Quebec will invest $4.2M to make Place des Arts complex wheelchair accessible from Metro
Within two years, the Quebec government is hoping to make Montreal's Place des Arts concert venue completely wheelchair accessible from the Metro system.
Currently, a set of stairs separates Place-des-Arts Metro station from the tunnel leading to the performing arts complex.
The STM is also planning to install an elevator inside Place-des-Arts Metro.
Quebec Culture Minister Nathalie Roy announced Sunday the province will contribute $4.2 million to renovate and modernize the connecting tunnel, first built in 1966.
"We are sending a message. We have to make life easier for everybody, and have access to our wonderful shows at Place des Arts," she said.
The staircase will be demolished and replaced by a long ramp.
There are 8,127 seats available at Place des Arts for spectators with limited mobility annually, but only about 500 people take advantage of those seats.
Roy said she hopes that number will increase once the venues, including the Maison Symphonique and the Salle Wilfrid Pelletier, are accessible from the Metro.
As it stands now, people with reduced mobility can access those venues via the Ste-Catherine Street entrance, but not the Metro.
"There was a survey saying that 37 per cent of the population comes to the Place des Arts via the public transit. So we can increase that, and that's what we're gonna do," she said.
Montrealer Linda Gauthier uses a wheelchair and says the current setup makes her feel "excluded" from arts and cultural events held at Place des Arts.
"I feel like a second-class citizen," she told CBC. "For example, if you had a ticket, and you invited me to come to a show tonight and I [didn't] have a para-transit, I would stay home."
Gauthier said she's happy something is being done about the barriers that keep people with reduced mobility away.
Meanwhile, the STM has set a goal of making 32 stations accessible by 2022.
"We wanted to make sure that when the station here is accessible, that Place des arts will be accessible too, at the same time."
Work will begin in April 2021 and is expected to be done in 2022.
