In order to relaunch bars and night activities, hard hit by the pandemic, the City of Montreal is putting in place a “roadmap for night economic life”. For its part, the opposition sees nothing new.
The latter, with a budget of $2.1 million, will aim to “revitalize Montreal’s nightlife”. It will be a prelude to the creation, for 2023, of a “nightlife policy” for the metropolis.
“Montreal’s nightlife is unparalleled. The party is part of Montreal’s DNA and contributes directly to the cultural and economic vitality of the metropolis,” said the mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, who made the announcement on Monday morning.
Articulated around five “challenges”, the roadmap gives priority in particular to producing more data in order to better understand the issues related to economic nightlife, and to promote the consideration of this in the work of the City.
Already, a pilot project will be set up at the Society for Technological Arts (SAT), where, for the weekend of May 21, alcohol will be authorized without interruption for 29 hours.
Mme Plante is undecided about whether the experiment could return on a larger scale. The City will nevertheless carry out a study on opening hours.
“You have to have data. That’s what we’re going to see with this pilot project. The roadmap is to test things, so that we have our first nightlife policy,” she explained.
“This announcement from the administration sounds like an old broken record,” said Julien Hénault-Ratelle, official opposition spokesperson for economic development.
He recalls that experiments to extend the opening hours of bars have already taken place in the past, not seeing, in the plan of the City, “nothing new on the horizon”.
“In the end, the fact remains that to create traffic at night, we must further develop the cultural offer,” he said.
At the same time, the City of Montreal is setting up an envelope of $1.4 million to fund soundproofing work in small performance halls.
The subsidy program will target “alternative” venues with less than 400 seats and will be available until 2024.
“[Ça] will allow us to promote the development of performance halls, while protecting the quality of life,” explained Ms.me Plant.
Last spring, the owner of La Tulipe appealed for help, after a new neighbor multiplied noise-related complaints, each time causing fines for the small performance hall. A similar situation also led to the closure of Divan Orange in 2018.
The creation of the program follows the report on “The state of play of alternative rooms in Montreal”, carried out in 2019, and for which the managers of “18 alternative rooms” were consulted.
Starting Thursday and for two days, the MTL 24/24 organization will organize its “Night Summit” to reflect on the issues affecting nightlife in the metropolis. The organization had already organized a similar forum last summer.
“MTL 24/24 is pleased to learn about the roadmap proposed by the City of Montreal. This action plan provides a clear timetable that should lead next summer to the adoption of a nightlife policy redefining the operating framework for nighttime activities,” said Mathieu Grondin, executive director of the organization. .
He nevertheless believes that the City will have to think about the complexity of the rules surrounding the sale of alcohol as well as the possibility of extending the periods during which it is authorized.
The organization presented on Monday the result of its study on nightlife, according to which “nocturnal socio-cultural activities” would have economic spinoffs of $2.26 billion for the metropolis. The report also indicates that 22% of tourists would visit Montreal for its night activities.
Reference-www.tvanouvelles.ca