Some tour guides in Montreal, including Indigenous guides, are saying the city’s certification rules are making it harder for certain voices to be heard.
They say that the single path to certification and language requirements limits access and creates barriers, urging the city to modernize its rules around tour guide certification, saying it creates bottlenecks for the industry.
“For some Indigenous people, their first language will be their Indigenous language and they will speak either French or English,” said Sophie-Claude Miller, an uncertified Cree First Nations tour guide for Haunted Montreal. “It’s rare that they will speak both.”
Miller said the bilingual language requirement can exclude some Indigenous storytellers and for anglophone guide, Misha Pelletier, language is also a significant barrier.
“Being an English person in Montreal, applying to school like that where it’s 80 per cent French, the possibility of getting in is hard,” Pelletier said. “If my French is not proficient enough, then I’m not accepted.”
Montreal is one of two cities in Canada that requires guides to be certified before they can start providing tours, a rule falling under by-law G-2. To date, there’s only one way to get certified, and that’s through a program at Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ).
In a statement to CityNews, the ITHQ said that applicants are required to demonstrate French and English proficiency – a B2 level – unless the individual qualifies for an exemption based on their educational background. They said a third language is an asset in professional practice, but does not provide any particular advantage in the admissions process.
According to the school’s most recent data, 26 applicants out of 50 were admitted in 2024.
In 2023, the course wasn’t offered at all.
The ITHQ said cohorts are limited to a maximum of 24 students, based on pedagogical and safety considerations. Programs being offered are done in sub-groups of approximately 12 participants to ensure optimal supervision and rigorous training, according to the ITHQ.
The ITHQ also said the program is offered every other year in order to “respond in a structured manner to the demand for certified tour guides.”
Pelletier is among others who want the by-law replaced with options like a standardized city exam or renewable municipal licenses – systems they said that would focus more on accountability than gatekeeping.
“I think the licensing should be more focused on the safety of the tourist, traffic rules, and emergencies rather than a certificate through a school,” Pelletier said. “I think the clients are actually able to judge us on the quality of our experiences of our tours.”
“It’s also an eight month class at least, that’s if you do the certification. If you go for other programs that offer tour guide, it’s even longer. We’re talking a few years. It’s many thousands of dollars,” Miller added.
Donovan King, the founder of Haunted Montreal, said that one of his tours explores what he calls “colonial secrets” of Old Montreal. He said the current training program offered by the ITHQ doesn’t fully prepare guides to tell stories from that perspective and is calling on the city to repeal the by-law before summer begins.
“You need a guide with lived experience,” King said. “You need someone who understands what it’s like to be on the receiving end of colonialism.”
The ITHQ said that the single pathway primarily serves as a guarantee of quality, further highlighting that it ensures certified guides possess both strong guiding techniques and in-depth knowledge of Montreal’s history, urban development, and society.
ITHQ also stated that history makes up just under 20 per cent of the 240 hour course, totaling 45 hours. They described the content as an overview of Montreal’s evolving history by situating it within the history of Quebec and Canada.
“I think bringing a diversity of perspective is crucial and if we’re going to keep having those systemic barriers, basically that’s what they are, it’s going to be harder and harder for people to tell their stories,” Miller said.
