This is Montreal

If you check out a compass or maps app, you may notice our sense of direction in Montreal is a bit … tilted. Our "north" leans pretty far west and if you head over to the South Shore and keep going, you end up in the Eastern Townships — which are not in Eastern Quebec. In this favourite episode from March 2024, we try to help you find your bearings by exploring our off-kilter geography. 

New housing developments, especially highrises that require zoning changes, can draw opposition from residents, in some cases leading to referendums on whether the projects can go ahead. While some argue referendums amount to NIMBYism during a housing crisis, others argue citizens should have the power to block projects that don’t meet neighbourhood needs.

No matter who wins the NBA finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers, a Montrealer will be hoisting the trophy. And perhaps no one is cheering harder for both the Pacers’ Bennedict Mathurin and the Thunder’s Luguentz Dort than people in Montréal-Nord. We’ll hear from Montrealers who love basketball about their sport in their city: how far it’s come, how far it can go, and wha...

This week’s strike by maintenance workers has left many commuters out of luck. The labour action is happening at a time when the STM is facing pressure to cut costs, all while facing some major maintenance challenges over the next decade. We’ll look at what this all means for workers and Montreal transit users in the long term.

Quebec is aiming to open up trade with other provinces, but the province says cross-border alcohol sales will take more time to sort out. Some small producers say change can't come soon enough because they have been getting the bottom of the barrel.

Since the federal government scrapped its carbon tax, Quebec stands alone as the only province with its own price on carbon. Now the Quebec government is facing calls from some corners to eliminate it, in order to bring down the price at the pump. But some experts say that would put us even further from our climate goals. And some Quebecers are still trying to wrap their heads around what exactly...

With another spring pothole season upon us, we’re digging into the archives to ponder Montreal’s pothole problem. We’ll get into the science of potholes, their impacts, and what we could be doing differently to deal with them. 

Between the West Island and the South Shore and stretching all the way from Ile-Perrot to Lachine, you'll find Lac Saint-Louis. But is it a lake? Is it just part of the Saint Lawrence River? Or is it both? The answer is more complex than you might think.

We head to the Montreal Climate Summit to hear how environmental advocates are trying to reshape their message about climate change, to emphasize how it’s hurting the health, homes and finances of Montrealers.

With the city's summer festival season around the corner, Montreal's festivals are in fundraising mode. But post-pandemic, and faced with rising production costs, some say independent festivals need more support to keep going--and to keep Montreal's reputation as a world-class city for arts and culture alive. 

With the cost of groceries on the rise, more Canadians are turning to food banks to feed themselves. In this episode, as we approach the end of the federal election campaign we look at why food has gotten so expensive and what solutions are being proposed to make grocery shopping more affordable. 

From the cost of buying a home, to the climate changes hitting North America, many of the top issues for voters are also top of mind for young people, and central to their futures. So why do young people show up to the polls in fewer numbers than other generations, and what can be done to get more of them to cast their ballot? 

In the shadow of U.S. tariffs, reviving pipeline projects has been up for discussion in this federal election campaign, even in Quebec, where opposition has been strong in the past. So how did Montreal go from the city where half a million people marched for climate action, to a place where the environment seems barely on the ballot?

Montreal rents are rising sharply. The median price of a single family home has more than doubled in a decade. So what can the next federal government do to get housing built more quickly?

Usually, it might be Quebec sovereignty that’s on the table come election time. But this time around, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and annexation, some Quebec voters, like those in the rest of Canada, have Canadian sovereignty on their minds. We’ll look at what that might mean for the electoral map in Quebec.

Those white plastic temporary car shelters — known as tempos — pop up in driveways in many Montreal driveways each winter. Those who love ‘em say they save the time and hassle of digging out their cars after a snowstorm. Those who hate ‘em say they’re an eyesore at best and a potential hazard at worst. We’ll hear how they became a Quebec winter phenomenon and why, more than fifty years after they...

For some it was the choppy sound of a video call. For others, it was tuning into the daily news briefings. For others still, it was the voice of a patient saying goodbye to loved ones who couldn’t be with them in their final hour. Five years after Quebec declared a public health emergency over COVID-19, five Montrealers reflect on what they remember most about the early days of the pandemic and ho...

Many Montreal families may be heading off-island to hit the ski slopes for March break this week. But throughout most of the 20th century, you could find downhill ski runs on and around Mount Royal, complete with tow ropes, T-bars and even a 100-ft long ski jump! We'll hear why downhill skiing disappeared from the heart of Montreal, and why not everyone agrees over whether it should come back.

To shake off those winter blues, we’re bringing you one of our favourite episodes from the archives. We follow an urban explorer who has walked nearly every alleyway in Montreal and hear how alleys helped shape the development of and the social life of many Montreal neighbourhoods.

When Montreal gets walloped with snow like it just did, it takes days to get the streets and sidewalks cleared. A century ago some streets just didn’t get cleared at all. From horse-drawn plows to the snowblowers, plows and trucks we use today, we’ll look at how snow clearing has evolved in Montreal. And we’ll hear from some Montreal researchers who are working to design the snow removal of the fu...

As of this month, if you buy an electric car in Quebec, you’ll be paying for it entirely out of your own pocket. The federal rebate program for electric vehicles has ended early and the Quebec program is on pause until April, before being phased out in 2027. Both Quebec and Canada have goals to eliminate the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. But with less subsidy money on th...

Every year Quebec’s housing tribunal, known in French as the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL), releases a set of calculations to help landlords and tenants figure out how much rent should increase. This year it recommended 5.9 per cent for an unheated apartment — the largest increase in at least 30 years. So how does the TAL come up with this number? We’ll look at how the rental increase f...

In October, the Education Ministry published a report alleging that a group of teachers at an elementary school in Côte-des-Neiges had for years created a toxic atmosphere. That led to a series of investigations into other schools. In the wake of those events, about 30 Montrealers gathered at the Maison des Jeunes in Côte-des-Neiges, for a conversation with CBC host Nantali Indongo about the state...

New York has become the latest city to implement congestion charges, as a way to try to curb its traffic problem. Some Montrealers think it’s the solution to gridlock here, while others are concerned about it becoming a financial burden for drivers who don’t have many other options. We’ll look at how congestion pricing works and hear whether it’s on the radar of policymakers in Montreal.

When one Montrealer left an abusive partner, the financial strain of paying her ever-rising rent brought her to a breaking point. But thanks to a new long-term housing project for women and their children run by a women’s shelter, she feels like she can finally breathe. We’ll hear how, in the midst of a housing affordability crisis, Montreal women’s shelters are taking matters into their own hands...