Blog: Founders' Note: The Unreality of Being a Merchant in Montreal (Rosemont)

2018-01-29

Bouge Petit will soon celebrate its one-year anniversary. We chose Rosemont to establish our unique concept: a play area and café for parents with babies and young children. We're working hard, seven days a week, to make Bouge Petit a pleasant space for our customers.

Note the use of the word "unreality" in the title. The definition: "not real, seemingly unreal." The word is apt. Being a business owner in Montreal is simply unreal.

The reality is this: a concept like Bouge Petit is a very expensive investment. We invested in renovating the building to make it safe and pleasant to look at. We invested in the interior design with attention to quality and detail. We invested in offering a wide selection of fun and educational games for children. We invested in a café area with healthy options for our customers. The City of Montreal has never been there to help us.

It seems like every day, we're getting a raise somewhere. Whether it's the price of groceries or the minimum wage to pay employees. A business owner never gets a break.

Montreal City Hall lives on another level. They live well beyond their means. 300 new hybrid buses? Why not. Everyone is for virtue. And it looks good to the voters. But who's going to pay for it?

Certainly, in part, the business owners. This year, the municipal tax for businesses in Rosemont-LaPetite-Patrie is increasing by 4.6%. Imagine if a business had to suddenly increase all its rates by 4.6%. That's unrealistic.

It seems like this increase will provide "more services." What services? Papineau Avenue has been abandoned forever. I myself shoveled a space in the snowbank in front of the business a week ago so that customers "parked" on the street could clear a path. The snowbank is still there.

Nothing is being done to consider businesses. Some customers are surprised that we don't have recycling. To which we respond: the city doesn't offer any services for businesses. We pay a private company for garbage collection, and it costs us $1,200 plus taxes per year. If we wanted recycling, we'd have to double that amount. We have to cover that ourselves, along with all the other expenses like municipal, business, and school taxes, rent, loans, permits, utilities, salaries, supplies, food, and so on.

Did you know that Rosemont no longer allows asphalt on your property? Probably not, because you haven't gone to the city to apply for a permit. A business requires a permit for (almost) everything. We discovered that asphalt cannot be used on a parking space. In fact, the only viable option is interlocking paving stones. But not just any paving stone. It must be a material with a solar reflectance index of at least 29. Even the paving supplier didn't come back. And this despite the fact that the regulations have been in place since 2011.

Result: for a simple parking space, it costs four times more than asphalt. Completely unrealistic for a business trying to survive.

I listened to Mr. Benoit Dorais speaking to Paul Arcand this morning on 98.5fm. Paul Arcand used the expression "bleeding the merchants dry." At no point did I sense any interest from the City of Montreal in helping merchants. The City talks about introducing "programs." Nothing that helps merchants, or even customers, stay in Montreal.

After a year of opening our business, I'm happy of what we've accomplished without a penny of help from the City (or the government). But I'm frustrated by the city's careless attitude toward one of its most important economies: local businesses. And no, the economy isn't easy, contrary to what every government claims. Look at the number of businesses closing and the number of vacant rental spaces. Nothing is easy in Montreal.

Businesses pay more taxes and receive fewer services. This is the unreality of Montreal.