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Everyone is aware that Montreal has been performing at an unacceptable level according to virtually every measure. The challenges that lay ahead are not simple, or easy, but they can be pursued successfully. Significant change appears to have commenced, and may be gathering strength. At the outset, let’s be clear about something. If Montreal is to become a great city again, it will either need to get some sort of real “special status” within Quebec, become a special economic zone or, later, a city state. As we see it, the fundamental question we face is: Can Montreal become a city of global importance, or is it destined to be a provincial metropolis? We are currently a provincial metropolis not much higher in status than other important provincial metropolises, such as Halifax or Winnipeg. We need to become more important, like Toronto or Barcelona. Under existing constitutional arrangements, municipalities are controlled largely by the provinces. Provincial governments pass most of the enabling legislation that affects the powers cities have. Mayor Denis Coderre has entered into talks with two provincial cabinet ministers, Pierre Moreau and Robert Poëti, regarding some kind of special status for Montreal that would see the city get more responsibilities and funding — but for small things like transport and services for the homeless. Bravo and kudos, but is that enough? No. A recent Bank of Montreal/Boston Consulting Group analysis of Montreal outlined 10 distinct proposals to turnaround the city’s sagging fortunes. If these 10 propositions were to become actionable, they would be implemented within one of the two broader contexts we see for Montreal: evolving provincial metropolis or evolving global city. First of all, Montreal needs to be able to attract and retain the best talent. That is a clearly defined goal to which to aspire. To do this, Montreal must control its own destiny, and that means it must be open to diversity and become a beacon of opportunity. In order to reconnect with the larger North American and offshore business world, Quebec’s restrictive language laws need to be reviewed, and reworked to fit with Montreal’s global ambitions and identity. The thinking should be as follows: Montreal is a French city, first of all. It is also a North American city. It should become a global city. Global cities are defined by their openness to diversity and creativity. And so all students, regardless of ancestry or origin, need to be bilingual at the end of primary school, and trilingual at the end of secondary school. Anglophones and allophones (including immigrants) should be free to choose any school they want, as long as those schools offer a bilingual or trilingual education. Businesses and institutions should be able to use their language of choice. The public should have access to all services in either official language: anywhere, anytime. All of this is possible; we just have to do it. The time is now. Michel David is a business strategist and author of The Genius Is Inside. He is also a director of Fondation Montréal: City-State. He lives in Westmount. Morton Grostern is a consultant to small- and medium-sized businesses in Montreal. He is also a director of Fondation Montreal: City-State. He lives in Hampstead. Michel Lozeau, a strategic consultant and executive coach in Paris, contributed to this commentary. He lives in Montreal and Paris. © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

Traffic management APPlied logic Sep 13th 2011, 16:10 by The Economist online TRAFFIC lights are crucial tools for regulating traffic flow. They are not, however, perfect. Drivers exchange the gridlock that would happen at unmanaged junctions for a pattern of stop-go movement that can still be frustrating, and which burns more fuel than a smooth passage would. Creating such a smooth passage means adjusting a vehicle’s speed so that it always arrives at the lights when they are green. That is theoretically possible, but practically hard. Roadside signs wired to traffic lights can help get the message across a couple hundred metres from a junction, but such signs are expensive, and have not been widely deployed. Margaret Martonosi and Emmanouil Koukoumidis at Princeton University, and Li-Shiuan Peh at the Massachussets Institute of Technology, however, have an idea that could make the process cheaper and more effective. Instead of a hardwired network of signs, they propose to use mobile-phone apps. For a driver to benefit, he must load the team’s software, dubbed SignalGuru, into his phone and then mount it on a special bracket attached to the inside of his car’s windscreen, with the camera lens pointing forwards. SignalGuru is designed to detect traffic lights and track their status as red, amber or green. It broadcasts this information to other phones in the area that are fitted with the same software, and—if there are enough of them—the phones thus each know the status of most of the lights around town. Using this information, SignalGuru is able to calculate the traffic-light schedule for the region and suggest the speed at which a driver should travel in order to avoid running into red lights. Tests in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where five drivers were asked to follow the same route for three hours, and in Singapore, where eight drivers were asked to follow one of two routes for 30 minutes, revealed that SignalGuru was capable of predicting traffic-light activity with an accuracy of 98.2% and 96.3% respectively, in the two cities. This was particularly impressive because in Cambridge the lights shifted, roughly half-way through the test, from their off-peak schedule to their afternoon-traffic schedule, while in Singapore lights are adaptive, using detectors embedded under the road to determine how much traffic is around and thus when a signal should change. In neither case was SignalGuru fooled. Fuel consumption fell, too—by about 20%. SignalGuru thus reduces both frustration and fuel use, and makes commuting a slightly less horrible experience.

