More than Ever Committed to
the Responsible Stewardship of Mount Royal
Impact Report 2021/2022
TOGETHER, LET’S TAKE CARE OF THE MOUNTAIN
LIKE IT TAKES CARE OF US!
PETER A. HOWLETT, C.M.
President of the Board of Directors
" We must join forces now and act effectively to safeguard the integrity of the mountain’s natural ecosystems and heritage. "
A Word from the President
The love Montrealers bear for their mountain is undeniable! Every day, Les Amis de la montagne supports this vast, engaged community, which is deeply concerned about the accelerating decline of Mount Royal’s natural habitats due to increased visitorship, use of the territory's green spaces and climate change. The visitor experience is compromised, as are the ecosystem services this green lung in the heart of Montreal provides for the population around it. We must join forces now and act efficiently to preserve the integrity of the mountain’s natural ecosystems and heritage. Fortunately, Mount Royal can count on volunteers and partners who are more engaged than ever and are working tirelessly with Les Amis de la montagne to protect it. Thank you! Beyond this commitment, it is clear that the municipal government will have to implement a strategy and provide additional, recurring financial support to help reverse the upward trend in the deterioration of the mountain’s parkland green space. Urgent investment is needed in the development of paths and trails, the dissemination of ec0-citizenship education, the communication and application of park regulations, and in rigorous monitoring of the condition of our natural habitats and actions to restore them on an ongoing basis. Many of you in the community have shared observations and concerns with us. Keep doing so! Les Amis takes this valuable input into account in developing proactive and constructive solutions to the issues you raise. We are a key player in their implementation as the City of Montréal’s partner for park services, and in cooperation with large institutional property stewards on Mount Royal.
Together, let’s take care of the mountain
like it takes care of us!
© Rich Martello Unsplash
© PIXUP ALex Bled
HÉLÈNE PANAÏOTI
Executive Director
" We will continue to work with and for the community so that current and future generations may enjoy all the benefits of the precious collective asset that is Mount Royal! "
A Word from the Executive Director
Challenges can be powerful drivers for learning and innovation. This is the approach Les Amis de la montagne took in facing the challenges generated this year by issues including environmental decline, climate change, the loss of biodiversity, the pandemic and a labour shortage. Backed by a solid business model, we were able to maintain our resilience and agility and stimulate our team’s sense of innovation in fostering and developing partnerships to support the sustainable management of the mountain, while also focusing on the renewal of our team.. Despite the labour shortage, we were able to build up Les Amis's team of committed professionals, who bring a wide range of strategic skills to our organization. This renewal is inspiring and enables us to embrace with confidence the direction Les Amis is taking for the mountain’s future. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the growing popularity of green spaces has compelled us to provide more opportunities to further citizen engagement for nature conservation. To this end, we created a new service dedicated to promoting volunteer involvement, developing environmental stewardship programs and raising awareness about eco-citizenship to get volunteers of all ages to take part in protecting Mount Royal. We consolidated our visitor services team to accommodate the ever-growing number of users enjoying the mountain with Les Amis. An organizational review led to a more efficient reservations service and better welcome services for individual visitors, families, schools, and corporate or community groups. We remain committed to providing accessible, inclusive educational, outdoor, cultural and environmental stewardship programs that enhance the experience of every visitor to Mount Royal with Les Amis! Lastly, we are actively endeavouring to adapt our work environment to the new realities of the labour market. Our goals here include developing a workplace culture and values that inspire a sense of pride in belonging to a dynamic NPO that is committed to the sustainable stewardship of the mountain. We remain focused on our mission and continue to work with and for the community so that current and future generations may enjoy all the benefits of the precious collective asset that is Mount Royal!
A New Team with New Challenges
Les Amis de la montagne was born of a citizen mobilization movement that has remained steadfast over the decades. Public awareness and engagement in caring for the mountain are at the very core of our mission. The way we work with the community has had to evolve because of the global pandemic. Labour shortages and the remote management of onsite services and programs made this all the more challenging. In 2021–2022, Les Amis was nonetheless able to strengthen its organizational structure, review its means of action and rebuild its team.
Our team, 70% of which is made up of highly qualified new hires, is uniquely positioned and very excited about pursuing Les Amis's mission to protect and enhance Mount Royal.
ABOUT LES AMIS
Did you know?
Three new teams—Human Resources, Information Technology and Volunteer Engagement—were put in place this year to help Les Amis achieve its objectives for the preservation of Mount Royal.
