C’est Urban Pollution Says Quebec City

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

We term it ‘Visual Clutter’ but we learnt when we were in Canada last month that they seem to call it ‘Urban Pollution’. Anyway following on from Screens.tv (who seem to be doing some excellent reporting from both India and China at the moment) who made mention last week Anti-signage backlash hits Shanghai we now see that Sign Media Canada have made note that Quebec City is considering a billboard ban also, they write…

Quebec City councillors have proposed a bylaw banning large advertising billboards in the greater metropolitan area, which are blamed for masking the 400-year-old city’s European-style architecture and other elements of the landscape.

If the bylaw is passed, new billboards will not be permitted and companies with existing signs will be required to knock them down within five years.

Companies that own billboards in the city say their signs help the economy by creating jobs and funding the municipality through taxes and rent.

CBS Outdoor, which has more than 100 signs in the city, says it would prefer to relocate unwanted billboards to accommodate the changing landscape, rather than have them banned entirely.

The city will host public consultations this fall regarding the proposal and the bylaw could be adopted as early as December.


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