Montréal wants to strengthen its identity and showcase the city’s heritage, culture and history through gestures of recognition and invites residents to be part of the process by submitting proposals. 
Official recognition can take many forms, including: 
• Renaming a street in honour of a deceased person 
• Commemorating a historical event by holding a festival 
• Creating a work of art to honor a traditional profession

Some boroughs also have a recognition program.

• Install a commemorative park bench in Pierrefonds-Roxboro

Proposals can be made involving: 
• Institutions (universities, major libraries)
• Social or cultural phenomena (festivals, Indigenous peoples and/or contributions, immigrants)
• Events, historical figures, groups of people
• Traditions, practices, skills, crafts
• Places, urban complexes, buildings, personal property, etc.
• People who have been deceased for at least 1 year

Successful proposals must: 
• Reflect or contribute to Montréal’s identity
• Reflect the values set out in the Montréal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities
• Comply with the city’s assessment criteria and principles

The city has created a French-language guide to applying its framework concerning official recognition. This framework is used to review your application, ensure that it meets the requirements, and verify that the subject has not already been listed in the historical directory of place names, the municipal public art collection or the provincial directory of cultural history and heritage.

Proposals are evaluated according to:

• Their scope and value as an example, reference or positive influence
• Their basis in Montréal
• Their reflection of Montréal’s reality or its international influence
• Their connection to topics associated with traditionally underrepresented groups or realities, such as women, Indigenous peoples and ethnocultural groups Local history, archaeology or little-known elements of intangible heritage (skills, crafts, oral traditions, rituals and living expressions transmitted from generation to generation within a community)
• Prioritization of subjects other than people, with the aim of highlighting collective contributions and limiting possible challenges
• Precedence over subjects that have not yet been recognized through one of the 5 methods of recognition

Once your proposal has been accepted, your proposal is submitted to a special municipal advisory committee on recognition. The committee assesses the relevance of your proposal and makes a recommendation on the appropriate form of recognition from among 5 established methods, which are:

The committee’s recommendation is then submitted to municipal authorities for approval and implementation.

Special cases

It is possible that a proposal may be referred to the provincial or federal level, or that it may be linked to a promotion or protection measure not covered by the city’s recognition framework. For example, a proposal might be referred to the Ordre de Montreal, the city’s mural art program or enshrined in a protective mechanism set out in Montréal’s land use and mobility plan.