Good Question, Montreal

As we heard last week, it’s not always easy to find spaces to plant trees in a city. That’s where tiny forests come in. What started in Japan has become a worldwide movement to plant densely-packed pockets of vegetation in cities, including Montreal. CBC reporter Ben Shingler shares his documentary.

Big ice storms, pests, drought: there are lots of threats facing urban trees. In a special two-part episode, one Montrealer asks how the city is making sure our trees can withstand climate change…and won’t take out power lines when they fall. And a Pincourt school bus driver asks what’s happening with all the trees being cut down for the new Île-aux-Tourtes bridge?

This question came from a 9-year-old boy who is curious about our sewer system, so you’d better believe we took him and his dad on a field trip to Montreal’s wastewater treatment plant! We find out what happens to the water we use and what we can do to make it cleaner before we send it back into the environment.

Teeth-rattling, rim-shattering, hub-cap-catapulting potholes seem to be everywhere you turn in Montreal. Sometimes they lurk underneath puddles, just waiting to throw you off your bike, or damage your car. So why are there so many, and why do they keep coming back? We’ll dig beneath the surface to find out.

If you’ve ever bought a lottery ticket or placed a bet at a Quebec casino, you may have wondered where that money ends up. How much of the money that Montrealers gamble ends up invested back into services that they use? Turns out there are limits to how far we can follow the dollars. We’ll talk about how our system stacks up with some other jurisdictions.

For more than a century, the name Christophe-Colomb Avenue has appeared on Montreal street signs. The Italian-born navigator is known for leading several voyages for the Spanish crown to what we now know as the Americas. While he never set foot in Quebec, many places in the province bear his name. But throughout history, many have argued that he should not be commemorated, because

From 1923 to 1983, the sounds of a rumbling roller coaster, carnival games, and the laughter of a giant animatronic woman invited people to Belmont Park, an amusement park along the Des Prairies river in Cartierville. Its wild history ties together a former prime minister, a Quebec superstar singer, a Guinness World Record and a police raid. The reasons for its closure are tied up

Every July 1, many Montrealers find themselves on the move, not just with their tables, chairs, couches and beds, but with their fridges and stoves too. Apartments here are often rented without appliances included, which does not seem to be a common practice elsewhere in Canada. We’ll explore some of the reasons this might be, and what this says about Montreal’s unique (but cha

As of this week, some Montreal-area transit users are now able to reload their Opus cards with the Chrono app, instead of waiting in long lines at kiosks. The function is expected to be rolled out widely this month. But we still can’t tap payment cards to ride and have to make sure we’ve bought tickets for the right zone. Some Montreal transit advocates say it’s time to think

Construction is such a part of life here that the orange and white striped cone has gone from a simple marker on the road, to a symbol of Montreal itself. But why are there so many cones and why does it seem like some of them linger so long? We’ll hone in on cones and whether new rules to keep them in check are working.