Montreal candidates outline competing visions for city’s nightlife ahead of election

With Montreal’s municipal elections just weeks away, candidates from three major city parties gathered Thursday night to pitch their vision for the future of Montreal’s nightlife.

Candidates fielded questions from residents and nightlife advocates, debating how they plan to make the city’s nights more vibrant, accessible, and resilient.

“Montreal is a famous nightlife city, but there’s this very pervasive sense that the nightlife here is under threat,” said Max Honnigman, communications officer at MTL 24/24. “A lot of venues have either been closing or actively having issues with neighbors or with regulations, etc. So, we’re very pleased that nightlife has figured so actively into the kind of electoral narrative right now.”

“It’s an opportunity for us to shine the light on nightlife, to get the parties and the candidates talking and hopefully committing to things with the community,” said Jon Weisz, director, Salon des métiers d’art du Québec (SMAQ).

After years of venue owners receiving fines over noise complaints, candidates say they’re actively finding solutions to stop the closure of independent venues.

“The sort of thing that we want to implement is to make sure to create a fund of a million dollars where we can support small venues to be able to become owners,” said Ericka  Alneus, city councillor and candidate for Projet Montréal. “We want to make sure that there’s mediation. We want to make sure that the fines are low, and we really want to make sure that it’s really inspectors and mediation that really works the co-habitation and the mitigation linked to venues and the quality of life of people.”

Transition Montréal’s leader and mayoral candidate Craig Sauvé says he echoes Projet Montréal’s ideas on mediation and ownership and has an additional idea to try and help save Montreal’s nightlife.

“We want to create a first night mayor as well,” said Sauvé. “Montreal’s first night mayor, whose job is to really look at the issues facing nightlife. And this person will be directly under the director general of the city of Montreal. I would advise all the services on how they can improve their reactions toward nightlife to make sure that we have a concerted strategy to protect our nightlife.”

Ensemble Montreal’s borough mayor candidate Jean Beaudoin concurs with fellow candidates’ sentiments, adding the future of nightlife in Montreal isn’t going to be about fines, rather achieving equilibrium.

“In each of these neighborhoods, there’s a mood about the nightlife,” said Beaudoin. “So, we’re going to look to make sure that it’s part and valued as part of our soundscape, not as noise, but as a positive soundscape. And in that vision, we align on SMAQ that organized the event tonight to make sure that we have venues that promote artists and that our artists in every borough are promoted for making the nightlife richer.”

“I think that tonight’s event definitely represents part of the next step in terms of how the city is going to treat and value nightlife,” said Weisz.

“I think just the fact that we’re all coming together and discussing it as a positive for society is something to be protected and supported and enjoyed,” said Honnigman.