Latest news with #EasternTownships
CBC
a day ago
- Climate
- CBC
Roofs torn off after possible tornado hits Quebec's Eastern Townships
Social Sharing A powerful storm sent trailers flying and tore roofs off some homes in Danville in Quebec's Eastern Townships on Thursday, dumping between 50 and 100 millilitres of rain in less than 20 minutes. The municipality southeast of Drummondville was hit by a mesocyclone-type storm, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. Resident Manon Provencher said it all happened "so fast." "It was rumbling inside the house, clattering outside. I saw my patio furniture fly away," she said. "I was scared, I knew it wasn't normal." ECCC hasn't yet ruled out a tornado, but the agency also pointed out that a mesocyclone could cause just as much damage. A mesocyclone is a specific type of storm cell that includes rotation and can produce hail, strong winds and gusts up to 100 km/h, explained metereologist Julien Pellerin. Martine Satre, Danville's mayor, confirmed that some roofs had been torn off and trailers flew away as a result of the high winds. The storm occurred shortly before 4 p.m. and made its way toward Saint-Georges in Beauce, Que., at around 6 p.m. Hail stones measuring between two and three centimetres in diameter in some areas and strong winds left significant damage. Provencher and her partner, Marcel Côté, said it's the second time they've witnessed such weather in the area, but that the first time wasn't on such a scale. Several thousand power outages were reported in the area as the mesocyclone passed through.
CBC
12-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
American tourism to Quebec may have dipped, but visitors are still coming — apologetically
Social Sharing In 25 years working at a Quebec hotel, Stephan Comeau says he's never seen so many Americans come in apologizing for "the political situation in their country." Comeau is the front desk manager at Ripplecove Hôtel & Spa in the Eastern Townships. He said some Americans even call ahead to ask if being from the United States will be a problem. But not everybody is worried. "I feel welcome and I want to support Canada," Daisy Benson told Radio-Canada while having a drink with her partner outside the Hovey Manor in North Hatley, Que., in late May. Border crossing data shows fewer Americans are coming to Canada, and some theorize tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump may be the problem: travellers may fear they won't be welcome north of the border. The number of trips Americans took to Canada by car declined 10.7 per cent in April and 8.4 per cent in May compared to the same months last year. Air travel was also down, with a 5.5 per cent drop in April and a slight 0.3 per cent decline in May, according to data from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Despite the dip compared to 2024, the number of American air travellers over the first three weeks of May remains nearly seven per cent higher than in 2023. Travel was at a near standstill in 2020 and 2021, and remained quite low in 2022. Looking back to 2019, about five per cent more U.S. travellers arrived by air than this year. Encouraging Americans to come visit At least one tourism association, Tourisme Cantons-de-l'Est in the Eastern Townships, has launched an ad campaign to reassure their neighbours they'll be warmly welcomed. It aims to dispel fears as the summer season gets underway. The ad is playing on YouTube and on TVs in northeastern United States. The organization's head, Shanny Hallé, said the exchange rate "is very favourable for Americans right now, so they can experience luxury vacations inexpensively." The campaign emphasizes affordability while "reaffirming our values of hospitality," she said, to help Americans feel welcome. Between January and April, she said, entries at the Quebec-U.S. border fell by a little more than four per cent. Montreal tourism expected to be around par Yves Lalumière, president and CEO of Tourisme Montréal, said the slower start wasn't unexpected given recent tensions, but he expects American travel to remain around average — plus or minus three to five per cent. "We're not looking at any decline that is drastic," Lalumière said, noting the Grand Prix is expected to bring in two million visitors. It's not going to be a record year, he said, but it won't be a bad one either. He called it a stable positive and said there are no signs of a significant slowdown. "We're still early in the game for the summer," he said. "August, September and October are good months for American clientele as well." With fewer Canadians travelling to the U.S., he said Canadian organizations and businesses are planning conventions and meetings in Montreal instead. At the same time, the city is working to attract more international visitors. The Montreal airport has continued diversifying its routes to reduce reliance on any one market. Lalumière said the city is now connected to 156 markets, with flights from places like India, Dubai and Tokyo. "We've added a lot of flights. A lot of countries," said Lalumière. Like Lalumière, Glenn Castanheira said there was a downturn in American travellers, but momentum is returning. He's the executive director of downtown Montreal's merchants' association, which grew concerned when the trade war began and Trump started threatening Canada's sovereignty. While he remains cautiously optimistic, Castanheira said efforts by groups like his — along with the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, Tourisme Montréal and others — suggest Americans aren't particularly worried about crossing into Canada. They know they're welcome, he said, but they're saying "sorry" so often that he jokes Americans may be becoming Canadian. "Add to the mix that the American dollar is to the advantage of the Americans, that's a huge player," said Castanheira, who studied at Harvard University.
CBC
24-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Ericka Alneus sees herself as 'The Guardian of the Soul of Montreal'
In 2021, Ericka Alneus became a city councillor, and the member to Montreal's Executive Committee responsible culture and heritage. It's been four years, and now she's also responsible for gastronomy and one of Montreal's hot We find out what it all means, how she has moved the dial on the nightlife hot topic and how growing up in the Haitian community in the Eastern Townships sparked that flame to serve the public.
