As we arrived in Quebec and began to immerse ourselves in our new setting, we have been reminded of things done differently in Quebec. Here are a few.
1. Much more bicycle infrastructure. In some places, the bike lanes are physically separate from the car lanes. Some places have special traffic lights just for bikes. In parts of Montreal, the bike lanes are adjacent to the curb and where parking is allowed, the cars park between the bike lane and traffic lanes, creating a physical safety zone.
2. Also, there are several systems of bike share and electric scooter sharing services in Ottawa, Gatineau, Montreal, Quebec and likely in other parts of the province. The scooters all have a GPS tracker hidden inside them. Using a phone app, once you have registered an account, you can locate the nearest available scooter. You "unlock" it through the app and drive away. When finished, you can leave it anywhere on the sidewalk. It does not need to be left at a designated rack or charging point.
3, Major highways have minimum speed limits.
4. Even before the pandemic prompted this change, several Quebec fast-food restaurants offered alcohol at their drive-thru windows. Some other provinces have also loosened their rules around alcohol now too.
5. Speaking of restaurants, St. Hubert's is the major chicken franchise in Quebec.
St. Hubert's was founded in Montreal in 1951 on St. Hubert St. and grew to have many locations throughout Quebec, with some in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. In the 1970's they opened a branch in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to serve the large community of Quebecois "snowbirds" and made a point of hiring staff who could speak French. As the popularity of Swiss Chalet grew throughout much of Canada, they opened a couple of restaurants in Quebec but had trouble attracting market share away from St. Hubert's and later closed those outlets. But St. Hubert's was also having expansion problems and by the early 2010's, had retreated back to the Quebec market. They were bought out by the parent company of Swiss Chalet in 2016 which has kept the two brands separate. There is some competition from another chain, Benny & Co., which has outlets throughout southern Quebec plus a couple in Ottawa. We have tried all three restaurants and Swiss Chalet is our favourite.
6. At the Gatineau libraries, it costs $2.50 to borrow a CD or DVD. I have not been able to find an explanation for this charge, but it may have something to do with copyright or licensing rules. In nearby Ottawa, however, there is no charge and holders of a Gatineau library card can obtain a card that allows them to also borrow from Ottawa libraries.
7. Grocery Store Bottle and Can return machines.
Early in the pandemic, when the prevailing wisdom said that the virus could be transmitted by touching a surface that an infected person had touched, many stores stopped accepting returnable bottles and cans. Since that issue has proven to be of minimal concern, many stores have resumed accepting them but have installed plastic bottle and can return machines. Customers feed the item in and receive a credit which can be redeemed in the store. Many of the homeless people scour parks and trash cans for these containers, rather than just for liquor and beer bottles, and can often be seen hauling huge bags of them into a grocery store.
8. Here in Gatineau as well as in the big cities, most businesses employ cashiers or salespeople who are fluent in both official languages. I am constantly amazed at how easily the teenagers we encounter in stores and restaurants can easily switch languages with no effort, while we still struggle with our French. It has only been in the small-town stores that are not tourism-related where we have found an occasional French-only person, but there is usually another staff member or customer nearby who can speak at least broken English to assist us. However, at Tim Horton's or McDonalds, they still can't get Bev's tea order correct. I often get it with no milk even though we ask for "le thé au lait"
9. Construction Holiday Weeks - The Commission De la Construction Du Quebec mandates 2 two-week construction holidays throughout the province. This year, all non-essential construction work shut down for 2 weeks beginning July 18 and will do so again on December 19. Construction employers have to remit 13% of each worker's weekly pay to this government department and then the government sends each worker a cheque prior to each vacation period.
10. The RV Culture - Quebecers appear to be very much more involved in camping than in other provinces we have lived in. Most towns seem to have a municipal campground in addition to the private ones. There are free dumping stations for sewage in many places, often the local water and sewage treatment plants. This is a great benefit for us as it allows us to "boondock" (camp for free in places other than official campgrounds) for a couple of days before we need to dump.
These are only a few of the differences between Quebec and other provinces I am sure that there are more. We also have experienced many things that are similar such as the diversity of the people. It is wonderful to see Canada welcome so many people from the around the world. Also, no matter where we go, the beautiful sunsets are amazing.
Sunset along the Ottawa River near Aylmer.
No comments:
Post a Comment