The city of Montreal has launched an administrative inquiry into a series of misunderstandings that culminated in a Friday evening that the mayor described as “chaos” when several restaurant owners were forced to shut down their terrasses at the start of Grand Prix weekend.
An employee with the city’s fire service has already been suspended, said the executive committee member responsible for economic development, Luc Rabouin. He met with the affected Peel Street restaurant owners Monday afternoon to discuss what happened and find solutions moving forward.
“It was a shock for them, for us, for their clientele and of course Montreal’s image was affected as well,” he told reporters.
Rabouin added that he asked the restaurant owners for 24 hours to figure out how they may keep their tent-covered terrasses open for the summer.
On Friday, fire prevention officers fined several businesses when they didn’t take down tents that had been installed, after they had been told they were a fire hazard.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante defended the fire department’s decision, but apologized for the way it happened and the resulting impact.
“We must never skimp on security issues,” said Plante during a news scrum Sunday, saying fire officials have a duty to intervene if safety measures are not followed.
“Where I am very concerned is the way it happened,” she said. “I’m sorry it led to chaos on Peel Street.”
Ferreira Café owner Sandra Ferreira was hit with a $1,326 ticket, but she said bar and restaurant owners on Peel Street were under the impression they had “special permission” for the tents.
According to Guy Lapointe, a division chief with the Montreal fire department, the restaurant owners were told over a week ago their tent tops were not compliant with bylaw regulations because they weren’t at least three metres away from the building.
The terrasses eventually reopened, but owners are complaining about how the fire department performed the operation.
In an interview Monday morning with Radio-Canada’s Tout un matin, Ferreira said waiting until Friday night to carry out the inspection “was really cruel” and resulted in an estimated loss of tens of thousands of dollars in revenue.
Montreal fire department inspectors closed busy terrasses on Peel Street during F1 weekend, sparking furor online. On Sunday, Mayor Valérie Plante tried to explain the situation.
Lapointe, who also joined the Radio-Canada program Monday, said an agent was supposed to check the conformity of the terrasses earlier in the week, but that never happened.
He said Friday’s operation wasn’t to crack down on the tents, but instead to ensure capacity rules were being following on Peel Street.
“[On] Grand Prix weekend, one of the problems we have is that restaurants and bars don’t respect the capacity levels for the number of people inside and on the terrasse,” Lapointe said.
Closing a terrasse is always a last resort, he added. “No one wanted it to go how it did this weekend.”
‘Big communication problem’
Plante says an administrative post-mortem will take place Monday to discuss how the situation was handled and to establish the timeline of what happened in the days and weeks leading up to Friday.
“For the moment, I mainly have the impression that there was a big communication problem,” she said.
Lapointe said he wants to find out why no one carried out a second check before Friday, adding he’ll see how communication can be improved to avoid situations like this in the future.
Meanwhile, the Opposition at city hall is calling for a plenary session to get “public transparency on this shameful and unacceptable situation for Montreal restaurateurs.”
“The events of Friday evening strongly shook the Montreal population and tarnished the image of the metropolis,” said Ensemble Montréal officials in a statement Monday.
In addition to the post-mortem, the mayor said she will also be requesting a meeting with the fire department, the Ville-Marie borough and the restaurant owners this week to discuss the situation.
“It’s out of the question that a situation like this will happen again,” Plante said.
Ferreira said Monday she has yet to be contacted for that meeting.