Can City Hall Save Montreal’s Nightlife?

PHOTO: Emelia Fournier.

By Emelia Fournier

All-night party zones. Money for alternative and queer spaces. Noise laws that make sense. 

These are some of the recommendations that the mayor and her team will have to consider while writing up their long-awaited Montreal nightlife policy. 

After months of consultations, Montreal’s Commission on economic development, urban development and housing presented its final recommendations on Montreal’s nightlife policy at a public assembly on April 29. 

“We already have a nightlife in Montreal. We want to make sure that we can give the right tools for it to be secure for everyone that wants to enjoy it,” said Ericka Alneus, the city councillor responsible for nightlife.

The city invited Montrealers to express their opinion on the nightlife policy via an online survey, public hearings and by writing directly to the Commission over the past few months. The recommendations were supposed to be announced mid-April, but the Commission took extra time to analyze the responses and reports they received, particularly from people who participate in alternative nightlife. 

“I thought it was really important to recognize the essential role that the underground ecosystem plays in Montreal’s nightlife,” said commission member Marie-Claude Baril. “I’m happy that we’re able to allow it to shine, and most of all to avoid losing it, because the underground is the soul of Montreal’s nightlife.” 

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In brief, the Commission recommends that Montreal’s administration:

• Adopt the Montreal nightlife policy, establish an action plan and provide the necessary financial and human resources (R-1) 

• Designate “nightlife vitality zones” (zones de vitalité nocturne) where events will be allowed to stay open and sell liquor past 3 a.m. (R-2)
• “Consider” integrating the agent of change principle in nightlife vitality zones (R-3)
• Establish stricter soundproofing standards for residential or commercial builds in accordance with the agent of change principle (R-4)
• Partner with boroughs to establish their own noise regulations, including specific decibel thresholds (R-5, R-6)
• Create accessible funding programs for alternative venues and spaces (R-7)
• Support the creation and maintenance of inclusive nightlife spaces for marginalized communities, like 2SLGBTQ+ people, racialized people and disabled people (R-8)
• Encourage boroughs to increase the accessibility of public spaces for nightlife (R-9)
• Increase the availability of and funding for nighttime public transport (R-10, R-11)
• Create a centralized administrative body to manage nightlife and related issues (R-12)
• Fund non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work to prevent harassment and violence at night and allow these organizations to participate in the rollout of the nightlife policy (R-13)
• Work with the provincial government to increase funding for these NGOs (R-14)
• Implement “social mediation teams” in nightlife vitality zones (R-15) 
• Include security and mediation terms when authorizing late-night alcohol permits (R-16)

These recommendations will be reviewed by Montreal’s executive committee, who will announce a finalized policy and an action plan potentially in the fall. 

Bashar Sawalha (left) and Shermine Sawalha run the venue ESC in Quartier des Spectacles. PHOTO: Emelia Fournier

“Guarded optimism”

Members of Montreal’s nightlife community at the Monday morning assembly said they felt heard by the Commission, but they were still apprehensive for the future.

“I think the recommendations were pretty complete. They reflected what we were asking for,” said Mathieu Grondin, director of nightlife advocacy group MTL 24/24. “Of course, some of the phrasing could have been more insistent here and there. For example, on the agent of change principle, they’re going to ‘consider’ it. Meanwhile, it’s something that over 20 cities in the world have adopted.” 

A member of Scènes de musique alternative du Québec intervened during the public assembly. She thanked the commission for their recognition of alternative spaces, but pointed out that alternative venues were scattered across the territory, not concentrated to specific zones. She asked the commission why the agent of change principle would only be applied to the future “nightlife vitality zones.” 

The Agent of Change principle states that new businesses or residences are responsible for noise proofing their buildings to adapt to the ones that already exist in the neighbourhood. Other cities, like Toronto and London, England, have put this practice in place. 

Commissioner Julien Hénault-Ratelle pointed to recommendation 6, which indicated that all boroughs should establish revamp noise regulations, including specific decibel thresholds, as Côtes-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-De-Grâce have already done.

“We thought that without necessarily resorting to the application of the agent of change principle, if these noise regulations are put in place, that it will improve social cohesion and cohabitation challenges across the boroughs,” said Hénault-Ratelle. “We took that into consideration, we studied it, and this is the recommendation we came to.” 

Max Honigmann, a rave organizer with Homegrown Harvest, said he left the public assembly with some unanswered questions.

“I would describe the mood as guarded optimism. Some of the recommendations were definitely heartening. Others I don’t think went far enough,” he said. 

He was disappointed that the agent of change policy would only be applied to the “nightlife vitality zones.” When he asked the commission for details on the vitality zones, they said those were yet to be determined.

“We still have no information. Is it going to be a street, is it going to be a neighbourhood, is it going to be multiple places, individual venues? We have no idea, because so much remains to be defined,” said Honigmann.

