Gotti

Ce matin. Photo prise sur la rue Metcalfe.

Photos ici. https://www.retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2018/6/birks-reopens-overhauled-montreal-flagship

Just saw an ad in my building's elevator corroborating this. "Mise en vente automne 2018"

Many cities have good ferry service. New York City, Sydney (Australia), Seattle, etc. It's definitely a possible part of Montreal's congestion solution. Let's hope the pilot is successful.

I really think that Minnesota is the best comparable for Montreal. Climate-wise and population-wise: Minnesota has slightly better springs (April) and the Greater Montreal Region is slightly more populous. The Twins play at Target Field. In 2010, it was voted the best stadium in America. Take a look at the below article from their SB fan site. If no roof works in Minny, why can't it work here? https://www.twinkietown.com/2018/4/15/17239980/the-minnesota-twins-do-not-need-a-roof-target-field-us-bank-stadium-snow-april-postponed-white-sox The Minnesota Twins do not need a roof Our summers are beautiful, there are too many logistical issues with moving to US Bank Stadium, and above all else, stop Minnesota-splaining to us. The Twins were supposed to complete a four-game set with the Chicago White Sox today, but instead the two teams stayed cooped up in their respective homes or hotel rooms as they were snowed out for the third consecutive day. This has led to a ton of people - both inside and outside of Minnesota - crying that it was dumb that we built a ballpark that didn’t come with a roof. Before you start your inhale to make a similar comment or you crack your knuckles in anticipation of firing your next tweet through the Internet... just stop. Target Field is perfect the way it is and nothing you say is going to change that. Every single time there’s a rainout, people complain because we used to have the Metrodome. Rain or shine, you could count on the game being played in the Dome (unless the roof collapsed) and everyone was happy. Except, well, we weren’t. The Dome was ugly. We had to crane our necks because home plate was 70° off to the side. Fly balls were lost in the white roof and ground balls bounced over defenders or raced past them at breakneck speed. It was not a pleasant experience for anyone involved, unless you came from North Dakota, because at least your trip to the Twin Cities to see the Twins came to fruition because you were able to watch the Twins. Though there were discussions to put a retractable roof on the new ballpark, it was ultimately decided that it would be an open-air stadium. The space where Target Field was built used to be a parking lot, meaning the ballpark had to be tiny. (Source: www.twinsballpark2010.com) If you go on a tour of Target Field, you’ll likely be told that the ballpark was built like a mushroom cloud; it started small at the bottom and expanded out as you went up. Target Plaza, the walkway that connects Target Field to the Timberwolves’ Target Center, sits atop 394. Building a retractable roof not only was going to cost more money, it was going to take up even more space as well. It might seem odd that I went with the HOK artist’s rendering as the “after” photo rather than an actual picture of Target Field, but that’s because we all agreed on one thing: you have to see the view from behind home plate and/or down the 3rd base line. (www.ballparksofbaseball.com) (www.shortstorysnapshots.wordpress.com) (Star Tribune) (Sue Vruno Photography) Additionally, ESPN The Magazine ranked Target Field in 2010 as being the #1 stadium experience. Minnesota is getting unfair criticism because of an historic snowstorm in April, one that is nearing the state record for snowfall in April. Target Field was built without a roof because the average high temperature in April is 58°F and the average high temperature in September is 72°F, plus it should be blatantly obvious that it’s warmer here during the summer months. True, we average 3 inches of snow in April, but why would we demand a roof on a baseball stadium if the average low in April doesn’t even reach freezing temperatures (37°F)? PS: Saturday, the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves played when it was 38°F with drizzling rain and wind gusts of 24 MPH, plus Sunday’s game was cancelled due to inclement weather. I doubt anyone will cry that the Cubs need a roof on Wrigley Field. Returning to the Twins, part of the criticism also stems from our awareness of the successor to the Metrodome, which is US Bank Stadium. The new home of the Minnesota Vikings, it did keep a Metrodome feature in that it could be used for both football and baseball. The baseball accommodations weren’t for the Twins though, but rather the Minnesota Gophers collegiate baseball team. Hence, it seems clear that in inclement weather, the Twins and their fans could just truck over to US Bank Stadium to play their game(s). Unfortunately, this ignores several important issues. First, although the Gophers play in US Bank Stadium, it is not a good baseball field. View image on Twitter Twitter Ads info and privacy Myjah has already covered that the Dome was better for playing baseball. Without arguing her same points, I want to point out the following: a) There are no real dugouts. b) As you can see in the picture above, the infield is all turf rather than having dirt basepaths. c) The dimensions are comical as it’s 381 feet to straightaway center and only 301 feet down the right field line. For comparison, Angel Stadium and Petco Park both have the closest center field fences at 396 feet, while Fenway Park has the closest right field distance at 302 feet (though it quickly juts out to 380 feet). In other words, US Bank Stadium would likely be the smallest field in the majors. That takes care of why the game itself would suffer at US Bank Stadium. Next, there are plenty of logistical issues. Seats in Target Field do not fully correspond to seats in US Bank Stadium. Ticketholders in the Legends or Champions Clubs are expecting to enjoy a game in the Legends or Champions Club. Does the Twins gameday staff follow the team to US Bank Stadium or do the Vikings/Gophers get to use their gameday staff? If the Twins bring their staff over, the staff has to be trained on how to direct fans and navigate the stadium themselves. Delaware North Company (the company in charge of Target Field’s concessions) and their employees will be upset that they miss out on a home game. The list can go on and on and on. Although MLB has moved games to other cities before, the difference was that all of those were moved to other existing MLB stadiums. I doubt MLB would sign off on the Twins and White Sox playing their three games unless they had moved to Miller Park in Milwaukee. Edit: I’ve seen arguments as to why the Vikings put a roof on US Bank Stadium while the Twins did not. It’s simple, the state wanted a stadium that could be used for more than just 8-10 football games a season. Large concerts, motocross and monster truck rallies, the state high school football tournament, etc. can all be held at US Bank Stadium thanks to the roof. It was not as critical for Target Field because it was smaller, it would be used at least 81 times each summer, and Target Center was right next door anyway. Long story short, there’s a lot of vocal people that wish that the Twins had a roof or another home. I’m choosing to be vocal in response, that we were hit with a rare snowstorm, Target Field is perfect the way it is, and there are too many issues with moving a game over to US Bank Stadium. And for you non-Minnesotans that think you know what we should have done, I want to hear your complaints about your own teams the next time they lose a game to the weather. You know damn well why some ballparks are built without a roof. We know why as well.

