Wednesday, June 12, Côte-des-Neiges Road, Montreal. It’s lunchtime on the main thoroughfare of the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood. Several groups of students from local schools are going in and out of restaurants. Pizza, poutine, kebabs, burgers, burritos, fried chicken, shish-taouk, tacos: they’re spoiled for choice. All within a five-minute walk of their school.
“Here, on Côte-des-Neiges, everything is junk food,” says Jeremy Antonatos, a 5th grade student.e secondary school student at Jean-de-Brébeuf College, met at McDonald’s. His friend, William Apekian, says he eats at these restaurants every week for the “proximity and [parce que] It’s affordable.”
Seeing the multitude of young people in uniform gathered around the fluorescent benches of the various fast-food restaurants, it is difficult to imagine that Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (CDN-NDG) became in 2016 the only Montreal borough to ban new fast-food restaurants practically everywhere on its territory.
The regulation caused a stir when it was adopted. A restaurant association challenged it in Superior Court. Defeated, it turned to the Court of Appeal, where it was again dismissed. The case ended in 2022, when the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The borough had the last word.
However, on the Côte-des-Neiges road, the number of fast food restaurants has increased since the regulation came into force eight years ago, observed The Press. An observation also made on site by the former municipal councilor and instigator of the regulation, Marvin Rotrand.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Hamburgers, fries, poutine, tacos, chicken; schoolchildren have access to a huge number of foods high in salt, sugar and fat.
In 2016, according to our research in the Google Street View archives, 19 fast food restaurants, as defined by the bylaw, were located on the most commercial 800-metre stretch of Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges, approximately between Chemin Queen-Mary and Chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine. This entire area is covered by the ban. When passing The Pressin June, there were now 23.
A regulation with limited effects
The borough defines a fast food restaurant as an establishment where there is no table service and where meals are served mostly on disposable tableware when eaten on site. Establishments with fewer than 6 tables or 12 seats are excluded from the regulation, since they are considered caterers.
According to the observations of Corinne Voyer, director of the Vital Collective, the offer of foods “rich in salt, sugar and fat” is also present among restaurants that do not meet the criteria of the regulation.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Menu of a fast food restaurant that has opened since the regulation came into force. A low-priced double menu is prominently displayed.
For example, a newly opened fried chicken counter is not considered a fast food restaurant since it uses almost no disposable tableware when customers eat in.
We can regulate fast food, but that doesn’t necessarily affect what’s on the plate. Zoning can be part of the solution, but it can’t solve the situation on its own.
Corinne Voyer, director of the Collectif Vital and holder of a master’s degree in community health
Former city councilor Marvin Rotrand hoped that limiting the number of fast food restaurants would make it possible to offer healthier food options near schools. He is disappointed to see that the number of fast food restaurants has instead increased.
“It wasn’t a good idea to have fast food restaurants near schools,” explains Marvin Rotrand. Several other measures aimed at the health of residents had been put in place at the same time, in order to promote “healthy lifestyle habits” in the borough. “This bylaw was a great victory […]“At the time, it was innovative!” he recalls.
Thousands of students
A few hundred meters from the Côte-des-Neiges road are three secondary schools and two primary schools, attended by 5,600 students in total. Both at lunchtime and after school, teenagers are numerous in the surrounding restaurants.
“The majority of our customers come from colleges, whether it’s Brébeuf or Notre-Dame,” explains Yonsorena Nont, assistant manager of Chung Chun, while he coats the pogos of the three young customers preceding us with sweet mayonnaise.
PHOTO DENIS GERMAIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
“The majority of our customers come from colleges, whether it’s Brébeuf or Notre-Dame,” explains Yonsorena Nont, assistant manager of Chung Chun, while he coats the pogos of the three young customers preceding us with sweet mayonnaise.
“Why does a regulation tested in court, which everyone considers a model, not seem to have the support of the district?” asks Mr. Rotrand.
“It’s not hard to do, though. The Plante administration is big talker, but small doer, even when it comes to their progressive ideas.” Both Côte-des-Neiges district councillor Magda Popeanu and CDN-NDG borough mayor Gracia Kasoki Katahwa were elected under the Projet Montréal banner.
” [Le règlement] gives us tools to curb the expansion of fast food in the borough […] Our teams evaluate the applications for occupation permits according to the regulations in force,” indicated Mr.me Kasoki Katahwa, in a written statement sent to The Press.
Opening without pitfalls
According to the spokesperson for the CDN-NDG borough, Étienne Brunet, a fast food restaurant, which opened before the by-law came into force, is not in violation of the zoning rule: it has an acquired right.
Similarly, this right can be transferred from one fast food restaurant to another for the same location. “A restaurant can replace a restaurant,” summarizes Me Mario Paul-Hus, lawyer specializing in municipal law.
This information was confirmed by the district, which claims to have not issued any fast food permits in the area.
However, new restaurants that meet the definition of a fast food restaurant have general catering permits.
“We can assume that the City accepted them despite the zoning regulations,” says Mr.e Paul-Hus.
This is the case of the restaurant G la Dalle. They serve “all the big names” [de] McDonald’s, Harveys […]but in a halal version,” explains Bassal Hassal, franchise manager. There is no table service, disposable tableware is mostly used and the establishment has more than 12 seats.
“We’ve never had any problems here,” Hassal said when asked if the district had ever visited him. “If I’m talking about [l’arrondissement] from Côte-des-Neiges, he was never really present.
The restaurateurs visited by The Press were not aware of the existence of the regulation.
A little further down the Côte-des-Neiges road, a new fast food restaurant has just opened. At this same address in 2016, and until a few months ago, there was a non-fast food restaurant. “I went to the city to ask for a permit, it took 24 hours and I had it,” explains the owner, who does not wish to give his identity so as not to harm his business.
According to the district, restaurateurs are informed of the ban when they apply for a permit. Similarly, an inspection only takes place after a complaint is received.
“I find it surprising that we grant permits and then tell consumers to file a complaint if the regulations are not respected,” says Corinne Voyer.