Past Projects

CIEC Youth Coop

The Coop d’initiation à l’entrepreneuriat collectif (CIEC), was an initiative that ran at the MPCC in collaboration with Fonds étudiant solidarité travail du Québec II (FESTQ II) and Conseil québécois de la coopération et de la mutualité (CQCM) during the summers of 2022- 2025. The project aimed to give young people aged 13 to 17 experience in cooperative entrepreneurship, by guiding them through the development of a service cooperative of their own design. A Coordinator supervised the entrepreneurs and provided support in all stages of setting up their cooperative business (planning, promotion, contract negotiations, accounting management, etc.). The project brought cooperative values to life for the entrepreneurs, allowing them the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in leadership and teamwork through the development of a collective initiative that responded to the needs of their community. Some projects that were developed included garden clean-ups, outreach strategies, helping an organization develop and test a promotional app, building shelves for storage, and more!

Hotel Dieu

Hotel Dieu Hospital Founded by the Sisters of St Joseph nuns is the oldest hospital in North America (after a hospital in Mexico City) and an institution of great importance to many Montrealers. Decommissioned since health services were moved to the CHUM super hospital, the community has advocated for a decade that it not be privatized, but that it continue to provide essential social services like healthcare, cooperative housing for families, non-profit social housing, spaces for community services, art and culture, and urban agriculture. To this end, the MPCC co-founded the Communauté St Urbain (CSU), a coalition of 60 community organizations in Montreal, and the Plateau in particular, with a common goal: the regeneration of the heritage site of the Hôtel Dieu de Montréal. The project has been at a standstill as of 2025. The CCMP still wishes for the space to be given back to the community in its entirety in order to convert it into social housings and support local groups and residents.

Lucia Kowaluk Park

For many decades, Parc Léo-Pariseau (the green space on the south west corner of Parc Avenue and Pine Avenue) would be zoned partially for housing and partially as a highway (for the former Parc-Pine highway interchange. In the early 2000s, politicians attempted to sell it for high-rise buildings, which caused an uproar in the community, after which plans were quickly canceled.

In 2019, the Milton Parc Citizens Committee decided to take action to save the park from development once and for all. We therefore launched a petition asking to change the zoning of the green space so that it officially becomes a public park. In a door-to-door campaign, over 1,100 citizens signed the petition, which was submitted to the Plateau Borough Council in early Fall of that year.

In early 2020, the Borough Council proceeded to change the zoning of the green space into a public park. On September 21, 2020, on the United Nations World Day of Peace, the City officially underlined this symbolic gesture by organizing an inauguration ceremony for the new Lucia-Kowaluk Park. The park was named in memory of Lucia Kowaluk, an influential activist and social worker who has done tremendous work in Milton Parc. Oak trees were later planted at the edge of the park and an agora has been added to facilitate gatherings of residents. The square is now used by citizens and organizations to gather, host events, and socialize.

Notman Gardens

The Notman Garden is a wild urban forest on virgin land at the corner of Milton and Clark, which has over 44 species of trees. It also hosts some of the oldest trees in Montreal, over 200 years old, many of which are

endangered species such as the Kentucky Coffee tree. The green space was originally the gardens of Notman House, the last remaining mansion of the Golden Square Mile on Sherbrooke St. It was the home of the renowned Canadian photographer William Notman in 1876 and later on of the Drummond family. In 1894, St Margaret’s Hospice was built, the first women’s-only hospital run by Protestant nuns in North America.

In the 1980 until the early 2000s, the garden fell into the hands of private landowners and was in danger of being replaced by housing. To protect it from real estate development, the community mobilized and persevered right until 2018 when the borough expropriated it to make a public park. Today, the forest is still protected and breathes in alongside its residents.

Chez Gautier Petition

The Chez Gautier site, located on 3487 avenue du Parc has been abandoned by a Toronto real estate company for over 12 years. It has

been vacant and unused since the closure of the restaurant Chez Gautier in 2012, negatively affecting public safety and the quality of life in the neighborhood. While the site remains in private ownership and thus inaccessible to the community, Montreal is facing a housing crisis marked by low vacancy rates and a pressing need for community housing. Moreover, much of the lot at 3487 Avenue du Parc consists of a paved parking lot, which contributes to the heat island effect and negatively impacts the health of residents in the summer seasons.

As a result, on May 17th of 2025, the MPCC took action, hosting a community discussion to launch an advocacy initiative for social use of Chez Gautier. Our organization would go on to create a petition campaign urging the municipal government to expropriate and repurpose the site for community housing, collecting over 1500 signatures. Additionally, we organised several related awareness-raising community-based events and initiatives including street petitioning kiosks, yarn bombing decoration activities, community BBQs, and a how-to-vote report for the municipal elections. Through our advocacy for the public use of the Chez Gautier site, we at the MPPC have reaffirmed our commitment to defending the public right to housing of all Montreal residents.

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