The City of Montreal denies not taking action for the development and supervision of its night activities. The head of economic development on the executive committee, Luc Rabouin, says that the era of pilot projects is over, and specifies that the unveiling of the nightlife policy will take place in the fall of 2023.
In the pages of Duty, Wednesday, the director general of the organization MTL 24/24, Mathieu Grondin, said he was impatient to see “concrete actions” on the part of the administration of Valérie Plante in this file. Mr. Rabouin, also mayor of Plateau-Mont-Royal, understands the eagerness of nightlife players, but he believes that the City has not stood idly by.
“We are not waiting for the day when we will have the nightlife policy to start, we have been in action since the end of the pandemic, if we want, to do concrete things, says Luc Rabouin. Some find that it takes a bit of time, but we are in the process of putting things in place, the conditions in place so that afterwards we can have common, systematic rules that generate support. »
The time for pilot projects is well and truly behind us, says the borough mayor. For the past year, the City has scrutinized the progress of a dozen activities during which it was allowed to extend liquor sales permits beyond 3 a.m. “We had no data, everyone had their opinion,” he explains.
Result: except for a few hiccups, everything went smoothly, leaving the night owls, the organizers and the tenants delighted. “Also the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal also makes a positive assessment of it, like the boroughs. »
This means that the fruit is ripe for the City of Montreal. “We are now able to make our decisions, we are well aware of the conditions that must be put in place systematically when there are events of this type,” explains Luc Rabouin.
This future nocturnal policy will look at governance issues, assures the Montreal elected official. It will provide a general framework, but will also aim to make life easier for the organizers of night-time events, who often have to juggle with the city centre, the boroughs and the various municipal departments.
Mr. Rabouin, however, seems reluctant to put in place an official nightlife running back within the Plante administration. “We are less focused on symbolic elements […] Above all, we want to have clear rules and processes that are known, with which we can respond effectively” to the various applicants.
Everything seems to be a question of balance in this file, particularly with regard to noise regulations, an important knot that nightlife policy will have to tackle. “We want to both maintain Montreal’s position as a festive city, as a city of nightlife and ensure a very high quality of life for Montrealers,” illustrates Mr. Rabouin.