À la une de Bloomberg Canada Montreal Is Canada’s Next Hot Housing Market By Sandrine Rastello and Natalie Wong May 4, 2018, 7:00 AM EDT Jobs growth, falling inventory put pressure on prices Chinese emerging as new buyers in still-affordable city Montreal’s housing market is finally getting on the map. An economic revival in Canada’s second-biggest city is fueling a real-estate renaissance, speeding up sales, shrinking inventories, and luring foreign buyers. More stringent lending rules have curbed transactions and slowed price growth in Toronto but have had little effect on Montreal, where buyers are flocking to new condos and sellers are gaining the upper hand. The trend continued in April, as home sales rose 10 percent from a year earlier. By contrast, Toronto posted its weakest sales for the month in 15 years, while activity in Vancouver fell 27 percent, even as prices in both markets were stable. Montreal’s rebirth is showing in ways big and small. Devimco Immobilier Inc., a developer that sold a record1,180 condos downtown last year, is moving up two towers because of high demand, with calls coming in from as far away as China, special adviser Marco Fontaine said in a phone interview. Montreal, long the “neglected child” at Canadian real-estate conferences, is now a topic of discussion, he said. “There’s an incredible buzz,” Fontaine said in a phone interview. “We’re much cheaper than Toronto and Vancouver and that’s attracting a lot of interest.” Economic Driver The biggest drive is economics. According to think tank Institut du Quebec, Montreal added more jobs in 2016-17 than in the previous eight years, with companies including Amazon.com Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. opening new data and tech centers. The city, where both French and English can be heard on the street, is also growing into an artificial intelligence hub that’s home to Thales SA and Facebook Inc. research labs. Analysts don’t see signs of overheating yet. Houses in the city, which is known for a vibrant food and cultural scene and universities such as McGill and Universite de Montreal, are still a bargain compared with the country’s most expensive markets. At C$317,000 ($246,673), the median detached house price for the greater Montreal region compares with C$870,000 in Toronto and C$1.4 million in Vancouver, according to the local real estate boards. Still, the number of properties that sold for more than C$1 million grew 20 percent last year according to Sotheby’s International Realty, which expects Montreal to lead major cities in the luxury market segment this spring. Growth for both benchmark prices and the number of transactions in the resale market has outpaced Toronto’s this year. And pressure on prices -- which rose 7 percent for houses and 3 percent for condos last year -- is set to creep up, the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said in a report last week. “Demand is strong and the number of properties for resale is down, so market conditions are getting tighter,” CMHC analyst Francis Cortellino said in a phone interview. “The Montreal market is very dynamic at the moment.” Daniel Cholewa, who as chief executive officer of Keller Williams Urbain in downtown Montreal oversees a network of more than 100 brokers, says transactions in the first quarter were up 45 percent from a year ago, the best market he’s seen since entering the business a decade ago. Stories of bidding wars and 48-hour sales are becoming more frequent, he said. “The market has been so stagnant and has been such a buyers’ market for so long here that growth is natural and it’s necessary,” he said in a phone interview. “The fact that this has been happening is a really good thing.” Space Limits The lack of building space on the island of Montreal is making detached homes a rarer find and will underpin a 5 percent increase in prices this year, Paul Cardinal, market analysis manager at the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards. Condo prices will rise a more modest 3 percent on average, though they are already up by more than 10 percent this year in some neighborhoods, including in several suburbs off the island, he said. There’s also evidence that foreign buyers, now the target of a tax in Ontario and British Columbia, are taking a keener interest in Quebec’s biggest city. They owned 1.7 percent of condos in Montreal last year, up from 1.1 percent in 2016, according to CMHC data. That’s getting closer to Toronto’s 2.5 percent and Vancouver’s 2.2 percent. Chinese buyers, who can fly direct from Beijing and Shanghai, have emerged as the third-largest group by nationality after the U.S. and France, accounting for 16 percent of transactions in the province in 2017, from just 1.3 percent a decade earlier, according to Quebec budget documents. Foreign capital moved east from Vancouver to Toronto, “and now you’re starting to see some of that capital floating into Montreal,” Cameron Goodnough, CEO of Timbercreek Financial Corp., said in an interview. Mandarin Please The industry has been quick to adjust. Engel & Volkers Montreal now has seven mandarin-speaking brokers, after hiring the first one in late 2015, owner Debby Doktorczyksaid in an interview. Foreign demand “is getting stronger and stronger,” said Doktorczyk. “The Asia market has now taken a space it didn’t have just two years ago.” . People are signing up for new condos faster than they used to, cutting the number of sales events developers and brokers need to put up. Long gone are the days when a glut of condos was giving buyers the power to ask for parking or appliances, Shirley said. “I say good luck to potential buyers showing up at a sales office today to negotiate anything,” he said. “That’s over.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-04/-neglected-child-no-more-montreal-is-next-hot-housing-market

