Park Avenue the Mayor!

The city of Montreal has a hard time coming to terms with entrepreneurs. Quebec in general has been hoodwinked into a unionized outlook that has been detrimental to this city both economically and aesthetically. Hopefully, the next generation of Quebecers - free of the shackles of the PQ and a colonial mindset predicated on outmoded political ideals - will stand up and challenge the crud that has ruined this once important Canadian metropolis.

City Hall often takes action without consultation. It's what we do here; small town mentality for a big city. Too often, the decisions are taken from one perspective: the government. Small businesses have been constantly mistreated over the years. The actions we take against them makes me wonder if we have any true understanding of what an entrepreneurial class brings to a society. Again, Quebec's business models and ideas seem out of whack in comparison to most places.

The "it's our way or no way" mentality that prevails is all the more silly given we do not have the luxury of having any natural financial or economic leverage. For a foreign company to set up here we either have to basically roll out the red carpet a-la Ireland (shhh, don't tell the media). If we decide to play hardball for political reasons or allow the unions to dictate terms we lose the business. It's that simple. While the majority of Quebecers see no harm or foul in this, to most who do understand this it is childish - if not suicidal - behaviour.

One may think that parking meter increases are meaningless but they are not. It's a cheap tax grab. Finally, Canadians are showing some life and beginning to voice their disapproval. The last time we saw merchant rise up was in 1993 when the city charged a surtax to businesses to keep residential taxes in place. Merchants rose up and helped topple Mayor Jean Dore. His successor Pierre Bourque cut the surtax by 80%. Present Mayor Gilles Tremblay now has both merchants and residential owners upset as he shifted the surtax into a non-residential property tax. Either way it's a burden that has irritated citizens.

This being Montreal, one has to ask "qui bono?" Certainly not the citizens or business owners. Who does the government serve exactly?