Across Borders: Montreal's Participation in the Inter-Municipal Exchange Network on Housing Problems in the 1930s

During the economic crisis of the 1930s, the quality of housing in Montreal decreased rapidly. In this context, the municipal government was pressed to address the question of sanitary housing and find solutions to improve the living conditions of its citizens. The Commission on Sanitary Housing was formed especially to study Montreal's slums and to propose plans for urban renewal. That commission started to research best practices in housing control in other North American and European cities. Through study trips, reviews of local newspaper columns, and discussion between city officials, Montreal became part of a broad network of knowledge and know-how exchange. In this decade, the competition between Montreal and its rivals was high and this fact affected the ongoing relations between cities and the way the municipal government saw and acted on the "slum problem."