Il y'a des grosses affiches sur le chantier qui annoncent le Phase II à 50% vendu.

At the end of the day it's the consumer that decides. Despite so many people being against everything that WalMart (or now Amazon) stands for, these companies are successful because people want the low prices they offer. WalMart emptied the main street of countless towns and STILL people shopped there even while railing against the evil corporation. Both this project and CDPQ's downtown investments could be successful or failures. They key is how the market (the consumer) responds. It's up to the merchants and owners of the Centre Eaton or Royal-Mount to offer a superior value proposition to their market. If they don't, they will fail. While city planning and red-tape can greatly encourage or discourage certain behaviours the all mighty consumer will ultimately determine the successful model(s). I say good luck to both - they will likely need it!

As someone who lives in Montréal but spends a lot of time in Toronto I agree with Ousb. While the Financial/Bay Street area might close down at night (except for those pulling all-nighters in their office), the rest of downtown, be it a few blocks east, west or north, is extremely lively. The combination of density (many high-rise condos have been built over the past 15 years - with more coming all the time) and entertainment venues ensures that people are looking to go out: to a restaurant, a bar, a gym/studio, etc. Honestly, there is an energy that comes from all the people that is definitely lacking in downtown Montréal. As much as it pains me to say it, Toronto's core has a virtuous circle of population density that attracts services that attracts more people that attracts more services that is all supported by strong job growth and good salaries. While we don't need to model ourselves on their development, we should leave the stereotypes of boring, WASPY Toronto in the past and recognize it for what it is today: A cosmopolitan metropolis with a heck of a lot going on.