Globe and Mail
22-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Economist Dian Cohen shared her expertise widely through radio, TV and books
Dian Cohen wrote books and newspaper columns about retirement and advised audiences about life after work on hundreds of radio and television broadcasts. But while she may have known the secrets to a happy retirement, she was happier to keep on working. She wrote her final column just before her death on May 5 at the age of 92. 'This is my last column. I've loved every minute of writing them and answering your questions. My curiosity about how the financial world works has driven my efforts to provide you with insights. I learned early on that politics plays an outsized role in finance, but it's not the only factor,' began the column, which appeared in the May 13 edition of The Record, a daily newspaper in Quebec's Eastern Townships. Her parting wisdom included saving at an early age, making a budget and staying physically active. 'For Dian, work was a big part of what made life worth living,' said Dr. François Lamontagne, a medical researcher and professor at the University of Sherbrooke who worked with Ms. Cohen on volunteer projects. Ms. Cohen was an economist who spoke and wrote in plain English that people could understand, explaining the workings of the economy, markets and business long before business television became popular. 'In the mid-1980s on Canada AM we started using Dian for the occasional explainer,' said Eric Morrison who produced the program at the time. 'She was so good at making economics understandable and business interesting that we soon gave her a regular business slot every morning. She was always engaged, upbeat and positive to work with even with the 5 a.m. wake-up calls for a 6 a.m. start, which could get to be a grind for anyone.' Part of the time, she broadcast her CTV slot from New York, where she was a visiting fellow at the Americas Society. A car would pick her up at 4 a.m. to take her to a studio. Her New York experience led her to help found the International Institute for Sustainable Development. She was part of the delegation to the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. A trained economist, Ms. Cohen realized her strength wasn't in the world of academia but in explaining complex concepts to ordinary people. 'I knew I wasn't going to be the next John Maynard Keynes, but I realized I'm really good at communications,' Ms. Cohen said in a 2015 article about her in The Record. 'I took the theoretical stuff and made people understand it. 'For as long as I've been an adult, I've wondered why we don't teach money matters to children. We all learn how to read, we should all learn how far a dollar goes.' Her articles appeared in Canadian newspapers and magazines; for many years she was the Canadian correspondent for The Economist, the prestigious British magazine. She wrote seven books. Some of Ms. Cohen's economic advice in No Small Change, a book she co-wrote in the early 1990s, sounds as if it could have been spoken during the 2025 federal election campaign. 'What we have tried to show [in the book] is how to take a moderately competitive, low-growth, high-cost country and turn it into a world leader,' Ms. Cohen said in an interview with Statistics Canada in the summer of 1993. 'It is not impossible for Canada to get a big jump on the rest of the world, because we have a lot of world-class intelligence in the country.' Winnipeg seems to produce an outsized number of well-known economists, from Sylvia Ostry, formerly the chief statistician at Statistics Canada among other achievements, to Ms. Cohen. Born Dian Nusgart on July 11, 1932, she was the daughter of Hyman Nusgart, a grain broker, and the former Bernice Stern a homemaker. After attending public schools in Winnipeg, she studied economics and political science at the University of Toronto, receiving her bachelor's degree, then did further studies at McGill University. She married Maxwell Cohen, and they had three daughters. The couple divorced but she kept her married name. Along with her media work, Ms. Cohen also operated an economic consultancy, and she was in demand as a board member on several companies, including Canadian Pacific, Sun Life and Dorel Industries. In 1975, Ms. Cohen bought a property in Hatley in Quebec's Eastern Townships and kept a residence in Montreal while she was broadcasting and doing consulting work. She moved to the Townships full time around 1992. She was extremely active in the community and was the driving force behind the Massawippi Valley Health Foundation, a public clinic in the nearby town of Ayer's Cliff. 'It provides primary health care and illness prevention in an underserved rural area,' her family death notice said. 'Early on, Dian was the only player on the ice. It was a one-woman show, getting around the administrative barriers to opening a clinic. She succeeded against all the odds,' Dr. Lamontagne said. He also worked with Ms. Cohen on a project on advanced care planning. 'Earlier in her life she spent a lot of time in an ICU, so she had lived experience. We wrote a scientific article together,' said Dr. Lamontagne. 'Her intellectual fire never burned out. We worked together until she died.' Ms. Cohen was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1993. 'Economist, broadcaster and author, she has enlightened Canadians by demystifying the workings of the economy and the business world for more than 25 years,' the citation reads. 'She is an outstanding volunteer who has also donated a significant amount of her time to the YMCA and the Public Policy Forum.' She was also a made a member of the Order of Manitoba and was the recipient of three honorary degrees. Ms. Cohen also had her whimsical side. She had, according to her family, 'a passion for making preserves and pickles.' She also knitted animals, including penguins, which won prizes at local fairs. Ms. Cohen leaves her three daughters, Lisa, Nina and Tamara; and one grandchild, Michael Rivard. You can find more obituaries from The Globe and Mail here. To submit a memory about someone we have recently profiled on the Obituaries page, e-mail us at obit@
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Southwestern Quebec under severe thunderstorm watch, Montreal closes many municipal facilities
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has issued several severe thunderstorm watches for southwestern Quebec on Saturday, including Montreal. As a result, the city has closed many of its facilities and advises people to verify whether their activities have been cancelled or not before heading to a municipal building. The City of Montreal's website has many tips for residents, including not using camping heaters in case there's a power outage, which might pose a "high risk of carbon monoxide poisoning." The federal agency recommends that people go indoors when "thunder roars." Eric Tomlinson, a meteorologist with ECCC, told Radio-Canada that tornado-risk zones are located east of the Richelieu River, in the Eastern Townships. "Today's atmospheric dynamics and stability mean that thunderstorms could potentially produce a tornado," he said.
