JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
A citizens’ group advocating for the amalgamation of the four municipalities on Île Perrot alleges municipal officials are preventing residents from getting all the facts by refusing to request a government study to outline the implications of a possible merger.
“I don’t understand why a city wouldn’t want to have the study,” said Gérard Farmer, a spokesperson for the group Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot, which is pushing for the merger of the town of Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot, L’Île Perrot, Pincourt and Terrasse Vaudreuil.
“We have an extraordinary opportunity with the Municipal Affairs Ministry to conduct a study that costs absolutely nothing to cities and will give us answers and would allow citizens to make a clear choice,” Farmer said in an interview last week.
Officials in Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot have been vocal in their opposition to this push for a merger.
In an interview, Mayor Danie Deschênes described the topic as a “non-issue,” “dépassé,” and “above all, not necessary.”
Notre Dame, Deschênes pointed out, is geographically the largest of the four municipalities and has the highest average property value. She said that a merger with the other municipalities would mean that, when it comes to combining debts and added expenses, “it is us who will take the lion’s share.”
Deschênes added that any possible economic benefits to combining the municipalities would quickly be overshadowed by added expenses from managing a larger city.
“We’re going to pay much more for all the personnel,” Deschênes said, adding that “a city of 45,000 citizens (does not have) a budget of a city of 12,000.”
She said the four municipalities have managed to “develop partnerships that are significantly more interesting and significantly more efficient.”
Farmer said cooperation between the four municipalities is well and good, but added that “when it doesn’t suit one city, cooperation no longer works.”
Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot has been advocating for amalgamation for the past year. The group maintains a merger would offer advantages to long-term development and access to increased provincial funding and grants, as well as improved municipal services in culture, leisure and sports.
“We have an idea of the numbers, but we don’t have all the information,” said Farmer. “So we’re asking the cities (to) request the study.”
The study is offered by Quebec’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, which offers “free, no-obligation assistance to carry out a study on the implications of grouping their territories,” said ministry spokesperson Geneviève Drolet.
The program also offers financial assistance to municipalities who choose to fund such a study through private consultants, where Quebec covers up to 50 per cent of the bill.
Only municipal councils can submit a request to the provincial government for a study.
“After this study, we would see if it works or if it doesn’t work,” Farmer added. “If there are no advantages to a merger, then we move on, we forget about it.”
Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot has met with officials from the municipalities of L’Île-Perrot and Pincourt. But Farmer admitted officials with these two towns have so far shown little appetite to go down the path toward merger.
The four municipalities have a combined population of around 41,000 residents. If they merged, the new town would be the second largest in terms of population in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, trailing only Vaudreuil-Dorion.
Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot has organized a petition calling on the four municipal councils on the island to request the provincial study. It has so far received 434 signatures.