The Main's picks for the biggest headlines from Montreal in 2024

While we're all about looking forward to a new year with the arrival of 2025, we also like to take a moment to remember everything that happened in the past year.

As the flow of information fries our brains to the point of not remembering what happened just last week, digging through an entire year's worth of stories means taking a moment to recall and reflect—you'd be surprised what you might've forgotten about.

From a year that began with debates over Montreal’s tramway plans and a bold revival of Quartier Latin to torrential rainfalls and the closure of beloved institutions, 2024 proved to be anything but predictable. Major headlines tackled everything from housing affordability and climate resilience to linguistic battles and cultural preservation, with some issues igniting fierce debates and others quietly simmering in the background. If it felt like a whirlwind, you’re not alone—it’s been a lot to keep up with.

So, welcome back to our time capsule of the city's biggest headlines from the past year, a collection of rising trends, spectacular events, shocking revelations, municipal mutations, and everything in between.

And if you missed 2023, take a look.

JANUARY

Montreal announced plans for a public transportation line—maybe a tramway?—on Jean-Talon Ouest from Cavendish Boulevard to Parc Avenue, which would be about six kilometres as part of a complete redevelopment of the artery.

As with all projects we've seen announced, guess we'll just need to wait and see how this progresses in 2025.

One of the bigger blows to Montreal's hospitality scene came when the $40,000 loans from the federal government's emergency funds during the pandemic came due on January 18. Taking place during an economic slowdown, there were a lot of openings to be happy about, but a lot of places shut down, too.

In light of that, the city announced a massive revival plans that included turning parts of the Quartier Latin into a "24-hour sector", building entirely new neighbourhoods, revitalizing the downtown core, and improving mobility, cleanliness and creating green routes in the city. Oddly enough, the city also cut the funding of the successful nightlife group 24/24.

Also of note:

• Montreal’s Chinatown officially became the city’s first sector to be designated as a heritage site.
• The City of Montreal promised a cleaner, more accessible downtown core with a new 10-year plan to bring life back to the area with a $1.8-billion project that would be 10 years in the making.
• Climate change continued to show face as the ice cover was slow to form on the St. Lawrence River for the fifth consecutive winter.
• Big dining news hit the city when Brasserie T! announced its immediate closure and that 130 workers were laid off as a result.
• After 25 years, Nick Catalano put Beatnik Records up for sale, saying that it's time for someone younger to take over. A year later, and thankfully it's still kicking.
• Metro Metro had managed to attract major international stars to the city since 2019, including Cardi B., Snoop Dog and Drake. Then it announced going on a hiatus.
• St-Viateur turns a lot of heads by making bagels without holes?

FEBRUARY

No one seemed to be very happy when the Legault administration announced that they would spend at least $870-million to repair the Olympic Stadium’s roof and technical ring, anticipating that the project would be completed in four years and that the new roof will have a lifespan of 50 years. Despite that, people were still pissed.

People were also pissed about Bill 31, an act to amend various legislative provisions relating to housing, came into effect on February 21, 2024. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets.

Also, the city's mediascape saw the loss of Mordu: Three years after its launch, Radio-Canada's gourmet platform saw 11 positions eliminated. Four other employees were shuffled over to their television division, and it hasn't quite been the same since.

• Montreal's Saint-Hubert Airport adopts the name of the MET, or the "Montréal Metropolitan Airport”, which includes a terminal being built by Porter Airlines—a project for summer 2025 worth more than 200 million. 
• Parents alleged their kids' art teacher took drawings made in class and listed them for sale on several websites without their knowledge.
• It comes to light that Just for Laughs is experiencing major financial problems. Things only start to look bleak from here.
• YUL sees the most seizures of illegal exotic meat products of all major airports in Canada: Monkey meat, pangolin carcasses, and tiger and hyena carcasses have been intercepted there since 2019.
• Proposed Quebec regulations for more French markings on consumer products will lead to fewer choices and higher costs for things such as home appliances.

MARCH

Montreal's festivals spending months citing climbing costs and bad publicity hits a fever pitch: On top of cancelled fireworks (which weren't actually cancelled in the end) and 16 different events citing the need for cash, the 2024 Just for Laughs comedy festival is cancelled as the Montreal company behind it tries to avoid bankruptcy.

• One of the biggest—if not the biggest?—Greek Independence Day parades in Montreal arrives, with world leaders Justin Trudeau and Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis drinkin' freddos at Alphabet, followed by Blake Lively grabbing her own before hitting up Bernie Beigne.
• Housing continued to be a huge issue. For example: More than 153,000 housing units have been built in Montreal, with a record year in 2021. So how can we explain Montrealers' difficulty finding housing that meets needs?
• A short-lived and short-sighted project from the QC government, Le Panier Bleu is over and done. It cost the province $22 million.
• Plaza Saint-Hubert makes Time Out Magazine's list of the 30 coolest streets in the world
• After returning home from an extended vacation in Costa Rica, a Montreal man got the surprise of a lifetime in the mail—the Quebec government thought he was dead.
• Downtown Montreal between McGill University’s main campus and Place Ville-Marie is almost entirely torn up for the major makeover that will turn the space into an ode to the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.

