Faced with milder temperatures, the South-West district is extending the season of its terraces by a month. Residents will be able to benefit from it two weeks earlier than planned, from 1er April, and two weeks later, until November 15.
This was indicated on Friday by the mayor of the Montreal borough, Benoit Dorais. The period that was until now in force for the terraces was from April 15 to 1er november.
As a general rule, the districts have jurisdiction over urban development and terraces on their territory. In Le Plateau-Mont-Royal and Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie, for example, the authorized period goes from April 15 to November 15.
In the city center, in Ville-Marie, merchants can open their terraces from March 15 until November 15, especially because of tourism and the many workers who pass through there.
Further east, in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the terrace season begins on 1er April and stops on October 31, while to the west, in LaSalle, it goes from 1er May to October 15. In short, the picture is not at all the same from one sector to another, even if several boroughs have a similar schedule.
At Mayor Dorais’s office, they say that the objective behind this measure “is really to encourage our merchants and stimulate commercial vitality.” That said, “the milder weather makes it possible to put forward this type of initiative,” maintains the director of the firm, Antoine Poulin.
Favorable weather
All this comes while the current winter is far from particularly cold. In February, heat records were broken two days in a row in the south of the province.
The mercury even reached 15°C in Montreal, shattering a historic record dating back to the year 2000. However, temperatures then plunged by 15 to 20°C in the space of a few hours, depending on the sector, before rising again. once on the rise. On Thursday, the thermometer hovered around 12°C in the metropolis.
In March 2023, with the aim of increasing their number, the South-West had already voted by regulation to authorize three new types of commercial terraces, namely the common terrace café, the “3 tables/” type terrace café 12 chairs” and the shared terrace.
“We have also regularized and improved several applicable rules by adding, for example, new standards concerning universal accessibility and the presence of plants, in particular,” Benoit Dorais then argued.
At the Association of SDCs of Montreal, interim general director Sébastien Ridoin recalls that as spring approaches, and despite economic challenges, “SDCs are redoubling their efforts to meticulously prepare their commercial arteries and territories, in order to fully support their traders.” “It is crucial to promote our local businesses and favor local purchasing,” insists Mr. Ridoin, who invites Montrealers to frequent the terraces in large numbers.
In 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, Montreal implemented a symbolic cost measure of only $50 for restaurants wishing to set up an outdoor terrace. Several traders then took advantage of the opportunity to equip themselves with a terrace. The idea was then to try to convince Montrealers and visitors to return to the city center, whose business has been hit hard by COVID-19.