© Philip Roberge
The Year in Numbers
© Émmanuelle Métivier
A few figures…
- 4 small-scale spring clean-ups
- 1,146 visitors to the winter and summer editions of the Conservation Matters kiosk
- 748 onsite volunteers in our Environmental Stewardship Program
© Freddy Arcienagas
… to illustrate…
- 452 children aged 7 to 12 at our day camp
- 2,897 students enrolled in our educational programs on the mountain and online
- 738 hikers guided by our educators
© Charline Veyret
... the work…
- 130,000+ visits to the mountain planned with the expert guidance of Les Amis's welcome service
- 26,000+ skaters, cross-country skiers, snowshoers and snow tubers enjoyed the great outdoors in Mount Royal Park with gear provided by Les Amis’s rental service, including 976 youths aged 17 or under equipped with skis and skates free of charge thanks to a grant from the City of Montréal
- 2,000+ boating enthusiasts went rowing on the lake on fine summer days
© Agence Culte
… of our teams
- 104,000+ food orders provided by the Café des Amis
- 183 amateur and professional photographers took part in Les Amis’s The Mountain in Pictures photo competition
- 4 Tens of thousands of refreshing health drinks and frozen treats sold at our mobile kiosks
- 1 new exhibition at Smith House
LES AMIS AND THE CITY: Partners for Parks and Users
For over 35 years, Les Amis de la montagne and the City of Montréal have developed a strong partnership that allows us to serve the users of Mount Royal and Tiohtià:ke Otsira'kéhne parks while protecting and enhancing the territory.
Our agreement with the City covers the following programs and services offered by Les Amis in the park:
- Environmental education activities
- Planting, removal of invasive species and environmental monitoring performed with volunteers
- Heritage interpretation services
- Welcome and information service
- Conservation patrol
- Equipment rental and outdoor activity services
- Food services, gift shop and mobile refreshment sales kiosks
With its in-depth knowledge of Mount Royal and its daily presence in the territory, Les Amis also plays an advisory role for the City in the following areas:
- Park management
- Development projects
- Accessibility
- Users and conflicts of use
- Maintenance of outdoor recreation infrastructure
- Building restoration, analysis of requests to hold events in the park and documentation of the impacts of such events on the park and its users
- Park safety, security and cleanliness
12% of all Les Amis de la montagne’s revenues come from the City of Montréal’s financial contribution to some of our park services.
ENVIRONMENTAL
CONSERVATION
Mount Royal is an exceptional green space surrounded by a large community that took refuge there to escape the isolation imposed by the pandemic starting in 2020. Increased visitorship has put significant pressure on the integrity of the mountain’s ecosystems. To minimize the impact of the human presence on these habitats, in addition to monitoring the condition of the mountain’s iconic woodlands and green space, Les Amis's team adapted its onsite programs and activities for the general public. This enabled the team members to more effectively identify and seek out users of the most vulnerable areas to raise their awareness of the importance of protecting the mountain’s precious ecosystems.
Cornerstone Parks
Now in its second year, this partnership between Les Amis de la montagne, Park People, the High Park Nature Centre (Toronto) and the Stanley Park Ecology Society (Vancouver) is revealing the positive impacts of the volunteer environmental stewardship programs led in large urban parks on the resilience of our cities and the quality of life of our citizens. Cornerstone parks show that by working together to restore urban forests, we increase the capacity of our parks to provide us with a number of ecosystem services.
Patrollers at work
Onsite awareness activities reached more than 1,000 visitors
No matter the weather
Summer and winter editions of the Conservation Matters kiosk
No more renegade trails!
Renegade trail closures and temporary signage installation around City of Montréal nature restoration sites
United we stand
Support for the onsite planning and implementation of the City of Montréal’s Good Habits to Adopt in Large Parks campaign
© Frédérique Ménard-Aubin
© amisdelamontagne
![Inviter les Montréalais]()
Patrollers at work
Onsite awareness activities reached more than 1,000 visitors
![Inviter les Montréalais]()
No matter the weather
Summer and winter editions of the Conservation Matters kiosk
![Inviter les Montréalais]()
No more renegade trails!
Renegade trail closures and temporary signage installation around City of Montréal nature restoration sites
![Inviter les Montréalais]()
United we stand
Support for the onsite planning and implementation of the City of Montréal’s Good Habits to Adopt in Large Parks campaign
Advocacy
© Joel Guilbault
Redevelopment of the former Royal Victoria Hospital
Redevelopment of the former Royal Victoria Hospital
The Société québécoise des infrastructures and McGill University, in cooperation with the City of Montréal, have been working on a master plan for the redevelopment of the former Royal Victoria Hospital site since 2019. The public consultation phase began in 2021. Working with partners, Les Amis has intensified its efforts to influence decision makers and the strategy has paid off! The Office de consultation publique de Montréal Commission accepted the vast majority of the recommendations contained in Les Amis’s brief, including two conditions we deemed essential: that public ownership of the land be maintained and that the boundaries of Mount Royal Park be extended to encompass the site’s natural spaces.