APRIL

Because we were in a narrow strip of land that's a mere 200 kilometres wide in southern Quebec during a sunny day of clear skies, we got to see a celestial body block out the sun for a few minutes. Undoubtedly one of the coolest things to happen all year.

April also saw a spring storm to remember with nearly 600,000 customers affected by strong winds gusting and heavy snow accumulating on tree branches, causing them to hit power lines.

The ninth floor of the Montreal Eaton Centre may have been frozen in time after it was shuttered in 1999, but this was the year it was revived to its former glory.

This was also the month a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up on McGill University's downtown campus, where students demanded McGill divest from companies with business ties to Israel. They were eventually forced out via eviction notices and brute tactics in July.

Also of note:

• A class-action lawsuit accused the QC government of wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars in the value of taxi permits by allowing ride-hailing company Uber to operate and then by abolishing the permit system. A judge then ordered Quebec to pay taxi drivers $143 million.
• It was an emotional afternoon on Saturday watching Montreal vs. Toronto in a crowd of 21,105 at hockey’s biggest venue.
• Building on the success of its winter bike pilot project, BIXI announced that its bikes will now be available 12 months a year.
• It's revealed that Canada’s second-largest port in Montreal has become a key transport hub for stolen vehicles.
• The Plante administration indicates it will present a regulation by the end of the year to regulate the use of wood-fired ovens, particularly those in pizzerias and bagel workshops.
• The Olympic Park launches an international design and architecture contest for ideas to reuse parts of the roof that will be replaced.
• Montreal and Laval’s ambulances are routinely relying on paramedics from off island to come to their aid.
• The majority of Montreal merchants still greet their customers in French only, but fewer and fewer are doing so, while "Bonjour-Hi" has been on the rise in recent years.
• The Quebec government takes over the 17-building, 35-acre site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital after the McGill University Health Centre moved operations to its Glen site in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
• The City of Montreal announces plans to build a carbon-neutral district of 20,000 housing units on the site of the former Montreal Hippodrome and land east of the Namur Metro station.
• Verdun's natatorium was inaugurated in July 1940. It was the first outdoor pool in Montreal and the largest in Canada at the time, and remained in the city as a rare piece of art deco architecture. Then it was slated for demolition.

MAY

Mayors from Montreal, Chicago and Milwaukee signed a declaration this week, backed by more than 260 mayors, to transform the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence basin into a "blue-green economic corridor of the 21st century" worth "$6,000 billion in economic output annually".

More than 500 artists and cultural workers gathered in the center of Montreal to push for increased government funding for arts and culture—the story was big enough to catch international eyes.

Also:

• Residents living in the Village have had to throw out dozens of appliances and electronics because of a power surge that hit the area in late May.
• The Parti Québécois pitched independence—in English? With a funny promotional video complete with images of babies, continually walking towards the camera, and a finale shot of some random lake?
• A Radio-Canada report revealed details from a Hydro-Quebec internal document from last year, indicating that much of Montreal's electrical infrastructure is outdated and struggling to cope with increasing demands.
• Pedestrianization in Montreal gets crazy extensive.
• The Montreal melon kind of had a comeback moment?
• Strangely, the use of plastic flowers not only takes off in Old Montreal but it also poses problems around plastic waste in the neighbourhood.
• The Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) announces that it plans to withdraw 150 to 200 lower-selling Quebec spirits from store shelves by winter 2025.

JUNE

Hooboy, was Grand Prix ever a mess: A collapsed stage, thunderstorms, Mr. Worldwide cancelling his show and leaving fans waiting for hours in the rain, and don't even get us started on terrassegate. It was one for the books.

Canada Day festivities are cancelled, largely due to what many are calling 'red tape politics'. Also, the upcoming Moving Day on July 1 highlights a massive crisis in housing for the city.

Also:

• The SQDC store sells cannabis-infused spicy crackers, mini-sausages, chicken ramen, dill pickle-flavoured nuts, cinnamon and black currant bites, and, naturally, poutine sauce.
• Following the usual slow winter, spring has not kept its usual promise of bringing back traffic for tattoo artists.
• Reporting begins from The Rover begins to come out about how, for the past 20 years, dump trucks have come from across the region to unload contaminated soil on Mohawk land.
• The Supreme Court of Canada says will not review a Quebec ruling that bars people from suing the U.S. government in Canada over its role in notorious brainwashing experiments at a Montreal psychiatric hospital.
• It's 2050 and Montreal is a sprawling metropolis with tens of thousands of off-market rental units, a dense tree canopy and a vast network of tramways: City officials presented that image as , calling it the Plan Montréal 2050—their vision of what the city will look like in the future.
• The Plante administration announced the first step in its plan to turn Old Montreal into a “pedestrian priority zone”, part of a larger plan to make it a pedestrian-friendly zone by 2030.
• Changes in Quebec tax credits put animation and visual effects workers out of a job.
• After five years of work and an explosion in costs, Montreal city hall finally opens its doors.
• Montreal ranked 118th in the world for its overall cost of living but came in 20th for quality of life, giving it the best overall score.

