The players in the cultural scene here are waiting for the city’s policy to be unveiled, seven years after Mayor Plante first promised it.
Promoting the city’s nightlife culture should be a top priority for Valérie Plante’s administration. So why isn’t Plante doing more to make our town the ultimate nightlife destination?
Astonishingly enough, Ottawa — the city that fun forgot — is ahead of Montreal when it comes to developing a dynamic nightlife policy for the city. The nation’s capital, sleepy as it is, recently named a nightlife commissioner and to add insult to injury for those of us in the 514, they picked a Montrealer for the job.
Last year, he blasted the Plante administration in these pages for dragging its feet, noting that Plante had promised in the 2017 election campaign that she would deliver a new nightlife policy.
“The city of Montreal loves red tape,” Grondin said at the time.
MTL 24/24 had a three-year deal with Montreal and the provincial government, receiving $200,000 annually from the city and $250,000 from Quebec. Quebec is willing to fund the group again — which is no longer run by Grondin — but only if Montreal also finances it. And Montreal has not agreed to give it money this year.
“It’s Ottawa that’s on the avant-garde right now in terms of nightlife governance,” Grondin said in a phone interview this week. “It’s the first city in Canada to name a nightlife commissioner, it’s the first city to adopt an action plan. It’s an incredible opportunity. The people from the Ottawa city administration came to the MTL au sommet de la nuit two years ago.” The conference was run by MTL 24/24.
“They listened. They did their homework. They came back the next year with an action plan and it was voted in by their city council,” Grondin said.
Meanwhile, the players in the cultural scene here are still waiting for the policy to be unveiled, seven years after Plante first promised it.
A spokesperson for the city said Plante’s nightlife policy will be unveiled by the end of the summer, but the details have yet to be announced. One of the main focuses has been pilot projects allowing venues to sell alcoholic drinks beyond 3 a.m., an initiative that hardly seems to be a top priority for the players in the milieu. It also promises to do something about the issue of noise complaints.
Nightlife is arguably Montreal’s best selling point internationally. The city’s alt-rock scene put the city on the map musically. The Cirque du Soleil made our burgh the circus capital of the world. The jazz festival, Osheaga and, until recently, the Just for Laughs fest made Montreal one of the hottest tourist destinations on the continent.
Martin Chartrand, interim director general of MTL 24/24, said the group will hold another MTL au sommet de la nuit in the fall, but said the city “has left us alone on our little island. It’s very difficult. We want to be there for the community.”
Chartrand said there are millions of dollars in revenue to be made by pumping up the nightlife offering here.
“I love Montreal, but they have revenue issues,” Chartrand said. “Around the world, cities make millions with nightlife. For Montreal, it’s time for us to take a piece of the pie. Montreal could become the ultimate place for nightlife in North America. We have everything. We have the expertise, the know-how, the creativity.”
That’s what makes it so strange that it appears not to be a priority for Plante’s government. Yes it’s finally going to unveil a nightlife policy but people in the milieu find the timing suspect. They wait seven years and then bring it out the year before an election campaign, to try to convince younger voters they’re doing something for the arts scene.
But really, la question qui tue is: How is it possible that Ottawa came up with a cool nightlife plan before our administration did?