Peel Street businesses coming off a hectic, emotional F1 weekend just got some good news from their mayor — though it may be too little, too late.
Last Friday, the Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal (SSIM), the city’s fire safety service, forced several businesses to shut down their terrasses because the tents covering them were deemed a fire hazard given how close they were to the buildings.
The next day, they were allowed to reopen their terrasses — without the tents, however — and the entire ordeal led to fines, confusion and thousands of dollars in lost revenue during one of the biggest events of the year.
In a statement on Thursday, the city announced that the tents can also come back on, with Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante acknowledging that the “abrupt” manner in which the terrasses were closed was “unjustifiable” and “absolutely does not reflect the way we should be supporting our merchants.”
The statement says the city and its fire service have found a way to prevent the tents from being a fire hazard. It also says the internal investigation looking into what happened last Friday is still ongoing.
Since the incident, two members of the SSIM were suspended.
Plante is speaking with reporters Thursday morning.
This story will be updated.