JULY

A deluge of heavy rain due to remnants of tropical storm Beryl forced the closing of several highways in the Montreal area and knocked out power to thousands in the city.

To be enforced in June 2025: The Quebec government will require all signs on commercial businesses, aside from the company name, to be predominately in French. The Retail Council of Canada's Quebec chapter president says it could cost as much as $25 million.

Furthermore for June 2025, businesses with between 25 and 49 employees will have to enforce the French language charter or face penalties of up to $30,000. Will businesses put up with OQLF inspections, or will they find loopholes, or just leave altogether?

Also:

• Smoking crack, taking cocaine or injecting fentanyl, safe from prosecution, is made possible in Quebec. Except that the Legault government informed almost no one, not even the police.
• With Biden stepping down and Kamala Harris stepping up, there was a resurgance in articles about how the then-presumed Democratic nominee for the 2024 United States Presidential election has ties to the city.
• Abandoned since 1989, the former Canada Malting factory was purchased by a developer who wants an ambitious real estate project there.
• Activists occupy a building in Hochelaga to denounce the fact that it has been transformed into an "illegal" Airbnb.
• The summer season in Montreal sees approximately 11 million visitors each year. Alongside them, illegal guides are increasing, and it becomes an issue.
• WIRED tested out Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses in French-speaking Canada to trial its AI's translation feature meant to give wearers a quick, hands-free way to understand text written in foreign languages. Here's why it was too rudimentary and buggy to be anything more than a novelty.
• Language inspectors from the OQLF expanded their inspections beyond businesses and began to target hospitals in Montreal.

AUGUST

A hard rain falls: Precise forecasts called for nickel-sized hail hitting the city, followed by a torrential downpour from Debby's tropical storm. A record-breaking 157 millimetres of rain fell on the island of Montreal during that period.

That also caused a massive water main break that caught the attention of international media: It burst through the asphalt and gushed water high into the air for more than five hours.

Also:

• Violence, poverty, and gangs: Exasperated by the reputation that Montreal North is dragging around, local elected officials have commissioned a marketing agency to work on improving the borough's "brand image."
• Could Montreal ever become a 15-minute city? Apparently, we have the shortest travel time between all three major Canadian metropolises, with an average travel time of 27 minutes in 2021, down by 3 minutes from 2016.
• Tourists flock to Old Montreal, but many spend cautiously due to the high cost of living. Local businesses, like artists and tattoo shops, notice reduced sales despite the influx of visitors.
• We really liked when Toula Drimonis unpacked when exactly Montreal started becoming unaffordable, and how that has had effects that're equal parts cascading and devastating.
• "Montreal is Canada’s poster child" when it comes to seasonal pedestrian streets.
• New Bill 96 directives for Quebec's healthcare system detail exceptions to language restrictions that require healthcare providers to communicate with patients in French only, causing confusion and even panic among the public and healthcare staff.
• The exterior wall of a triplex in St-Henri collapsed onto an adjacent construction site.
• Why are there fewer options for late-night eating in Montreal, asks Erik Leijon: It is, and it isn't, all about the pandemic as places that never closed suddenly started closing.
• The MMFA caught international attention by putting its exhibition Saints, Sinners, Lovers and Fools: Three Hundred Years of Flemish Masterworks in the context of viral images, as art then was the ultimate form of entertainment and social spectacle.

SEPTEMBER

If you know, you know, but for those you don’t: The Michelin Guide is among the most recognized awards for worldwide culinary excellence. The first Michelin Guide with a Québec selection is set to be revealed in 2025.

While experts said it was risky to open a mall selling luxury products at a time when interest rates have risen quickly and people have less disposable income, the first phase of Royalmount opened with retail and hospitality galore.

In what seemed like a single crazy week: Lithium battery fires in HoMa, the whole saga with La Tulipe shutting down alongside restaurants also getting threatened with closures over noise, the 2024 Presidents Cup teeing off (and $25k of related merch being stolen), NWA co-founder Arabian Prince played the opening of POP Montreal while Spike Lee was speaking at l’Olympia.

