Will Montreal Become Canada’s First 24 Hour Party City?

Cities can be many things to many people. But, above all, they are vibrant hubs of business, culture, education and entertainment. As Canada’s second largest city, Montreal is a prime example of the lively and exciting environment that somewhere can provide for its residents and visitors alike.

But cities, like businesses, need to continue moving forwards and evolving if they truly want to continue attracting people to live or spend their leisure time within their environs. One way to do this is to ensure that there are the kinds of bars, restaurants and clubs that will pull in the revellers and this is largely down to creating the right kind of environment for them to thrive.

Montreal achieves this with ease, and now there are plans to progress that could see some places in selected city areas being granted licences to stay open for 24 hours. This is part of a larger drive to provide more services in the region and is just one of a number of initiatives to also increase tourist numbers. While some of these play on the potential of the area’s great outdoors this one is distinctly urban.

The proposals as they stand

The proposals for the 24-hour city were put before the municipal council in November of last year and cover specially designated parts in the city including the Latin Quarter.  Initially it’s intended that only performance venues will be invited to apply for 24-hour licences. Under current rules the latest that a bar or club can remain open in 3am on Saturday and Sunday nights and until 2am during the rest of the week.

In a 2022 report by MTL it was stated that the nighttime leisure industry in Montreal generates CAN$2.26 billion a year and the intention of increasing opening hours is to add hundreds of millions of dollars to this figure. It’s thought that it might also act to encourage other leisure businesses like casinos to consider setting up in the city. After all, they can look at Canadians’ keenness for online casinos to see that the demand could well be there.

In recent years there has been an explosion in online gambling in the country with real money online casinos in particular seeing plenty of success. With the best low deposit casinos in Canada enabling players to get started from as little as $1, users can avoid expensive overheads, such paying for drinks and transport. They have benefitted from sensible legislature being introduced, making them the preferred entertainment option for many gamblers. The 24-hour accessibility of brick-and-mortar casinos would give them a fairer chance of competing and also reflect the “always open” nature of their online alternatives.

How another 24-hour city makes it work

Among other cities in the world which have tried to be open round the clock are Tokyo, Berlin and Amsterdam. There have been varied results, but one city that has been particularly successful is the last in the list. It has been reported that following the introduction of 24-hour licensing in Amsterdam alcohol-related problems have reduced by around 30%, something that reassured politicians that allowing the longer opening hours was the right thing to do.

Issues that need to be addressed

While the introduction of 24 hour licenses sounds good in theory and you might expect bar and club owners to welcome it with open arms, their reactions have been a little more ambivalent. One of the key points that many owners have made when questioned is that by 3am the custom in their bars is thinning out, even at the weekend. So the problem might be having enough paying customers to justify all the expense of staying open for longer hours.

The consensus seems to be that it could make sense to be open all night for certain events like Super Bowl Night or New Year’s Eve – but not for the rest of the year. An additional concern is whether it would be possible to attract enough staff to be open 24 hours. Given the vibrant job market in the city it might pose quite a problem to find people prepared to cover the hours from 3am until the next morning. It’s also likely that enhanced rates of pay might be needed to compensate for these antisocial hours.

Then there are the questions about what infrastructure changes might be called for. Currently public transport finishes at around 1.30am. So unless drinkers’ all nighters carry on until 6am when services start up again they’ll be relying on the city’s cab drivers to get them home. Finally, there’s the question of the weather. It’s fine in the Spring and Summer months to be out and about until the small hours – a less appealing prospect in the cold depths of Winter.

So, it’s by no means a cut and dried argument for Montreal to become a 24 hour city. But it does seem likely that with limited provision of round the clock service from the right kinds of establishments it could be a success after all.