Montreal business leaders sound alarm again over downtown safety, warn of economic fallout

Downtown Montreal merchants say many employees are afraid for their safety and that the city has not acted.

Concerns about safety in downtown Montreal are mounting — and business leaders say the issue is now threatening the city’s financial health.

A new survey conducted for Montreal centre-ville, the borough’s merchants’ association (SDC), suggests two-thirds of workers believe the downtown core is visibly deteriorating. Nearly half of the 1,000 respondents reported fearing for their personal safety.

Glenn Castanheira, general manager of the group, said he lived the reality first-hand when he was attacked outside Bonaventure metro by a man recently.

“This was clearly someone with mental health issues,” Castanheira recalled. “And he threatened to stab me with a weapon.”

He said his experience reflects what many workers are facing on a daily basis — from harassment and thefts to discarded needles turning up in public spaces.

With 74 per cent of people surveyed saying security is also getting worse in public transit, Castanheira said: “It’s not an isolated problem anymore — it’s everywhere.”

In response to growing concerns, Montreal centre-ville hired five private security guards to patrol parts of downtown.

One of them, Hussen Noureddine, said the problems are impossible to ignore.

“It is getting worse,” he said. “For example, one time at Ste-Catherine and Union Street, people were yelling, but they don’t know what they’re doing — it’s drugs, and it’s the mental health problems.”

Beyond safety, Castanheira warned that the city’s economy is also at risk.

Commercial property values in the area have already dropped 15 per cent in 2025, which translates to millions in lost tax revenue for the city.

“If we fail to bring safety to downtown Montreal, not only will it spread to other areas of the city, as it has already begun to, but we will lose our financial capability of financing the essential services that we need,” Castanheira said.

Political pressure

With municipal elections around the corner, business leaders are pressing candidates to address the issue.

Luc Rabouin, leader of Projet Montréal, acknowledged that more must be done.

“We already did and we will do more because downtown Montreal is the heart of culture and the economy in Quebec,” he said.

His main opposition, Ensemble Montréal leader Soraya Martinez Ferrada, accused the current administration of failing to act quickly enough.

“We have an administration that has put more money into animal shelters than it put into homelessness in the city,” she said.

Both party leaders said they will soon present detailed plans aimed at restoring vitality — and safety — to the core.

Meanwhile, Castanheira said this moment is critical. He pointed to Vancouver and San Francisco, where he argued a lack of timely action allowed insecurity and urban decline to spread.

He insists Montreal must not follow the same path.