![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/70c8fc80.png\")
<\/p>\nTired of rumbling over the pothole-riddled streets of Montreal, two local entrepreneurs decided they would stop waiting for the city to fix the problem and started filling the holes themselves.\u00a0\u00a0They claim they\u2019ve patched up dozens of streets in the past month.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m doing this first of all for the love of the city and the love for this country,\u201d said Saak Tekiout, who runs a landscaping company along with his friend, Sonny Mannuael.<\/p>\n
Global News watched Tekiout and Mannuael volunteer their time to fill multiple potholes in the middle of Robert-Bourassa Boulevard in downtown Montreal.<\/p>\n
The pair says that while driving around during the day, they couldn\u2019t help but notice the plethora of potholes afflicting the city this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I go on social media, everybody is talking about potholes, saying, \u2018We need to fix it.\u2019 But why are we waiting for somebody to fix it if I can fix it myself? It\u2019s that simple,\u201d Tekiout explained.<\/p>\n
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So now they say every day before and after work,\u00a0they fill three or four potholes. Tekiout says it costs him about $50 to fill each pothole<\/p>\n
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\u201cFormula One is coming, all the foreign tourists are coming. When they come to the city and they drive by this, it\u2019s not cool for our reputation,\u201d Tekiout said.<\/p>\n
Global News watched several people stop to thank them as they did their work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good because people are happy,\u201d said Mannuael.<\/p>\n
Mickie Schach, a tourist from San Francisco who walks with a walker, commended their work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s fabulous,\u201d she said. \u201cI have noticed there are so many potholes it\u2019s been very difficult to walk. I can\u2019t look up walking, I have to look down walking.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city admits the state of Montreal\u2019s roads is discouraging but doesn\u2019t seem thrilled that the entrepreneurs are doing the work themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we commend these citizens for taking the initiative, it\u2019s not normal that they have to fill potholes on their own,\u201d said Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re stepping up our efforts to prevent this kind of situation and finally give Montreal streets that are in proper shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The city recently hired 24 new blue-collar workers specifically to address the colossal number of potholes. Martinez Ferrada puts part of the blame on the previous administration for letting the roads descend into such poor condition.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Eric Oliver says if a police officer or city inspector wanted to,\u00a0they could give the men a fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever you\u2019re working on the public domain, there are some bylaws and some security rules that you have to follow,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Oliver pointed out the entrepreneurs could be confronted for illegal occupation of the public domain, diverting traffic illegally, and not following proper regulations for cordoning off a work site. Someone, however, would have to actually enforce those rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a law that says that a citizen cannot fix a pothole? No, there\u2019s not.\u00a0But there\u2019s the concept of property and there\u2019s the concept of permits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCity of Montreal to create new pothole-fighting \u201ccentres of excellence\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tired of rumbling over the pothole-riddled streets of Montreal, two local entrepreneurs decided they would stop waiting for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338,237424,237425],"class_list":["post-635133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-potholes","tag-pothole-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}