The Jean Talon market is not the same after a crisis that continues to hit longtime producers who fear entire aisles will be empty in the middle of the harvest season.
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“It’s not what it used to be. It’s pathetic on weekdays, we hardly have any customers. “It’s desert in the morning,” Patrick Lauzon drops.
Everything has changed since the garlic and herb producer from Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines took over his father’s kiosk in 1996.
Its neighbor bailed out during the pandemic, leaving a vacant spot in the northern part where fruit and veg stalls are becoming increasingly scarce.
Picnic tables occupy the spaces that have become vacant since the crisis. Photo by Anouk Lebel
Five years ago the market was hit by such a crisis that some feared for its survival. After a scathing report from Montreal’s Comptroller General in 2018, the city has appointed new management to clean up.
Get rid of dealers who resell or sublet their space. Picnic tables now fill the empty spaces. And 21 of the 194 places are still available.
Missing successor
“The patient was ill, but the operation could kill him, philosopher Guy Desgroseilliers.
The farmer from Saint-Rémi took over the kiosk that his father founded in 1964. At 65, he considers himself lucky to have a new generation.
Guy Desgroseilliers inherited the torch from his father, who had his kiosk in the market in 1964. Photo by Anouk Lebel
“Young people are losing interest in farming. “It’s very demanding, the markets are open seven days a week, twelve months a year,” explains the potato and corn producer.
“During the week there is not enough traffic, we struggle to cover our expenses,” adds the proud representative of JP Desgroseilliers Farm.
And it’s getting harder and more expensive to get to Montreal, given the price of gas and transportation, not to mention the labor shortages that prevail.
empty aisles
The gardeners next door, the Wilsons, haven’t been there for a few years. His other neighbor is in his last season before retiring. The kiosk he occupied for sixty years will soon be another empty room.
There are only six or seven stalls with small producers, notes Jacques Rémillard, who has held the position at the kiosk Ferme Jacques et Diane for fifty years.
“When I started, it was full, the Jean Talon market,” regrets the farmer, who notes with regret that even the new alley of succession is empty on weekdays.