Grondin also says nothing can move forward unless the city agrees to establish a Montreal nightlife mayor.

“It takes an expert, someone who has confidence in working for the nightlife community because they’re from that community,” he said.

Until the executive committee makes its final decision, the future of Montreal’s nightlife is still uncertain.

“It wasn’t in the commission’s mandate to recommend concrete actions. We’re really in high-level policy here. It’s really up to the executive committee to act in good faith with their decisions and their budget.”

City is “not being lenient” towards struggling venues

While venue owners welcomed the Commission’s recommendations, the sluggish pace of municipal politics left some worried about the future of their business.Siblings Shermine Sawalha and Bashar Sawalha run a venue in the Quartier des Spectacles called ESC. They intervened at the public assembly wondering if there would be any immediate assistance available to venue owners.

Over the past year, they worked on upgrading their space in accordance with the different standards of inspectors from the city, police, the liquor board and the fire department. They have also added soundproofing in their space to address frequent noise complaints from a new condo. 

But they have gone into debt trying to navigate the city’s red tape and have had to put their business on hold while waiting for the city’s permission to proceed. 

“Many months take place until any permit [to modify our space] is given from the city, a process that is really long and confusing in many cases,” Shermine told the commission.

“But when the city makes a decision [that we need to fix something], it is immediate and there is no time for us to actually figure out solutions to come out of these problems.” 

Their liquor licence was revoked in late March because of too many noise complaints from a newly built condo, leading to many promoters cancelling upcoming events.

“With the way things are happening, we might not even be able to survive the next two months. We currently have lost 90 per cent of our business, we have two days to pay insane rents,” Shermine said.

“I recognize the difficult situation that you’re going through,” replied Kaila A. Munro, the Commission’s president. While she said the Commission had “no executive power” to address their situation, Munro pointed to the recommendations on noise regulations and implementing a nightlife policy as an eventual solution to their issues.  

In the meantime, the siblings are hosting fundraising events at ESC on weekends to hold them over. Bashar and Shermine  say they will continue to contend with incessant, ever-changing demands and mounting debt. 

“It’s like a Catch-22. Every single time we want to do something that is right, legal, and learn [from it],” Bashar told The Rover outside of city hall. “But then it leads to a stoppage of our business and damages all our growth for another two, three months. We clear something up, they find something else.” 

One of the requests from the city was to “beautify” their garage and to install glass doors to see inside the space, making soundproofing even more difficult. 

“That took away the money that we needed to do many things,” said Shermine.

“They’re not being lenient. They’re not being helpful. They’re always blocking us and trying to actually slow us down,” said Bashar. 

“Everything’s been done as recommended by the fire department. And we’ve given all the papers as the (liquor board) requests it,” Shermine said “Then it (seemed like they were) digging in and trying to find something to hold us accountable for versus actually giving us a heads up on how to do it correctly and helping us make it work better.”

Shermine says that other venues have faced the same confusing scrutiny when they try to do things above board, particularly in the past few months. “Lots of venues are getting shut down. Their alcohol hours are limited. Promoters are getting their licenses revoked,” Shermine said. “It’s almost like (regulatory bodies) know that there’s a new policy coming out and they’re trying to make sure that everything is ready before they start putting new rules in place.”

PHOTO: Lou Seltz, @lou.celsius

Destigmatization 

While the clock ticks away for struggling venues and artists, Grondin says the nightlife policy has been part of a long-term mission to normalize nightlife. 

“We’re addressing elected officials that weren’t familiar with nightlife spaces. They’re officials who go to bed early and get up early, that maybe didn’t spend their youth in Montreal,” said Grondin. “There’s a huge amount of education and destigmatization that needs to be done to bring that change of mentality at the city level and to make them understand the importance of the vitality, the creativity and the identity of our city.”

Honigmann was happy the recommendations extend beyond the city’s most popular spots.

“Mentioning alternative culture and underground culture, putting that on paper and recognizing the value of it is a great first step,” said Honigmann, “And then funding projects within that space as well is huge. 

“Something I face all the time as an organizer is stigma, whether it’s from potential venues or residents or whatever. They just view nightlife as this kind of inherently criminal, inherently immoral thing, which is very far from reality, in my opinion. Finding ways to work with the city to kind of address that stigmatization, to legitimize nightlife, is really important, even if it’s a little bit abstract.”

Addressing the Commission at the end of their presentation, Rosemont city councillor Ericka Alenus said the recommendations were a reflection of true democratic engagement, saying:

“It’s no small feat to study all the reports you received, all the public consultations. Thank you for doing it with seriousness, but also with openness. We had people from all walks of life, often people who we do not give a voice to and you opened the door to Montreal democracy to those folks, and that’s where I’m realizing we’re moving forward.”

@emelia_fournier