Except the Als won a championship or two with Calvillo. Nothing and less than nothing for our Habs.

Dans les 18 prochains mois, la RIO ira en appel d’offres après avoir défini les critères de la toile, qui devra notamment être en fibre de verre et être souple en plus de respecter la forme du stade. Le gouvernement du Québec a mis en réserve une enveloppe budgétaire oscillant entre 200 et 250 M$ pour le futur toit. Michel Labrecque soutient que la RIO cherche un toit démontable, plutôt que rétractable, mais ne choisira pas un concept au détriment de la sécurité et de la pérennité de la structure. Si ça augmente le risque au point où on n’obtiendra pas un niveau de confiance suffisant d’une toiture qui va durer 50 ans, qu’on a pas une épée de Damoclès au-dessus de la tête, on va oublier ça. Si le risque est trop élevé, on ne pensera même pas à la démonter. Michel Labrecque Il soutient que de nombreuses études ont été réalisées. De plus, la RIO exigera des essais en laboratoire. « Dans les 63 sections [de la toile actuelle], il y en a qui ont été mal fabriquées ou pliées, ce qui a causé des ruptures de lignes. C’est pour ça qu’on a eu 8000 trous. [Là], on a pris toute une série d’analyses et de précautions avec les firmes externes et les hauts fonctionnaires pour se dire quels processus et contrôles de qualité [on souhaite] », poursuit le président de la RIO. Michel Labrecque cite, en exemple, que le concept retenu sera testé, notamment, pour assurer une évacuation adéquate de la neige. « Un des problèmes qu’on a avec la toile actuelle, c’est qu’on a des vallées entre les triangles, et la neige s’y accumule. » 125 M$? François Delaney, un concepteur qui travaille sur des prototypes de toits pour le stade depuis 21 ans, croit que la réserve de 200 à 250 M$ est trop élevée. En entrevue à Gravel le matin, il a soutenu détenir des soumissions se limitant à 125 M$. Il affirme détenir cinq propositions de toit, dont deux souples (l’une rétractable et l’autre démontable). Est-ce que quelqu'un sais comment le RIO va gérer le stade de façon rentable? Combien d'événements auront lieu par année (en réalité)? J'ai peur que nous embarquions dans une autre histoire de délais, de coûts dépassés et d'une drague géante sur notre argent public.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-02/quebec-s-small-town-jobs-boom-needs-big-city-immigrant-workers Quebec’s Small-Town Jobs Boom Needs Big-City Immigrant Workers November 2, 2017, 5:00 AM EDT Every Sunday, two vans pick up laborers from Montreal for a four-hour journey northeast to small towns near the border with Maine. There, they work at factories for the week, stay in accommodation partly paid by their employer, and return to Quebec’s largest city on Friday. “We would really like to hire locally, but we have no choice,” said Sonia Rousseau, head of human resources at René Matériaux Composites, the Sigma Industries Inc. unit that’s been busing the mostly African and Latin American workers to its plastics factories for at least two years. “If we don’t have enough workers, we have to stop the production line, which is something we can’t afford to do.” Welcome to the reality of the manufacturing industry in Chaudière-Appalaches, a district in the francophone province of Quebec that boasts 3 percent unemployment -- the lowest in Canada, with a national jobless rate of 6.2 percent. With the country’s economy growing at the fastest pace in the Group of Seven, and Quebec itself on track to expand the most since 2004, it’s no wonder order books are full. But in this region alongside the St. Lawrence River there aren’t enough local workers interested in blue-collar jobs. Known as Beauce, the corner of Chaudière-Appalaches where René Matériaux Composites has its factories is a manufacturing powerhouse with a strong entrepreneurial culture. Its member of Parliament, Maxime Bernier, is a libertarian who unsuccessfully ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party this spring. For years, specialized jobs such as welders or electricians have been in extremely high demand, prompting companies to recruit overseas. But even unskilled workers are hard to come by. “We need able bodies,” Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitao said in an interview. “If we do nothing, it will be a big issue.” Training, Demographics Leitao says one answer is more training to help young Quebeckers fill the labor market’s current needs. At a vocational school of Montmagny, 50 miles northeast of Quebec City, students learn to program machine tools or to master welding. Some are sent by employers eager for them to acquire new skills, but even those who start without a job land offers within weeks, according to training counselor André Faucher. William Bernier, who works part-time at a food processing company and recently joined the 1,800-hour machine-tool program, is hopeful new expertise will open the door to better paid work. “There’s lots of companies looking,’’ the 19-year-old said this week. Attracting foreign workers often clustered in Montreal to small-town Quebec is another solution. With a jobless rate of 6 percent, the province has little choice but to turn to immigrants as its population ages more rapidly than the U.S., the U.K. and the rest of Canada. The situation is particularly acute in Chaudière-Appalaches, where the median age is 44 -- about two years older than Quebec as a whole. “Yes there’s economic growth, but there’s also the reality of demographics,” said Chantal Routhier, an economist with Mouvement Desjardins, the province’s largest credit union. “The jobless rate is bound to fall over time.” Still, there are a lot of positions up for grabs. Manac Inc., a maker of specialty trailers based in Saint-Georges with about 900 employees in the province, started looking abroad for welders, machine operators and electricians five years ago -- even contracting an agency to find workers as far away as Nicaragua. As orders pile up, Manac has hired more than 100 people this year. Yet the manufacturer continues to struggle to find unskilled workers, especially for its night and weekend shifts, according to Steve Ceolin, one of its recruiters. “We’re short about 20 people and most of them are untrained laborers,” he said. ‘Crying for Help’ The demand extends beyond manufacturing. Vacant positions range from electrical engineers to nurses and waiters, according to Cassiopée Dubois, who helps companies address shortages at private consultancy La Beauce embauche -- French for Beauce is hiring. “I have companies calling me and crying for help,” Dubois said. “We need workers everywhere, and immigration is a solution. The key is to integrate people and make them stay.” That’s the tack taken by CDID Inc., a software maker also based in Saint-Georges, the biggest town in Beauce with a population of 31,000. The company, which plans to add 15 workers over the next four years, took part in a trade fair in Paris this summer and came away with four new computer programmers. “You should have seen their eyes when we discussed the cost of living, access to home ownership or the crime rate,” said Karine Poulin, CDID’s head of human resources. “We didn’t really have to convince them.’’ Long-Term Solutions Immigration, however, isn’t a miracle solution, according to Routhier, the Desjardins economist. Ultimately, companies will have to boost productivity. With some jobs taking up to a year to fill, René Matériaux Composites -- which supplies moulded plastic parts to the transport, construction and agricultural industries -- has begun investing in new technology and robotics, according to Rousseau. It’s also establishing a new research and development center in the town of Saint-Ephrem. Busing workers in “helps us meet our goals for now, but we can’t rely on that in the long term because if tomorrow people stop coming, it will be a problem,” the human resources chief said. “Ultimately we would like to attract more people to move to Beauce, but in the meantime, we are working very hard to increase our productivity. We have to innovate, we have to automate.” — With assistance by Erik Hertzberg

