Montreal restaurant owner impacted by postponed sidewalk repairs

It’s not unusual to see construction work in Montreal, detours, and closures leaving many businesses are bearing the brunt of that impacting their bottom line.

Montreal Restaurant owner, Mauro Pizioli says he was forced to take down his outdoor patio amid Labour Day weekend, for what he says the city told him were necessary sidewalk repairs and tree planting. Once removed, the city emailed him informing him of a schedule change and postponed work. For Pizioli, it means revenue lost.

“We came yesterday at 6:30 in the morning to remove the patio, and then I got the email at 9:23am saying that we no longer had to remove it. We’re extending it for three weeks. It’s too late. We already dismantled it. We packed it up and stored it,” explained Pizioli.

Trattoria Trestevere’s Patio set up for the summer.
(Credit: Mauro Pizioli)

The restaurant has been around for 48 years, the location a busy one in downtown Montreal on Crescent street. This summer in particular saw the return of tourists and regulars, the Labour Day long weekend will be one of the biggest accounting for 20 per cent of business in the summer.

“It’s lost revenue. The last few days, last few weeks that people want to get out there, and we had to bring it all in,”

Pizioli says, the City needs to understand the impact on local businesses “ you can’t just send an email saying to somebody at the last minute, you know, you can put it back up. It’s not right. So somebody has got to be accountable.”

Expecting repairs, Pizioli planned on closing for the week ahead, giving his employees time off now not able to go back on his decision.

“I plan accordingly…I said, we’ll take three or four days off that week to do a little renovations inside the restaurant. Now, everybody took their days.”

Pizioli tried to get answers about the postponement from the City and in response they told him they were advised last minute by the Public Works department about the postponement. That they do not know the exact reason behind it. Adding they have no control of the situation and for him to call 311 for further explanation.

“They gave me a number of 311, which is the generic 311, leaving messages like, I’m not going to go through that. What can they do? They’re not going to go back on their decision. So we have to suffer. As owners, we always suffer.”

Mauro Pizioli stands in his restaurant Trattoria Trestevere
(Credit: Felisha Adam)

In a statement to CityNews they say the reason behind the postponement is explained by the fact that the contractor mandated to repair the sidewalks had availability to carry out the work later this fall. Adding, they have decided to allow merchants to keep their terraces until September 30.

“The city is not gonna compensate us. They take us for granted. Business owners. We pay our taxes. We do what we have to do. And there’s no recourse.”

Pizioli says moving forward his main goal is to have the city take accountability of their actions, he will be suing them to try and make that happen.