Also:

• By 2050, Montreal says it wants to develop a vast 184-kilometre tramway network and extend the metro, including the blue line to the west. Plante's administration also still dreams of building the pink metro line to connect the city centre to the northeast of the city.
• Quebec tables a bill that would regulate how merchants determine suggested tips, forcing businesses to calculate them based on the price before tax.
• It's announced that Jeanne-Mance Park will get a $27-million makeover over the next two years that will include a more accessible, resurfaced multi-sport field, a fenced-in dog run, a refurbished wading pool, a new splash pad and a renovated chalet.
• Montreal’s Cinéma du Parc announced that they have accepted a “major donation” from Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.
• CDPQ Infra says it wants to construct two downtown stations for the REM, Griffintown‑Bernard‑Landry and Bridge‑Bonaventure “at the same time” in the first section of the REM.
• Commander Patrice Vilcéus, a Haitian Montrealer, hangs up his cap after 30 years with the Montreal police, but not without leaving us with a letter that calls racism "a cancer that is eating away" at the SPVM.
• At least 91 candidates will be on the ballot for the Sept. 16 byelection in LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, according to Elections Canada. That's the longest ballot in the history of Canadian federal elections... The Bloc Québécois clinches a win in the end.
• As Michelin inspectors descend on the city's restaurants, the Michelin Guide has published its first rating of hotels across Canada, and Montreal fared pretty well.

OCTOBER

Valérie Plante announces she won't seek a third term. That's right, Montreal's mayor has announced she won't be seeking re-election in the next race.

Another five-alarm fire in Old Montreal broke out which resulted in two deaths. Arson was suspected, and on top of that, the building has the same owner as last year's building that saw a tragic fire.

The feds start work on choosing who will help design and build a new, game-changing passenger rail project running through the most populated part of the country.

Also:

• Time Out released its list of the world’s coolest neighbourhoods on Wednesday, and St-Henri came in 13th overall.
• Montreal has its own composting plant and it's a big deal to finally treat our organic waste on the island after years of sending it to Ontario.
• An OQLF outpost in Montreal? A city committee recommends the creation of a municipal office to understand our linguistic makeup.
• Owners of abandoned buildings and their security guards are overwhelmed by the 'many teenagers' who are adventuring in to get a good shot—but there is a rising death toll.
• Skateboarders want to save one of Montreal's last authentic skateparks. Projet 45 was built by the community, but the city wants to redevelop it.
• Tensions rise over Quebec’s protection of French as frustrations grow among francophone communities outside the province. Politicians’ controversial comments and a need for broader collaboration emerge as key issues.
• Flood zone revisions now place 15,500 buildings, including 3,200 in high-risk areas, at risk in the Montreal region—twice as many as before.
• The theatre formerly known as the Cartier in Saint-Henri is n bought and renamed the Colas Theatre by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, with plans to adapt it for Montreal’s artistic community.

NOVEMBER

Montreal's once vibrant and celebrated nightlife scene has been struggling in recent years due to various factors, such as gentrification, high taxes, changing demographics, and increased competition from online entertainment options. The city then says it is allocating $5.5 million over 3 years towards strengthening the city’s nightlife.

NDG's Empress Theatre finally receives a destination after years of disuse: A mixed-use space that, one way or another, will incorporate culture.

Finally, Anti-NATO protest in Montreal reached the eyes of international media this past weekend after fires broke out and arrests were made.

Also:

• Following the fiasco with la Tulipe, Montreal widens its soundproofing support program for live music venues.
• Dock workers in Montreal reject their employers’ latest offer, and that leads to a lockout with big effects on the country. 
• Montreal's got a new bookstore—in an apartment after a man posthumously received 40,000 books from his deceased brother.
• With Trump's win, Legault begins to anticipate division in the US with rippling impacts on the economy and immigration in Quebec.
• Could this be the end of daylight savings time? The Quebec government entertains scrapping the time change.
• Have bike paths gotten out of hand? A local group takes legal action against the city to stop what they say is negatively impacting communities.

DECEMBER

The redevelopment of Montreal’s historic Molson Brewery site is set to transform it into a mixed-use neighbourhood featuring green spaces, pedestrian areas, and a commitment to social housing. Developers Montoni and Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ announced plans to dedicate 20% of units to social housing as part of the city’s 20-20-20 rule, which also includes affordable and family housing requirements

The $2.5 billion project will restore and integrate the site’s heritage elements, including Sohmer Park’s historical location, and create public spaces with views of the St. Lawrence River. Construction is slated to begin in 2025.

Also:

• A breakthrough discovery in HIV research: Montreal researchers have uncovered a "new frontier" in exposing and destroying the virus.
• It's not every day you can see inside Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté’s Outremont mansion—which was put on sale for $9.3 million.
• It's announced that Montreal will redo more of Ste-Catherine Street next summer to repair aging pipes that were installed in the 1800s and haven't been updated.
• The cross on Montreal's Mount Royal turns 100.