It's for the MBA program. Historically, McGill's MBA program has been quite mediocre by international business school standards. The school decided to change their offering a few years ago. They massively hiked tuition to around C$40,000 per year, invested in new internationally known professors, endowed more research chairs and generally upped their game. I don't follow B-school rankings so I don't know if they've been successful but I have a feeling that the MBA school has gained in reputation, international recognition and a higher calibre (no offense to meant to any graduates) student population. In any case, it looks like things are going well. Yet, despite paying many times more for the MBA program than any other program at Desautels, the MBA classes were held in the same building as all the others. To gain further credibility I imagine that the MBA administrators wanted a building that someone paying such high tuition would be proud of - and maybe even demand. Given that the old bookstore is (i) right next to the Desautels building and (ii) is a good size and decently modern, I guess it made sense to claim it for the faculty. The bookstore is deceiving - it had 3 above ground floors where space was not maximized and a massive basement (to store all the textbooks). For an MBA school it should be provide ample space. MBA schools are one of those funny things: Sometimes simply hiking prices can make it more attractive. There is perceived value in pricing - especially when years back the McGill MBA was essentially the same price as undergrad (i.e. very cheap by B-school standards). Further, once the program has more dollars coming in it can invest in better professors, teaching methods, chairs, etc. and (hopefully) it becomes a virtuous cycle.

