Public washrooms are few and far between in Canada. When nature calls, it’s often a scramble to find a coffee shop or mall restroom that's accessible. In Montreal this is certainly the case, but it wasn’t always so. The city used to boast a decent network of public washrooms, constructed before the Second World War. Where did they go? And why, to this day, do we have so few public washrooms in Canada? On this week's Storylines, CBC Montreal's Ainslie MacLellan uncovers the answers.

This episode is from the CBC Podcast Good Question, Montreal where every week Ainslie MacLellan takes a question about Montreal from a Montrealer, and then does whatever it takes to answer the question. 

Reported by Ainslie MacLellan. Produced by Sara Dubreuil. Story Editing by Craig Desson

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit