonneuve Blvd. and Guy St. yesterday. The statue of Norman Bethune has been removed while work is under way.DAVE SIDAWAY THE GAZETTE, JASON MAGDER, The Gazette If you want to know how much it has snowed this winter, head for Place Norman Bethune at de Maisonneuve Blvd. and Guy St. The square, which is the cornerstone of a $22-million facelift for the Concordia University neighbourhood, has been cordoned off with metal fences since October. As a result, snow banks have grown to three metres. However, the transformation of Place Bethune is only one of three major construction projects under way on the corner. Motorists negotiate the traffic and construction at de Maisonneuve Blvd. and Guy St. yesterday. The statue of Norman Bethune has been removed while work is under way Like the merchants caught up in the seemingly endless construction on St. Laurent Blvd., those in this corner of downtown feel choked by street work. While improvements are wrapping up on the Main, crews are just getting started on the Place Bethune beautification project that is expected to last at least until 2011. In the meantime, it' a corner of hell for motorists and pedestrians. "Nobody passes by here anymore," said Mohammad Saken, 28, the manager of Dépanneur Beau Prix on de Maisonneuve west of Guy. "It's already our second year with construction here, and it looks like we're going to have long-term construction. That's going to screw up our business big time." Some merchants complain the constant construction is also dangerous. Saad Salem, the kitchen manager at the Château Kabab restaurant, said he saw a man fall into a hole, which had been dug three weeks ago by the city's Electrical Services Commission to work on underground wiring on Guy north of de Maisonneuve. "A few days ago, a handicapped man fell right into the hole because he didn't see it," Salem said, adding the man wasn't seriously injured. "The company came the next day and put up a fence around the area. But they made the hole and then left it like that, without doing any work. That wasn't a great idea." Serge Boileau, president of the Electrical Services Commission, did not return calls yesterday. Merchants say they are pleased the city is spending money to beautify the area, but say the timing is bad, coming after a summer in which they had to contend both with construction on a new Concordia business school and jackhammers installing a bike path along de Maisonneuve's south side. The bike path is completed, but cyclists, pedestrians and motorists have an obstacle course of four construction sites to negotiate just to cross the street. A southbound lane of Guy is closed from de Maisonneuve to Ste. Catherine St. while crews working on Concordia's new John Molson School of Business building, as is part of de Maisonneuve west of Guy. The north side of de Maisonneuve between Mackay and Guy Sts. is also blocked by traffic cones and trailers, which are used by construction foremen as offices. "It's slushy and dirty and it hasn't been cleaned up in ages," said Melissa Ajamian, 21, who lives on St. Mathieu St. "You used to be able to just walk through this area, but now it's very difficult." Sylvain Ducas, the city's project manager of Place Bethune, said it will take two years to complete the work on the square. "We could have done it in one year, but we need to keep the street open," Ducas said. "I'm sure the merchants will agree with that."
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Caisse-led bailout met with cautious optimism Central bank and Finance Minister welcome Montreal proposal TARA PERKINS and JOHN PARTRIDGE AND HEATHER SCOFFIELD August 17, 2007 Already coined the "Montreal proposal," the Caisse-led plan to bail out a battered $40-billion portion of the commercial paper market is not a sure-fire solution yet. Jerry Marriott, managing director of asset-backed securities at DBRS Ltd., was blunt when asked whether the proposal is a complete answer to the crisis in the third-party asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) sector. "We don't know," he said in an interview yesterday. Many details of the rescue package still have to be worked out, and it needs more support. But the participants believe they have bought some time and a final deal is in the cards. The agreement was brokered yesterday by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec during a series of meetings in Montreal. The other nine signatories range from heavyweight global banks such as Deutsche Bank AG and HSBC Holdings PLC to Canadian players such as National Bank. DBRS, the sole debt-rating agency to rate these securities in Canada, was present for the meetings but says it was not an active participant in devising the plan. DBRS has been taking some heat for its role in building up the sector. Key elements of the plan are to convert short-term debt into longer-term instruments, while also slapping a temporary moratorium on both investors trying to get their money out of the trusts and on issuers seeking financial injections from their lenders to keep the paper afloat. The third-party ABCP market - the portion of the ABCP market not administered by the banks - has been hammered by a sudden exodus of investors and a