Ce n'est pas juste moi qui partage cet avis. Michel Leblanc, le président de la chambre de commerce de Montréal, vient de dire presque mes paroles exactes. http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/politique-quebecoise/201709/26/01-5136803-vague-dappui-a-uber-apres-lannonce-de-son-depart.php

Again, this is my personal opinion. So disagree all you want. Uber leaving Montréal creates a perception of Québec as having an anti-tech environment. Whether the underlying stats support this assertion or not (and you point out that the stats actually contradict it!) the perception is what will be top of mind for most people. We live in an age of headlines and poorly researched news. As such, I think that this news can only hurt our city's chances of luring Amazon HQ2. I also believe that we are not in the top running: if the goal is to land the HQ we can't afford anything that harms our image.

My point wasn't to discuss the legality of Uber in Québec or their impact on our society. I think it's been debated to death and everyone is entitled to their opinion. My only point was that having a large tech company leave our fair province does not reflect well from a corporate decision making perspective. Others here point out our tech strength, engineering student strength, cheap cost of labour and dwelling, etc. All I wanted to do was point out what I believe to be a negative factor in attracting Amazon here. Please debate this idea - not the legality of Uber. I think that Montréal is a hail-mary at best to land Amazon HQ2. This news certainly doesn't help.

Bye-bye Uber. I'm sure that our tech friendly government will be able to lure Amazon HQ2... http://beta.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1057986/uber-serait-menace-quitter-quebec Uber menace de quitter le Québec PUBLIÉ AUJOURD'HUI À 6 H 59MIS À JOUR IL Y A 47 MINUTES Le directeur général d'Uber au Québec, Jean-Nicolas Guillemette, a convoqué les médias à 11 h, à Montréal, pour annoncer qu'Uber a l'intention de cesser ses activités au Québec en raison des nouvelles conditions que lui impose le ministère des Transports (MTQ). La semaine dernière, le gouvernement Couillard a confirmé qu’il était prêt à renouveler pour un an le projet pilote mis en place en octobre 2016 pour encadrer les activités de la compagnie de transport, mais à certaines conditions. Uber doit notamment se plier à de nouvelles exigences, dont une augmentation de 20 à 35 du nombre d'heures de formation des chauffeurs, l'obligation d'effectuer une inspection mécanique tous les 12 mois et un resserrement du processus de vérification des antécédents judiciaires. Or, d'après nos sources, Uber estime que ce nouveau cadre réglementaire est trop intransigeant, en particulier la formation de 35 heures requise pour les chauffeurs. Les règles de fonctionnement d’Uber permettent à des particuliers, des travailleurs occasionnels pour la plupart, de transporter des gens avec leur véhicule personnel en échange d’une quote-part sur le prix du transport. Or, ce modèle d’affaires, en plus de mener une concurrence déloyale aux chauffeurs de taxi traditionnels, soulevait des problèmes fiscaux et des enjeux de sécurité qui rendaient les opérations d’Uber illégales en vertu des lois du Québec. Le gouvernement Couillard avait cependant accordé un an à Uber pour s'y conformer tout en poursuivant ses opérations dans le cadre d’un projet pilote d’un an. L’échéance étant arrivée, Québec a décidé d’accorder une prolongation à Uber, mais selon de nouvelles conditions. Et ce sont ces conditions qui ne font pas l’affaire de la compagnie de covoiturage payant. Au MTQ, on affirme ne pas avoir été informé de la décision qu'Uber doit rendre publique ce matin. Les chauffeurs de taxi prudents Questionné sur les ondes de l'émission Gravel le matin, le porte-parole du Comité provincial de concertation et de développement de l’industrie du taxi, Guy Chevrette, a émis des réserves sur un possible départ d’Uber du Québec. « Si c’est vrai que ça fait des mois que ça négocie pour deux petites contraintes additionnelles, ces gens-là quitteraient le Québec après y être entrés de façon tout à fait illégale? » a-t-il fait remarquer, sceptique. « Ils n’ont jamais encore remis les 24 millions [de dollars] de taxes non payées […] Il n’y a à peu près pas de poursuites qui ont été faites malgré 400 ou 500 infractions », a ajouté Guy Chevrette. Pour les chauffeurs de taxi traditionnels, qui doivent payer pour se procurer des permis et se plier à plusieurs contraintes, la présence d’Uber dans le marché du transport est une concurrence déloyale, voire frauduleuse, soutient-il. Si Uber devait quitter le Québec, Guy Chevrette estime que ce serait une occasion pour le gouvernement de travailler à la modernisation de l’industrie du taxi de concert avec les chauffeurs traditionnels. « Le départ d’Uber permettrait de moderniser légalement, de ne pas avoir deux poids deux mesures, d’avoir les mêmes règles de concurrence et qu’on ait les mêmes obligations pour partir sur un pied d’égalité. », explique Guy Chevrette. Pour Alexandre Taillefer, propriétaire de Taxelco, c'est une bonne chose que le gouvernement du Québec mette en place des règlements qui soient « le plus équitable possible et au bénéfice de la population ». Quant à Uber, M. Taillefer estime que c'est dans sa façon de faire de « brandir des menaces » et d'annoncer ses décisions « en cowboy » à ses employés. Selon lui, les exigences qu'impose Québec à Uber sont minimales et encore loin de celle qu'on impose à l'industrie du taxi actuellement au Québec. « Nos normes sont encore plus contraignantes ne serait-ce qu’en vertu des polices d’assurance qu’on doit mettre en place pour nos taxis. Le coût de notre police est probablement trois fois plus important que celui d’un chauffeur Uber », a expliqué le propriétaire de Taxelco sur les ondes de RDI. Pure stratégie de négociation Pour les intermédiaires de taxi de regroupés, qui représentent près de 2000 voitures de taxi au Québec, la stratégie d’Uber n’est destinée qu’à mettre de la pression sur le gouvernement du Québec en frustrant ses clients. « Il ne faut pas que les Québécois se trompent : Uber n’est pas obligée de stopper ses opérations, elle le fait uniquement pour frustrer ses utilisateurs et faire pression sur le gouvernement », explique Georges Malouf, porte-parole montréalais des intermédiaires de taxi dans un communiqué. « La vraie question, nous la posons depuis bientôt trois ans, le gouvernement du Québec est-il capable de se faire respecter ou va-t-il encore flancher et se mettre à plat ventre devant les quelques pressions d’Uber », demande M. Malouf. Des problèmes à Londres aussi Montréal ne serait pas la première ville où Uber a plié bagage en raison de la controverse entourant son modèle d’affaires. Vendredi dernier, l’autorité des transports de Londres a décidé de ne pas renouveler la licence d'exploitation d'Uber, qui vient à échéance le 30 septembre prochain. Selon un communiqué de l’autorité des transports, « l'approche et l'attitude d'Uber montrent un manque de responsabilité de l'entreprise en ce qui concerne un certain nombre d'aspects ayant de possibles implications sur la sécurité publique ». Uber a porté la décision en appel.

