Le Plateau-Mont-Royal and Ville-Marie plan to officially adopt a new bylaw as early as Fall 2025.
Performance venues, nightclubs, cultural spaces — your favourite spots are being targeted!
The current draft bylaw (finally) establishes clear decibel limits. But several measures risk further weakening cultural nightlife venues.
The new bylaw carries over two major flaws from the previous one:
- A single complaint is enough to trigger police intervention, and
- Noise is deemed “excessive” based on the subjective judgment of the responding officer.
Moreover, the SPVM could now shut down a performance on the spot (Article 29).
These are exactly the kinds of measures that directly led to the closure of Divan Orange and put La Tulipe at risk.
Other problematic measures include:
- A significant increase in fines (Article 34):
- Old bylaw: $1,500 to $12,000
- New bylaw: Minimum $10,000 for a first offense — a 566% increase!
- Mandatory sound monitoring (Article 33):
- The City or SPVM could require the purchase of a sound monitoring system
- Continuous recording for 12 months
- And could request access to the data at any time
Here’s what we propose:
- Eliminate immediate police intervention
- Handle complaints differently:
- Through a specialized and proactive department
- Using a clear, fair, and culturally appropriate process
- With systematic mediation before any penalties
- No police action based on a single isolated complaint
This works elsewhere in the world — so why not in Montréal?
The City has launched an online public consultation. Now is the time to speak up!
Submit your comments, criticisms, and recommendations using the City of Montréal’s online feedback form (deadline: July 25, 2025).
Montréal calls itself a cultural city. Let’s prove it.