Victory is not yet assured, but things are progressing well. Les Amis is pursuing its efforts to obtain the desired results. To better understand the issues at stake in the redevelopment of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, read the summary article on our website and watch the video clip (in French).
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Meetings of Mount Royal institutions
Meetings of Mount Royal institutions
For a second year, major institutional property owners on Mount Royal took part in a collaborative initiative focused on the sustainable management of their properties. Established and coordinated by Les Amis, a community of practice on differentiated greenspace management and a major annual meeting of senior representatives of institutional stakeholders led to the adoption of a common vision to guide the next steps in the process. A first joint differentiated grassland management pilot project brought together the expertise of the Université de Montréal and the Fabrique de la paroisse Notre-Dame de Montréal. The reports produced as part of these activities disseminate, inspire and promote the approach and all institutions involved. The McGill University Health Centre and the Montreal General Hospital recently joined the nine institutional partners already involved. Recognizing the potential of this initiative, the ECHO Foundation increased its support for Les Amis for the next two years. Together, we are creating a community that brings together some 23 representatives from the scientific, municipal and civil sectors for the benefit of the mountain's biodiversity!
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© Air Imex Ltée
Coalition des Montérégiennes
Coalition des Montérégiennes
Les Amis de la montagne joined forces with the nine conservation groups working on Mount Royal's sister mountains to urge municipal and provincial decision makers to protect and enhance these rich, natural areas in southern Quebec, which are occupied by more than two-thirds of Quebecers. Following an initial media event, the Coalition des Montérégiennes was created with the mission to develop action plans for each of the hills, as well as a regional protection plan. The Coalition's first victory came when the elected officials of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal set up a working group to produce a first metropolitan action plan. The positive response from the community and decision makers gives the Coalition hope for significant gains by 2025. Visit the Coalition's website to learn about the organizations involved and their mission.
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© Pixup MTL
Municipal politics
Municipal politics
As the 2021 municipal elections drew near, issues relating to the mountain became part of the public debate and influenced the agenda of the main political parties. Les Amis took a stand against the proposal of one of the mayoral candidates to build towers higher than Mount Royal and collaborated with four partners in signing an open letter (in French). The letter reiterates the importance for decision makers to maintain their ongoing commitment to protect and improve the mountain, which gives our city a distinctive character and international renown and contributes to the quality of life of Montrealers. In response, the City Council adopted a Declaration (in French) to underscore the importance of preserving the uniqueness of the Montreal landscape.
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© Freddy Arciniegas
Public consultation and development
Public consultation and development
Les Amis continued to advocate to protect the integrity of the mountain's iconic presence in the Montreal landscape. Through our involvement in the various consultations, we aimed to mitigate the visual barrier effect of high-rise buildings in the downtown core, and to protect and improve the views to and from Mount Royal.
The Office de consultation publique de Montréal Commission endorsed three of the recommendations in our brief (in French) concerning a proposal to build a tower atop the Bay store on Sainte-Catherine Street West. They recommended reducing the height of the project by 18 metres.
We also submitted a brief (in French) as part of the public consultations on the development project for the former Lucky Luc stables in the Sud-Ouest borough. The borough considered our recommendations to reduce the height of the proposed building while continuing to protect the remaining angles of view towards Mount Royal and ultimately rejected the developer's project.
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Did you know?
- Les Amis de la montagne and Park People jointly organized the 1st Montreal Park People Forum entitled
The Power of Montreal City Parks . More than 150 people were in attendance to discuss territorial and environmental equity in Montreal’s parks!
- Mount Royal’s ecological network covers an area of 423 hectares, 230 of which are located on land occupied by the institutional properties that play a key role in its protection! The network’s integrity is at the heart of the cooperation efforts led by Les Amis with its partners on the mountain.
- Through our in-depth knowledge of the Mount Royal territory and the challenges relating to the mountain, Les Amis plays an important role in the Table de concertation du Mont-Royal. Our contribution to the working table's discussions allows us to build consensus on the accessibility, conservation, management, protection and enhancement of the Mount Royal Heritage Site.
@ Lucia Arana
EDUCATIONAL, CULTURAL AND
OUTDOOR RECREATION PROGRAMS
The health crisis has had a major impact on the way we live and what we do. The winter of 2021-2022 was marked by mandatory self-isolation, the closure of public buildings on Mount Royal and a lack of staff due to the pandemic, not to mention extreme weather conditions. Despite these setbacks, Les Amis de la montagne found new ways to welcome school groups and the general public, albeit in reduced numbers. More than 6,500 mountain lovers of all ages were able to benefit from our comprehensive program of activities focused on nature, culture and the outdoors, and highlighted the heritage value of Mount Royal and the challenges of safeguarding this spectacular natural environment.
