Another year has come and gone, but this year was something different. Montreal was celebrating its 375th birthday, the economy has boomed the most since the 1970’s and changes continued to happen. We can say that the city had a very successful year and with many aspects. To conclude 2017, we’ll look back at big news, events that happened, record breakers and so on.

Major Highlights

1. Tourism

With the 375th anniversary, low Canadian dollar and more global recognition, Montreal has hit the highest number of tourists since Expo 67, with 11.2 million tourists visiting this beautiful city in 2017. This number is a projection and can possibly go up. Furthermore, tourist spending has increased to $3.6B in 2017, representing a 10% increase from 2016, and contributing more to our economy and tax revenue for the government.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-tourism-grow-1.4285584

2. YUL hits 18 million passengers

With the new direct flights established at Montreal’s airport (YUL) tourist increases and more investments, it’s not surprising to see passenger traffic to increase. What is surprising is that YUL was supposed to hit 18 million by 2020-2022, and that was accomplished December 2017. If this trend continues, we can see YUL hit 20 million by next year! which would be an amazing accomplishment.

3. Highest GDP growth in decades

I always post regularly on new projects going on in downtown Montreal and have previously mentioned this as well, in 2017 the city saw its largest GDP growth in decades. Montreal is projected to grow economically by 3.2% for 2017. It’s not surprising, especially since the city is dotted with cranes and infrastructure investments as well. The momentum is expected to last until 2019, after that, we’ll see what happens.

Source: http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/faster-growth-expected-for-montreal-and-quebec-city-economies-in-2017-651240773.html

4. Record low homicides for 2017

Montreal is often regarded as one of the safest major cities not only in North America but worldwide as well! and the low violent crime numbers can attest to this. In 2017 Montreal saw 22 homicides (although two open files from last year increased this to 24). With a projected population as of July 1st, 2016 being 2,014,221, this represents a homicide rate of 1.09/100,000 and in fact, is lower than that since the population continues to grow. If I had to guess, the rate is closer to 0.7-0.8/100,000 for this year and will continue to go down.

Source: http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/number-of-homicides-reported-in-montreal-in-2017-hits-new-low

5. Montreal becoming a worldwide A.I/Tech hub

Montreal continues to establish itself as a worldwide leader in A.I/Tech and has been called the Silicon Valley of the north. Investments from Thales, Facebook, Microsoft, DeepMind and so forth. In addition to A.I/Tech, Montreal also saw huge investments in the gaming industry, aerospace and sciences, which are strong cards Montreal is known for. Montreal is also a higher education city, which plays a key role in investments from companies and universities. The future is bright for Montreal, and we have and will become a world leader in tech, health, aerospace and green energies.

Source: http://www.montrealinternational.com/en/news/2017/12/look-back-on-an-outstanding-2017/

6. First Female mayor in Montreal’s history

To end on a major and positive note, the people of Montreal have elected Projet Montreal and with this, elected the first female mayor in city history. Valarie Plante is a very hard working person who went from someone not known to the leader of North America’s 9th largest city. Her platform included suspending the pit bull ban (which happened), suspending Formula E (not coming back for 2018) and included a new pink line metro for the city. With the new REM line happening next year, the extension of the blue line by 2025, and possibly the extension of the Orange line in the near future, Montreal can be one of the most covered transit cities in N.A.

What transportation can look like in Montreal, with the pink line, blue line extension and the REM. Madame Plante and I may not see eye to eye on certain things, mainly economic aspects, nonetheless I am very confident and excited about her victory and what she’ll bring to Montreal. Congratulations to Mrs. Plante!

Source: http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/valerie-plantes-proposed-pink-line-is-it-realistic

Events in 2017/Other highlights

Montreal is a city of events and festivals, and since 2017 was a special year, we had an additional 175 events or so. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend all of them to take pictures so I will use pictures of events from other people and ones I or my friends took for other events/highlights.

1. Montreal Avudo

Source: http://www.montreal.tv/2017/06/le-spectacle-montreal-avudo-annonce-des-supplementaires/

2. Summer fun on St. Denis

From flash mobs to giant characters to horned military drummers, this is what summer looks like in Montreal yearly.

3. Jacques Cartier bridge lights up

$40 million investment over 10 years, from Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments.

4. Giants invade Montreal

An event I wish I attended, but unfortunately couldn’t.

Source: http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/giants-take-over-downtown-old-montreal-starting-friday

5. Montreal the mural city

In addition to the murals, two were made in honour of Montreal legend Leonard Cohen. One in Le Plateau made for mural fest by Kevin Ledo (9 stories tall) and one made by El Mac &Gene Pendon in collaboration with MUMTL, located on Crescent street in downtown Montreal (20 stories tall). The Murals were made for Mural Festival, Under Pressure Festival and initiatives by the city of Montreal & respective boroughs.

6. Establishment of Parc Bonaventure

From my last visit in September, it’s a lovely urban park that’ll only get better as the vegetation continues to mature.

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7. Ferris Wheel in Old Montreal

A private investment of $25 million recently opened in the Old Port. Although I haven’t been on it, I’ve heard from friends that the view is spectacular and worth the price ($20 for students, $25 general). The Ferris wheel measures to be 60 metres in height (200ft)

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2017 was a successful year for Montreal, and here’s hoping that 2018 will be even better! plenty of highlights were shown, and possibly more will be shown in future updates since so many things happened this year.

I would like to thank all the people worldwide for viewing this blog. 2017 was a very successful year, as tens of thousands viewed the blog, the photos, and so forth. The purpose of this blog was to show people Montreal, and so far it has worked. I met people who’ve visited Montreal just because of this blog, and more people showing interests in visiting this beautiful city. Big things are in store for 2018 as the blog continues to expand and diversify, and I’m also hoping for more communication with people, supporters or non-supporters. On that note, I wish everyone a happy new year and a prosperous and easy going 2018.