'Stabbed in the back,' demerged municipalities want review of agglomeration council structure

Upset with the sharp hike in quotas for shared services, the 15 mayors of Montreal's demerged municipalities are requesting the province review the structure of the island of Montreal's agglomeration council and how the quotas are calculated.

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The municipalities are being asked to contribute, on average, an extra 5.3 per cent for services Montreal shares with them.

It's that increase that led all the mayors to vote against the budget at Thursday's special agglomeration council meeting.

Their say, which accounts for only 13 per cent of votes, was meant to signal their discontent to Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.

"What [the city] did to us was horrible," said Baie D'Urfé Mayor Maria Tutino.

"It was, in the 11th hour, thrown at us and had us deal with it as if it wasn't a major emergency in our town. How do we deal with this? Where do we find the money? It's not what you do to your partners." 

In their letter, sent to Municipal Affairs Minister Martin Coiteux, the mayors demand that he review the structure of the agglomeration council, given that the demerged cities have very little say in decision-making.

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"We are requesting this reform on behalf of the 240,000 residents of our municipalities linked to the City of Montreal, after the adoption of the inflationary agglomeration budget," said Montreal West Mayor Beny Masella.

"The process will help restore the democratic practice of taxation with representation that must be respected by our democratic institutions."

Coiteux to meet mayors

Coiteux's office confirms he has received the letter from the mayors of the demerged municipalities.

"Minister Martin Coiteux wants to meet with the signatories in the near future to hear their views," wrote Marie-Ève Pelletier, Coiteux's spokesperson.

She also notes that the agglomeration structure is not unique to Montreal and requires all involved to take part in the discussion.

'Communication should have been better,' Plante admits

Many of the mayors of the demerged municipalities noted that they only discovered the news of the tax increases when questioned by media after the budget had been released.

Plante apologized for the lack of transparency.

"Though the communication should have been better, and that's a fact and we are not questioning that, we decided to make decisions for the future generations because some actions were not taken in the past," Plante said at the agglomeration council meeting.

"I'm not pleased with the situation, but we were facing a $358-million shortfall, and we had to make some choices."

 Benoit Dorais, chair of the city's executive committee, has promised that in future budgets, communication will be better.