Food trucks will enliven 'ghost town,' Gatineau councillor believes

The push is on to bring gourmet food trucks to the streets of Gatineau, a gastronomical experiment one city councillor hopes will add much-needed flavour to the downtown core.

Gatineau Coun. Sylvie Goneau, who is vice-chair of the city's urban planning committee and running for mayor in the upcoming civic election, wants to amend a bylaw banning the trucks, paving the way for a weekly gathering of gourmands. 

This is a way of generating interest and bringing the crowd out. We're trying to create a buzz.-  Coun. Sylvie Goneau

Goneau told CBC's Hallie Cotnam the event could help spice up a sometimes sleepy area.

"Monday night, it's empty. It's bare. It's a ghost town. It's really an issue," Goneau said. "This is a way of generating interest and bringing the crowd out. We're trying to create a buzz."

The idea was born out of frustration, Goneau said, after she found herself one Sunday morning struggling to find a place to buy a cup of coffee in downtown Hull.

Trucks popular elsewhere

Food trucks, long popular in major cities such as New York, have livened up the streets of other Canadian cities. Hamilton's Mohawk College even created a six-course certificate program to teach the basics of getting into the "mobile food service" business in response to the growing trend.

In 2012, Ottawa's city council approved a street vending program to beef up the diversity of food offered on city streets.

"People flocked to this initiative," said Goneau. "If it works there it can work here... Gatineau is often in the shadow of Ottawa. One of my goals is to stand tall and proud right beside Ottawa."

Unlike Ottawa, where trucks operate from assigned spaces throughout the week, Goneau only wants food trucks in Gatineau to operate just one night a week.

That presents an obvious problem: who'd want to open a food truck knowing they could only do business once a week? But Goneau said she's already had letters from players in the local food industry who say they're interested.

"I've had two restaurant owners from the Gatineau sector walk up to me saying, 'We're purchasing a food truck, get this done,'" Goneau said.

Goneau is running to replace Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin in the Nov. 2017 civic election. 

'I don't think we're up for that'

Le Troquet restaurant owner Éric Gaudreault says putting his business on wheels won't solve the problem and could make matters worse. 

Gaudreault is also a board member of Vision Centre-ville, which advocates for businesses. He said there are a dozen good restaurants downtown in Gatineau that are empty on Monday nights and feels food trucks would create unnecessary competition for already struggling locations.

"I don't think we're up to that for now," Gaudreault​ told CBC Radio's All in a Day. "I don't think it would be a good answer to the traffic problem."

"It's a bit of a magic wand thing going on," he added. "We don't need magic, we need support for all the businesses that are open and for the effort the business owners are doing right now,." 

Gaudreault said workers leave downtown after work and go home to the suburbs. He feels having more people living in the downtown would eventually fill up restaurants at night.