The fire spread quietly just before dawn on Thursday. Sneakily. There was no alarm, no sprinkler, nothing, according to an Ontario couple woken by the smoke, who managed to break a window and jump.
But in Charlie’s apartment, there were no windows, according to his father.
“Come get us, we can’t get out!” “begged the young woman to 9-1-1. Her boyfriend called back three minutes later. “Come get us. We are stuck. There is no emergency exit. »
The call cut off. Charlie Lacroix, 18, was not seen alive. Neither does her boyfriend. And at least five other people, who are still missing.
Five days later, we still do not know if this is a final assessment. We do not know if we will find other bodies in the charred rubble of Place d’Youville, in the heart of Old Montreal.
What we know is that some victims had rented apartments on the floors of the building through the Airbnb platform. Apartments that had been illegally rented to them.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” regrets Charlie’s father, Louis-Philippe Lacroix. He is right. It shouldn’t have happened.
It must never happen again.
Louis-Philippe Lacroix could have held on for days. Hope it’s all just a terrible misunderstanding. After all, he has no body. No proof of Charlie’s death.
But he gave up hope when the police told him to call 9-1-1. The one in which his daughter said she was trapped.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
The heritage building in Place d’Youville which was ravaged by flames last Thursday
Already, Louis-Philippe Lacroix manages to talk about her in the past tense. “She was a super playful little girl. She was 18, she had everything in front of her…”
If he agreed to discuss it with me on Sunday, it was in the hope of getting things moving. So that Charlie didn’t die for nothing.
These days, so many people die in a fire in Quebec, it’s extremely rare. If there had been an emergency exit, it would be there. Not even an emergency exit, a window. Just a window. That’s all.
Louis-Philippe Lacroix, father of Charlie
He’s not against Airbnb. He announces his own chalet on the platform. But we should at the very least make sure that the accommodation offered is safe, he pleads. “People will split a house into quarters to try to maximize their profits. That’s what makes no sense. »
In Old Montreal, it is strictly forbidden to rent Airbnb-type accommodation to tourists.
However, on the Airbnb site, there are a lot of them. For all tastes and all wallets. It is displayed without embarrassment, without the slightest restraint, in the face of the (in)competent authorities. It’s the Wild West.
City regulations? They don’t care, knowing too well that no inspector (or almost) will be there to enforce them!
The City of Montreal remains idly by, grumbling that these inspections should be the responsibility of the Government of Quebec, which replies that no, no, it is indeed a municipal jurisdiction…
We are once again witnessing this highly prized discipline of modern administrations: the return of the ball. When a citizen files a complaint with the City, presto, the latter transfers it to Revenu Québec. It is he, it is explained, who is responsible for enforcing the Tourist Accommodation Act.
Revenu Québec claims, on the contrary, that its inspectors do not have the mandate to enforce municipal regulations. “When you talk to the authorities, they pitch the ball, it’s not Montreal, it’s Quebec; it’s not Quebec, it’s Montreal…”, deplores Louis-Philippe Lacroix.
The bereaved father spoke with the head of security at the City of Montreal. “I just said to him: it doesn’t matter where it comes from, we don’t care. Just do something, that’s all. »
Called to comment1the office of Mayor Valérie Plante reiterated “the urgency of going even further to regulate illegal tourist accommodation practices”.
But how do you go even further when you’re not going anywhere? When we get laughed in the face by speculators who throw tenants out on the street to fill their pockets by renting their apartments by the night?
In 2022, more than 95% of the 12,000 accommodations displayed in Montreal on the Airbnb platform did not have a certificate, yet mandatory under Quebec law, according to data from the American organization Inside Airbnb.
In other words, almost all of the accommodation displayed in the metropolis was illegal. The Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal may have adopted strict rules, but they seem like dunces in this area.
The solution does not necessarily involve the massive addition of resources. Even with an army of additional inspectors, Montreal – or Quebec, it depends – would not come to the end of the seven-headed hydra formed by Airbnb and other platforms of this type.
Above all, these companies must be forced to enforce local regulations, experts say.
It doesn’t have to be that complicated. It’s done elsewhere. California, for example, fines Airbnb US$1,000 per day for each illegal listing posted on its site.
Guess what ? Since the state began imposing these fines, the compliance rate of accommodations posted on the platform has gone from 20%… to 100%.
Quebec must follow California’s example. Taming the Airbnb Hydra. For evicted tenants. For neighborhoods suffocated under the weight of tourism. For safer housing. For Charlie and the others.