They have been the subject of particular attention, locally or globally. They sometimes symbolize significant events, sometimes trends, sometimes personalities. The duty selected 23 to summarize this year.
17. Hydro Cables
In April, ice invaded Quebec homes while the electricity left them.
Freezing rain caused a lot of headaches for Hydro teams — and Quebecers — in 2023. More than a million households lost electricity at the beginning of April, some for several days , following an episode of heavy freezing rain. The event brought back bad memories for many Montrealers, who saw trees falling like flies in La Fontaine Park and other green spaces in the metropolis.
While ensuring that this meteorological episode was not comparable to that of the 1998 ice storm, which plunged 3.5 million people into darkness — some for nearly a month — Hydro-Québec recognized the importance of making its facilities more resilient to the impacts of climate change. It took the state company more than a week to restore power across the province, and the ice caused significant material damage in addition to causing the death of a man in his sixties in Montérégie. while he was trying to cut branches on his land.
Eight months later, tens of thousands of Hydro customers were again deprived of electricity when the first snowfalls of the winter season swept through several regions of Quebec in early December, bringing more rain. criticism of the state corporation.
Zacharie Goudreault
18. Can
The popularity of sparkling drinks is on the rise, but microbrewery beers are taking off.
The aluminum can has experienced several upheavals in 2023. Its popularity continues as the container of choice for an ever-expanding variety of effervescent beverages, from iced teas to flavored waters to cocktails.
However, some of its most loyal users, Quebec microbreweries, are going through difficult times, strangled as they are by the surge in raw material prices and the economic slowdown, in particular. Microbreweries have already announced their closure, such as MaBrasserie, the oldest brewing cooperative in Montreal.
On another note, the can has been increasingly recovered since the 1er last November, since it is now returnable for 10 cents, regardless of the liquid it contains.
Roxane Léouzon
19. Lease
France-Élaine Duranceau’s bill is far from unanimous.
Assignment of lease, clause G of the lease, clause F of the lease… The standard contract linking tenants and owners found itself at the heart of intense debates in Parliament because of Bill 31. By legislating to limit the use of assignments of lease lease, the Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, aroused indignation the scope of which she had clearly not measured. With record rents, the transfer of lease had become, for some, a roundabout way of countering the increases. By tackling it, the minister made it the symbol of resistance to the housing crisis… and opposition to the government.
Transferring the lease from one tenant to another during the term of the contract prevents the landlord from increasing the rent between the two. Unless he has a “serious reason”, such as a bad credit report, for example, he cannot contest an assignment. Bill 31 removes the “serious reason” criterion and allows the owner to refuse an assignment of lease without any particular reason.
Ironically, the transfer of lease was legalized 40 years ago, with the support of landlord lobbies. At the time, the vacancy rate was so high that it was difficult to find tenants. By allowing them to find someone to replace them, the owner benefited.
Throughout the fall, Minister Duranceau insisted that the transfer of leases was not the “right tool” to control housing prices. Without succeeding in generating support.
Isabelle Porter
20. Stopwatch
There has once again been a lot of talk about time and waiting lists in the healthcare world.
Tick tock, tick tock. The time is long for patients in Quebec. The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, assures that his reform of the health network will reduce waiting times. But the challenge is significant.
Emergency waiting rooms are overflowing, despite the establishment of the first line access window (GAP), the care of more than 800,000 patients by groups of family doctors and the creation of emergency clinics. Specialized nurse practitioners (IPS). As of December 11, the average length of stay on a stretcher in Quebec was 19 hours in the emergency room (the target is 14).
Another problem: access to specialist doctors. More than 800,000 Quebecers are waiting for a consultation. For 60% of them, the appointment is said to be “out of time”. The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) wants to reduce this percentage to 15% in 2026-2027.
Surgery waiting lists have decreased for Quebecers waiting for a non-urgent operation for a year or more. There were 20,649 on December 31, 2022, compared to 13,539 on November 4, 2023. But the total number of patients waiting is stagnating (around 164,000).
Now that he has passed his Bill 15 under gag order, Minister Christian Dubé promises that the new Santé Québec agency will produce positive results this summer. Until then, the new “access coordinator”, Michel Delamarre, will have to resolve the problems in the emergency room and at the GAP, in addition to reducing the time it takes to undergo an operation. Quite a mission.
Marie-Eve Cousineau
21. Gray Cup
Here is a sports trophy returned to Montreal after more than ten years of exile (which is always shorter than for others…).
Thirteen years since the trophy rewarding the winner of the Canadian Football League final circulated in the streets of the Quebec metropolis. A few days earlier, a touchdown in the final seconds allowed the Montreal Alouettes to win the 110e Gray Cup, at the expense of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, November 19. A highlight quickly followed by the declaration in front of the camera of Marc-Antoine Dequoy after the match: “Keep it, your English, because we won these cups, then we will [les] bring back to Montreal, to Quebec,” exclaimed the man who did not like the treatment given by the CFL and the TSN channel to his team and to the French-speaking people of the country. Montreal can even boast of being the “Canadian football capital” thanks to the conquest, six days later, of the second Vanier Cup – the university counterpart – in the history of the UdeM Carabins.
Baptiste Barbe
22. Submarine
The tragic story of a submersible and its crew who set out to discover the Titanic.
On June 18, the Titan dived into the waters of the North Atlantic with five men on board to explore the wreck of the Titanic. The submersible, operated by the company OceanGate, imploded and sank to the bottom of the ocean, dragging its wealthy passengers to death. Among them was OceanGate boss Stockton Rush.
The search operations to find the craft and its passengers have captivated the world. Critics, including those of a former executive of the company, David Lochridge, have however called into question the safety of the submersible and its real capacity to withstand the pressure of the depths of the ocean. Both the US Coast Guard and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) have launched an investigation into the tragic event.
Jeanne Corriveau
23. The cell phone
The almost essential object of communication in our lives has experienced some restrictions.
Students will no longer be able to drag it into the classroom. Elected officials in Quebec and Ottawa no longer have the right to use it to publish videos on TikTok. Cellphones were subject to restrictions by governments during the year. First by Ottawa, which on February 27 banned the TikTok application from all mobile devices of federal civil servants. The decision, motivated by the protection, “safety and security” of Canadians, was immediately reproduced in Quebec, for reasons of “information security and data protection”. The most prolific Quebec elected official on TikTok, the president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, has given up using the application. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is Chinese-owned. It is regularly the subject of suspicion from intelligence agencies, who fear that the application could serve as spyware for Beijing.
Furthermore, a directive banning cell phones in class was sent to Quebec schools at the end of October, for implementation at the start of the new year. The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, hopes that this measure will allow students to be “100% concentrated” in class, in order to improve “academic success”.
Marie-Michèle Sioui