Ottawa night mayor says ‘No need to go to Montreal’ for a great night out

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Mathieu Grondin is quick to spot the differences between the nightlife scenes of Ottawa and Montreal.

The 44-year-old Montrealer, appointed last June as Ottawa’s first nightlife commissioner, spent the summer months familiarizing himself with the people, events, and venues that make up the Ottawa-Gatineau nightlife economy.

During an interview at City Hall Art Gallery, he made the point that Ottawa is “hungry” to develop nightlife, despite the red tape generated by multiple levels of government, while Montreal is watching it wither as small venues drop off the radar, many sent to their demise by a litany of noise complaints.

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In Ottawa, things are bubbling up. A new ByWard Market venue is on the horizon, and a downtown hockey arena appears to be further down the road. Grondin welcomes that type of major development but says he also wants to cultivate the grassroots. An advisory council is in the works, too.

“I’m going to be looking into empowering smaller spaces and organizations because they are the incubators for emerging talents, and that’s what cities need right now,” says Grondin, who’s also known as DJ Grondini. “If you don’t start at the ground and go up, it’s not going to work for our local scene.”

Here’s more from the conversation (edited for length and clarity), touching on his background in nightlife and the next steps in building Ottawa’s after-hours sector.

Q: How does it feel to be Ottawa’s first night mayor?

A: I love the position. I love the job. I think it was crafted well. I met with over 100 different organizations, community leaders and business owners in the last three months, and I’m super excited about it.

Q: Any surprises about the city so far?

A: The biggest surprise was to see the level of engagement from all the stakeholders, from the big associations down to the smaller DIY groups and artist collectives, and even inside the city. I’ve had meetings with most of the services and departments that are impacted by nightlife and all the doors are open. Everybody is ready to see what we can do to help. They’re all Ottawans and they all want to develop nightlife. People are hungry here, and this was a nice surprise moving here.

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Q: Is that hunger different from Montreal?

A: Back in Montreal, my work was more about management: Managing the negative externalities of nightlife. The biggest problem in Montreal was sound complaints. So many small venues have closed and are still closing down in Montreal because of that. Here it’s different, it’s more about development and growth. This is very exciting.

Q: What got you interested in this type of work?

A: I was an event organizer for 30 years, especially late-night events, and there was a lot of stigmatization around what we did. We tried to make our events legal and it was complicated, especially in our relationships with the police. They thought because it was after 3 a.m., and all the bars close at 3 a.m., we were suspected of doing something wrong, like either selling alcohol illegally or drugs. We formed a group in 2017 to destigmatize nightlife activities and start lobbying the city to defend the interests of the night owls in Montreal, and underline the great positive impacts we were having on the city. It started out as a volunteer position and slowly evolved into an expertise. I’ve travelled the world giving keynotes on nightlife management and governance.

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Q: Why is it important for a city to support its nightlife?

A: It’s a hugely important time and space because people work during the day, make their money and then they go spend it at night. A lot of people tell me they’re not concerned about nightlife but I say, “Have you ever been to a restaurant?” because that’s part of nightlife. In general, between 25 and 35 percent of spending happens at night in any mid-size city. The city of Ottawa did a study in 2021 and found night spending is worth $1.5 billion.

Q: What’s a challenge that’s unique to Ottawa?

A: The framework of Ottawa is very special because we’re the capital so we have a lot of different (levels of) red tape, (including) the National Capital Commission, the federal government, the city. One metre of a site might be the feds, the next is the NCC, but the sidewalk is the City of Ottawa. We’re not going to be able to remove it all but if I can help open doors for different groups that have projects, that’s a good thing.

Q: Have you been able to find some things to do here?

A: Oh yes. I heard some things about the ByWard Market but I was just there on Friday night after a movie screening at the ByTowne Theatre, and it was so vibrant. I was walking with my girlfriend and there was foot traffic, car traffic. I saw a woman playing keyboards on the street with a small speaker. You would never see that in Montreal because you can’t make noise. So yeah, it has this concentration of restaurants, bars, venues that’s very unique to Ottawa. It’s got a special vibe.

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Q: So maybe Ottawa isn’t the city that fun forgot?

A: No! I think it’s been beaten down a little bit. Mayor Sutcliffe said this is something we should not be saying just as I’m setting foot in the city, and it got me thinking about bullies in school. When somebody repeats an insult over and over again, you start internalizing it and believing it, and you don’t believe in yourself. I’ve been meeting fantastic people who are doing fantastic things and there’s a lot of great events in the city. I think part of what we’re trying to do now is gain back that sense of pride for our own city at night.

Q:  What’s the next step?

A: To keep implementing the Nightlife Economy Action Plan. We have until the end of the term of council to do so. The next three steps are: The bylaw review, to try to identify the systemic barriers, the red tape so it eases the pain for event promoters; the nightlife safety and security plan; and a promotional effort. A lot of stuff is happening in Ottawa but I think the problem is people don’t know about it. We should amplify what these great organizations, promoters, venue owners and business owners are doing, give them light, shine them up and be proud of them. You don’t need to go to Montreal to party. We have a strong nightlife. You can stay in Ottawa and keep those dollars here.

lsaxberg@postmedia.com

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