Having read of so many horrible experiences with immigration laws and officers, I always thought those things only happened to those who did not do their paperwork right or who did not meet the immigration requirements. Apparently I was wrong. My experience is nothing compared to the one of the Mexican mother who's all over the news lately, but what makes my case interesting is that the law is clearly on my side, and so are the Citizenship and Immigration Canada agents, yet there doesn't seem to be anything I or they can do about it, and I have to leave Canada soon with no right of appeal. I am not writing for advice, but advice is always appreciated. Here is my experience: My study permit was set to expire on August 31st. As recommended by the immigration website, I submitted an application for a new study permit on July 26th, more than 30 days before the expiry date. It often happens that the study permit expires before the new application is approved or rejected, so one is left without a valid study permit for an interval of time. During this time, one is said to have "implied status" and is allowed to travel out and into Canada as a temporary resident until a decision is made, as long as one has a multiple entry visa. This was my case, and I did travel outside of Canada during my implied status period, but the Canada Border Services agent who welcomed me at Trudeau Airport didn't seem to know the law very well (I didn't either), and only allowed me to stay in Canada for "further examination of my file". He also seized my passport and immigration documents and told me I had to leave Canada by September 30th if my new study permit had not been approved by then. I kept checking daily for updates on my application status with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. They repeatedly told me that my study permit was to be approved (or rejected) by the end of October. But I never told them about my situation at the Border Agency. Today I decided to call the Border Agency Office at Trudeau Airport to see if I could extend the September 30th deadline. A person who sounded like the same officer who seized my documents insisted that I should leave by September 30th before proceeding to threaten me with deportation and jail if I didn't leave Canada (I must add that I was never rude to him or any other agent. I didn't even contradict what he said). I asked him if I could at least return temporarily as a tourist, since I have a multiple-entry visitor's visa. He said that was illegal (it is not) and if I tried to do that, I would be denied entry to Canada for one year. He said he would write a note on my file to ensure this was done. After this call and a few seconds digesting the horrible feeling, I decided to call Citizenship and Immigration Canada to tell them what had happened. The call center agent who spoke with me was really nice. She asked me to calm down and reassured me. She spoke with two advisors and they all insisted that I should be allowed to stay in Canada due to my implied status, as long as I didn't see any university courses (which I'm not, as I am just working on my PhD thesis). She expressed a lot of concern at the fact that the Border Agent took my passport and tried to call them without success (line was busy the whole day after my call). She then instructed me to send the Border Agency a fax quoting the laws that protect me and asking them to call me on my phone to resolve my situation. I did this and they ignored this fax. I am sure if I call them again, the same will happen, and they will get even more hostile. Right now I see no option other than going to the US for a month. This doesn't seem like such a bad thing except for some extremely important personal plans I had for this month in Canada. In my short 25 years of existence so far I've had to spend the night in a restroom being completely sober, spend days sleeping on a chair for bureaucratic reasons, and I've had to make big changes on my future because of late paperwork. I guess these things happen to everyone and I've never complained about them, but I can't help but feel powerless and violated in this situation. It almost makes me think bad of Canada, but my mind is not sufficiently weak.

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Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/Quebec+immigration+consultant+arrested+fraud+ring/4070879/story.html#ixzz1B9IRBxSU I just wonder how many people out there do this

This article is simply opinion. But talks are to begin in 2016. http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/opinion-progress-toward-special-status-for-montreal-has-been-way-too-slow Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk