Random facts about Montreal
Some random facts about Montreal that I learnt while reading the newspapers today:
– During the ice storm of 1998, the whole Montreal island was nearly evacuated due to power outages that had stopped the city’s water pumps from working. Luckily, power was restored to the water pumps in time. This piece of information really struck me as I hadn’t previously realized how serious the ice storm was until I read about this. It’s exactly 10 years ago that the ice storm had happened and it was basically just 5 straight days of freezing rain coming down on the affected regions. It was the biggest ice storm in the history of Canada. Read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Ice_Storm
– The city spends $10 million dollars to repair potholes on roads annually. Its not because the quality of roads are poor but the repeated freeze/thaw action caused by water that seep into the roads over winter.
– Montreal is the most trilingual city in Canada. More people can speak 3 languages (Canada’s two official languages: English and French plus a 3rd language) here then in any other city in Canada. A whooping 18.4% of residents can speak 3 languages in Montreal, compared to 10.5% in Toronto and 9.2% in Vancouver. Looks like its time for me to brush up my French so that I can add on to that statistic. 🙂