@ Freddy Arciniegas
@ amisdelamontagne
@ Eric Gagnon
@ Charline Veyret
PARK VISITOR SERVICES
Les Amis de la montagne plays a leading role in welcoming visitors to Mount Royal Park with a range of services offered under an agreement with the City of Montréal. The net profits generated are reinvested in the enhancement of the visitor experience and the conservation of Mount Royal.
Despite challenges such as the labour shortage, health restrictions and the closure of public buildings during a very cold winter, Les Amis was able to maintain a full range of services such as outdoor recreation equipment rentals and food services by adapting them to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. We also launched a one-stop reservation service where people could organize a day of activities in the park and register for our programs online, so that users of all ages could fully enjoy their visit to Mount Royal.
Café des Amis rises to the challenge once again
The pandemic continued into 2021–2022 with significant consequences for the food services industry. Nevertheless, thanks to a skilled and dedicated team, the Café des Amis was able to continue providing hundreds of thousands of visitors with a healthy, simple, comforting and much appreciated seasonal menu, seven days a week.
@ Freddy Arciniegas
A Collaborative Effort to Benefit Visitors
Mount Royal is a fast paced, constantly changing environment. Providing a quality visitor experience was a challenge in 2021–2022, given that we had to deal with mandatory health measures, extreme weather and several site restoration projects.
The close cooperation between the Les Amis and Bureau du Mont-Royal teams allowed us to ensure that visitors to Mount Royal and Tiohtià:ke Otsira'kéhne parks had a quality experience, despite the difficult conditions we faced. Building on a long-standing relationship, the teams worked together to find innovative solutions to complex problems. At no other time has the mutual trust and support between our respective teams been so strong. Together, we made it possible for visitors to stretch their legs and renew their spirits in challenging times.
Did you know?
Les Amis now offers a one-stop welcome and reservation service for individual visitors and groups wishing to organize a trip to the mountain. Thanks to this integrated service, it has never been easier to enroll for an activity or course, reserve outdoor recreation equipment, sign your group up for an educational program, reserve box lunches and much more. As a result, you can now better plan and get the most out of your day on Mount Royal with Les Amis de la montagne.
© Charline Veyret
OUTREACH AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Website Visitor Profiles
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW 2021–2022
Les Amis's business model is based on three revenue streams: funds raised from donors and partners; public funding, including that of the City of Montréal; and revenues generated by fee-based services and programs offered to visitors.
This model, which has sustained our growth over the years, has been put to the test by the pandemic since 2020. The second year of the health crisis required us to meet additional challenges brought about by the current inflationary context and an unprecedented labour shortage.
Nevertheless, the results of the 2021–2022 financial year reflect a level of organizational resilience that bodes well for our long-term sustainability.
The large percentage variance in revenue sources from 2022–2021 is due to increased revenues from our fee-based services and programs despite the challenges of the pandemic, such as outdoor recreation equipment rentals, outdoor activities, food and beverage, gift shop sales, and some educational programs. The variance is also attributable to a slight decrease in our reliance on emergency support measures put in place by the government during the pandemic.
Sources of Revenue
Expenses by Activity Sector
This financial overview combines the balance sheets and comparative results of Les Amis de la montagne, the Centre de la montagne and Café des Amis, our three organizations operating under the banner Les Amis de la montagne.
The financial statements of the three organizations are available upon request.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Essential to the Pursuit of our Mission
Investing in the sustainable stewardship of Mount Royal benefits us all. We could not achieve our mission without the invaluable support of the Montreal community. Once again this year, we were touched by this generosity.
@ Émmanuelle Métivier
@ Robyn Trudy Hertz
@ Freddy Arciniegas
@ Freddy Arciniegas
Coming soon!
Thanks to the TD Bank Group and Rio Tinto and their multi-year financial support, we are developing a new public awareness campaign on the importance of environmentally responsible behaviour in support of the health of Mount Royal's green spaces. This project has been developed in cooperation with some dozen major institutions located on Mount Royal, all committed to ensuring its sustainable management. The campaign will be launched in the fall of 2022, so stay tuned!
@ Émmanuelle Métivier
DONORS AND PARTNERS
We wish to thank our major benefactors who demonstrated their commitment to Mount Royal by making a generous contribution to Les Amis de la montagne between May 1, 2021 and April 30, 2022. Thanks to them, we can remain ambitious in the pursuit of our mission.
Major Partners and Benefactors
Major Public Partners
Special Contribution
