How bad is Montreal’s pothole problem? Bad enough that one fed-up resident decided to stop waiting for the city to fix it and just do it himself.
Saâd Tekiout, a landscaping company owner who goes by “Marquize” on social media, posted a video on April 26 showing him and a friend patching a pothole on a Montreal street. Set to Cowboys Fringants music, the clip shows him opening a bag of asphalt mix, filling the hole, levelling it off, torching it and compacting the surface with a vibrating plate.
The whole thing takes him under ten minutes.
The video has since racked up over a million views across Instagram and TikTok, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Tekiout has even asked followers to send him addresses of potholes that need fixing, offering to do the work for free.
Down in the comments section, locals fed up with Montreal’s crumbling infrastructure applauded Tekiout, referring to him as a “hero.” One user said he even does a better job than city workers.
Not everyone is thrilled about it, though.
Montreal mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada, who, back in February, posted a social media video about getting two flat tires due to hitting a pothole, responded directly in the comments. Her tone that was equal parts grateful and firm.
Montreal’s mayor commended his efforts but politely asked him to stop. @sorayamartinezferrada | Instagram
“Thank you for the initiative, truly. What you are doing is appreciated, but it is not up to you or your team to have to fill in the potholes yourselves,” she wrote. She added that she understands the public’s frustration, particularly given what she described as the state of the streets left by the previous Valérie Plante administration, and said city crews are “working double time to speed up repairs.”
The mayor’s response wasn’t just about optics, either. Under Montreal’s rules on the occupation of public property, anyone who carries out work on public roads without a city-issued permit is technically breaking the law. The fines are not insignificant: between $500 and $1,000 for an individual, and between $800 and $2,000 for a company. Tekiout’s landscaping business is based in Brossard, which adds another wrinkle.
Tekiout is not the only local resident trying to do something about the problem. Back in February, Pierre-Olivier Gagné launched Ayoye.ca, a free bilingual map where Montrealers can report and track road hazards in real-time. Since launching, the platform has already logged hundreds of reports across the province, with the bulk of them concentrated in Montreal and the South Shore.
Only time will tell if more street vigilantes join the cause. In the meantime, Montreal’s pothole problem isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the frustration.
This story was inspired by the article “Un citoyen « patch » des nids-de-poule de Montréal et c’est le héros dont on a besoin” which was originally published on Narcity.