With time running out, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay is looking at all manner of schemes aimed at raising the necessary funding to keep the Canadian Grand Prix, including one whereby hotel occupancy tax is increased.

"I think we need an answer very soon," he told Montreal newspaper The Gazette, referring to the final version of the 2009 calendar, which should be released early next month.

"We need to know if we're going to have a Grand Prix in 2009," he continued. We're trying to find a proposal that will meet with the approval of Bernie Ecclestone and his board of directors.

"He's not interested in where the money's going to come from, he just wants to get the money to which he thinks he's entitled," he added, a clear dig at the F1 supremo.

It's claimed that Ecclestone wants $30m (Canada) if Montreal is to retain the race, and while the city claims $15m in tax revenue from the event, Tremblay is clearly open to suggestions as to how the requisite money might be raised.

According to The Gazette, a report leaked on Wednesday suggests that Montreal hoteliers, who benefit from a large part of the (estimated) $75m the race brings to the city each year, have offered to add an extra percentage point to the current (three-percent) occupancy tax in order to raise some of the money needed to keep the race. It is thought such a scheme might raise as much as $5m.

If Canada is missing from the final 2009 schedule, it will be the first time that the sport hasn't visited north America since 1958. While the Montreal circuit and event is popular with fans and drivers, the car manufacturers have made no secret of the fact that they are angry F1 appears to be shunning such a vital market at such a critical time.

Another idea, dare we suggest, is that the Montreal circuit chiefs follow the example witnessed at Interlagos recently, whereby some of the best trackside advertising hoardings are given over not to the usual suspects, Bridgetsone, Santander, RBS or Allianz but to that other mega-corporation, FORM, the clothing company launched just a few months ago by... Petra Ecclestone.