refusal by many banks and other lenders to honour agreements to provide backup liquidity. The Bank of Canada and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty put out statements yesterday welcoming the Montreal proposal. The plan to pursue an orderly restructuring of the Canadian ABCP market "provides an opportunity for parties to work through the many complex issues related to the market," the central bank said. It also welcomed confirmation from Canada's big banks that they will support their own bank-sponsored ABCP programs. The third-party segment accounts for about one-third of the total ABCP market, while the other two-thirds is dominated by bank-sponsored trusts. "Together, these initiatives should help support the functioning of financial markets in Canada," the central bank said. But sources suggested that the central bank and Finance Department were unimpressed that Canada's big banks weren't further involved in the initiatives to bail out the non-bank ABCP market. An escalating crisis would likely have led to a forced liquidation of the assets in these trusts - a situation that could spread trouble into the broader economy. Mr. Flaherty said in a press release that it's "in the best interest of all involved that sponsors, liquidity providers (including large international banks) and investors (including large pension funds) engage constructively to pursue orderly market solutions to this liquidity situation." He added that one of the attractive features of the proposal is that it "provides time for full information and analysis of these securities." The creation of the long-term notes, which might carry maturities as long as 10 years, is expected to reduce the amount of liquidity risk in the ABCP market, Huston Loke, head of global structured finance at DBRS, said yesterday. Dealers that are part of the consortium have indicated that they would assist in making a market for these notes, "so should implementation of the proposal be successful, it is likely that investors looking to liquidate could do so at a time of their choosing, reducing the likelihood of selling at distressed prices or into a highly volatile credit environment," he said.
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Montreal team makes HIV discovery Virus gets help from a cell protein. Finding is expected to help development of new class of drugs to combat the disease CHARLIE FIDELMAN, The Gazette Published: Saturday, July 14 Montreal researchers have identified a novel target that's an accomplice to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The virus doesn't work alone, but recruits a collaborator - a cell protein - in its mission to multiply and spread through the body, explained Eric Cohen, a professor of medicine at the UniversitE de MontrEal. Cohen and his team of researchers at the Institut de recherches cliniques de MontrEal yesterday published the findings in PLoS Pathogens, a peer- reviewed journal that is issued monthly by the Public Library of Science. Email to a friendPrinter friendly Font: * * * * Despite having transformed HIV/AIDS from a fatal disease to to a chronic one, scientists are still at a loss to explain how the human immunodeficiency virus causes illness and why it persists despite highly effective anti-retroviral drug therapy. The discovery by Cohen's team is expected to open the door to the development of a new class of drugs to combat the disease, Canada's top HIV experts stated yesterday. Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) leads to AIDS by depleting essential immune cells called CD4+T lymphocytes in infected individuals. Key to this process is a small HIV protein, said Cohen, who identified the viral protein R (Vpr) a decade ago while at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge. Mass.. "The role of this protein, called E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, is likely to control the orderly division of cells," Cohen said. HIV uses this protein to weaken infected immune cells. The cells then stop dividing and die, he explained. Also, the protein helps sabotage immune cells so the virus can harness their resources for its own purposes - that is, to replicate and spread the infection. "The virus is creating an environment inside the cells where it can multiply better. Ultimately, the cells will die," said Cohen, who holds the Canada Research Chair in human retrovirology at the U de M. Although proud of his work and of the team effort in his laboratory, Cohen cautioned that new therapies will not be available for years to come. "As with all basic fundamental discoveries, it will not lead to new types of (drugs) for six or seven years," he said. But it's a very important finding, said Rafick-Pierre SEkaly, a U de M immunologist and AIDS expert who was not involved in this discovery. "We are always looking for new ways to neutralize the virus, so finding a new target is very appealing," SEkaly said. Cohen's work explains how the virus corrupts immune cells, said virologist Mark Wainberg, director of the McGill AIDS Centre at the Jewish General Hospital. Wainberg described Cohen's finding as "exactly the kind of discovery that will excite drug companies." cfidelman@ thegazette.canwest.com