The Argos moved to BMO Field in order to be in a smaller, more intimate and more personal stadium. They now play in the same stadium as TFC. Lots of money was spent on the stadium to make it football ready - and to add capacity for soccer games. I don't see how moving from Molson Stadium, an intimate venue that can't sellout anymore, would benefit the Als. http://bmofield.com/event/montreal-alouettes-vs-toronto-argonauts-2/

For now it's being used as a parking lot for the YUL site. The gym is almost ready The sales office is being moved for YUL 2.

Power wash?

Most economists consider 4.0% to be "full unemployment." As you've stated, there will always be structural and frictional unemployment in any economy. The true "full unemployment" figure depends on many factors and thus 4.0% is simply a best guess. Suffice to say that getting close to "full unemployment" is a sign that the economy is booming. Falling below can lead to high inflation and other economic stresses. It's been a long time since my macroeconomic classes but I'm sure Google has a lot more information on it. Oh, and if there aren't enough people for the available jobs then companies turn to robots. Japan and SK have very high levels of automation. When the cost of automation is less than the cost of employees it's the natural decision for profit seeking companies. See the whole 15$ minimum wage debate and McDonald's response.

A chacun ses propres points de vue politiques. Selon les sondages courants le PQ n’as aucun espoir de gagné une majorité dans les prochains élections. Néanmoins, on ne sait jamais comment les élections vont dérouler. On disait la même chose à propos de Brexit et de Trump. (Je ne compare pas le PQ à Brexit ou à Trump – je dis simplement que même s’il parait impossible en août 2017 les déroulements politiques ne cessent pas de nous surprendre.)

Il paraît que oui... Electrical wiring is running behind the cladding.

À l'ouest il y'a Adonis à Griffintown.