Montreal restaurant owner’s terrace permit revoked, then restored

Montreal restaurants are shifting to terrace mode as the weather is getting warmer and the tourist season is months away.

Montreal restauranteurs in the Old Port ran into some issues this week when they received notice that their existing terrace permits were revoked.

“They decided to revoke our permit for our secondary terrace. So we do have to terrace we have one which is in a parking space, which is usually your standard terrace. But we have a special permit to have it across the streets in the park,” said Kevin Demers, owner of Bella resto-bar in Old Montreal.

Demers took to Facebook to express his frustration.

For the past four years, the City has implemented a new bylaw forbidding terraces in the park across the street, something Bella and other restaurants have been doing for several years now without a problem.

“Why did you walk over it now all of a sudden and govern it now?” questioned Demers. “So to me, it’s just like it was a little bit of a problem and I wanted to be vocal about it because not having a clear explanation of something is a bother, as well as when it was already approved in the first place.”

“It’s really important for universal accessibility to permit some things and to not permit other things, because actually there’s places that belong and other places it’s not permitted and for good reason. In that case, it was because it was in the park, it was zoning park,” said Robert Beaudry, city councillor in the Ville-Marie borough.

After hearing of the issue, the Mayor’s office took swift action not to hurt restauranteurs during high season.

“And so we said, OK, this year is going to be OK. We’re going to find a solution and we’re going to work with you to find a solution for the next year to respect the bylaws. He was really happy of that. The main focus right now is how can we save the years with the COVID, because it’s been hard for the bars, it was hard for the restaurants,” said Beaudry.

Demers and others are relieved by the decision to allow the terraces in Place d’Youville park and commend the administration for listening to their concern and addressing the issues.

The City of Montreal said it will be working with merchants to figure out a workable plan for next year.