Montrealer Olivia Collette sold her car in 2016 and hasn’t looked back.
Collette, a communications consultant living in central Montreal, said getting around using a bicycle, a car-sharing service or a transit pass has not only saved her money, it’s often more enjoyable.
“When it’s sunny and warm, it’s really pleasant,” Collette said of her bicycle commutes. “It’s a really pleasant way of going from A to B.”
Collette said that while getting around Montreal isn’t difficult without a personal vehicle, she’s not sure doing so would be as easy in many other Canadian cities.
And with the soaring cost of gasoline and new vehicles, urban transit experts say the rest of Canada should look to Montreal for lessons on how to boost cycling culture.
The protected bike lanes in Montreal attract a wide range of users because the infrastructure increases cyclists’ sense of safety, says Stein van Oosteren, spokesperson for a Paris-based cycling association. (Elias Abboud/CBC)
Stein van Oosteren, spokesperson for a Paris-based cycling association, says the time is right for Canadian cities to make big gains in changing the way people move around.
Van Oosteren, who grew up in the Netherlands before moving to France, said the rise of cycling in both countries was partially driven by high gas prices.
At the beginning of the 1970s, “the Netherlands was like Canada today: a car-centric country, where the car was the foundation of transport, and it was very unpleasant and dangerous to travel by bicycle,” said van Oosteren, who was in Montreal this week to speak at the Go velo bicycle festival.
That began to change due to a campaign for safer streets, launched in response to the death of a six-year-old girl who was struck by a car and to gas shortages triggered by the 1973 oil crisis.
“The government, under pressure from both citizens who wanted livable cities and the real problem of gas shortages that we had in the Netherlands, decided to promote bikes,” he said.
In France, bicycles began to gain popularity in 2018, when a tax increase pushed the price of gas to nearly $3 a litre, he said. In Paris, meanwhile, that growth continued as the local government rapidly created temporary bike paths in 2020 to encourage people to enjoy the outdoors at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
Many of those paths have become permanent.
“This created a whole generation of cyclists who today travel by bike, and once this critical mass exists, it will attract others,” van Oosteren said.
Montreal, he said, is a cycling leader in North America — particularly due to the city’s focus on building a contiguous network of bike lanes that are protected from the rest of the street. The protected lanes attract a wide range of users because the infrastructure increases cyclists’ sense of safety.
‘Impressive’ number of cyclists, but limited data
In North America, the majority of bike trips are taken by men who are experienced cyclists, said Owen Waygood, a professor of transportation engineering at Polytechnique Montreal. Safer infrastructure, he said, will attract more women, older people and children.
“Montreal does have some great leadership in that respect,” he said.
Bike counters — automated sensors that detect and count passing cyclists — indicate an increase in users on new routes that are part of the city’s “express” bike lane network, the Réseau express vélo, Waygood said. The city began building the REV in 2020.
Around 2,000 cyclists a day, he said, use a recently constructed bike lane on St-Denis Street, a major artery in Montreal’s urban core. “There’s some days when it’s 8,000, which is impressive.”
But hard data can be difficult to come by. The provincial government conducts a travel survey every five years, but Waygood said that survey captures a limited snapshot and is usually done in the fall season — when there are fewer cyclists compared with the spring and summer.
There’s no Canada-wide survey that would allow comparisons between different cities, he added.
Statistics Canada collects data about Canadians’ daily commutes, but the most recent public data from the federal statistics agency is from 2016. It indicates that Vancouver and Victoria have higher rates of cycling than Montreal does, which Waygood said makes sense given the milder year-round weather.
Ry Shissler, the communications manager for Cycle Toronto, a charity that promotes cycling culture, said his organization ranks Victoria, Vancouver and Montreal higher than Toronto at encouraging cycling.
While Toronto keeps its bike-sharing system operational year-round, Montreal packs up its bike system — called BIXI — for the winter. (Charles Contant/CBC)
While Toronto is flatter than Montreal and has somewhat warmer weather, Shissler said Montreal has built better biking infrastructure.
“We just don’t have the same sort of network that makes people feel comfortable riding a bike,” Shissler said.
Toronto, however, keeps its bike-sharing system operational year-round, while Montreal packs up its bike system — called BIXI — for the winter.
Stephen Miller, spokesperson with Transit, a trip-planning mobile application for public transit, said people are able to get around Montreal without a car in large part because of the city’s high-quality public transit network.
Transportation projects that have launched in Montreal have been exported internationally, he said, like car-sharing service Communauto, which can be found across Canada and in France.
We just don’t have the same sort of network that makes people feel comfortable riding a bike.– Ry Shissler of Cycle Toronto
The technology used in the BIXI system, originally developed by a company owned by the City of Montreal, has since has been exported to cities around the world, including Toronto, New York City and London.
“Montreal benefits from having a culture that is focused on innovation in transit and public transportation,” Miller said.
Collette, who said she sometimes goes months without driving a car, said there’s now a rush hour on Montreal’s bike lanes, but she said it’s much less stressful than being stuck in traffic.
“If I had a car, I would have to pay for parking; I would have to move it all the time; I would still be paying to have the car even if I wasn’t using it,” she said.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
