Montreal Gives Out $638 Tickets To Businesses For Garbage Left On Saint-Laurent Street

Being a small business on the "Main" strip of St. Laurent is definitely not easy. Rent is far from cheap, construction seems to always disrupt pedestrian traffic/customer flow, and you're competing with tons of other independently owned establishments all in the same area. One thing you wouldn't think would be a big problem is waste collection, which one small St. Laurent business learned is not the case.

For leaving out their garbage the day before pickup, one small business on St. Laurent was given a whopping $638 fine for garbage left out on October 7th. According to the business (who would like to remain anonymous) the fine wasn't given because they left a huge couch or several bags spewing garbage out onto the streets. No, the rounded-up-to-a-thousand dollar ticket was just because they left a couple of standard garbage bags out on the curb.

Specifics from the business in question couldn't be gained, as the owners cannot remember when exactly they took out the trash on October 7th. They did note, however, that no notice or warning was given, as the steeply priced fine was a rather unwelcome surprise 15 days later.

Garbage collection and waste management is important, especially on the busiest strip of a popular street like St. Laurent, though we can't help but feel the action taken by the city is a little extreme. Paying over $600 for a fine is a major loss of funds, one that can definitely hinder the operations of a business. Given that such small and Montreal-owned businesses actively promote the city's culture, the city should be aiding such establishments, not hurting their operations with large (and arguably out of the blue) fines.

After looking up the waste collection schedules for anyone on the main of St. Laurent, we sympathized even more. Garbage is picked up on Mondays and Thursdays, with wasted needing to be outside between 5am and 8am. Getting up that early to take out the trash is a little demanding, so we can see how a business would drop bags off the day before to not have to worry about it. Not sure if that's exactly how this circumstance played out, though it's a possibility.

All in all, we just think forcing a Montreal business to pay $638 for something as minor as putting their garbage out too early is needlessly harsh. On the other hand, said business definitely won't be putting their trash out at the wrong times anymore, so touché city of Montreal.

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