JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
The Quebec government’s proposal to give smaller towns in the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal more clout is a positive step, but still will not amount to much for municipalities in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, according to the mayors of the region’s largest cities.
“We’ll see what it will mean and how it will be put in place,” said Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon, the only mayor in the 1019 region who sits on the regional authority’s council.
It remains to be seen, he said, whether the rebalancing of power among the 82 municipalities on and around the island of Montreal can appease elected officials in smaller towns who are fed up with the centralized decision-making ability of the governing body that imposes population densification requirements and huge costs for such things as public transit and on all its members.
“In my view, it’s mostly symbolic,” said St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance, adding that the larger cities – Montreal, Laval and Longueuil – would retain a majority of the decision-making power, while the smaller, more rural municipalities along the North and South Shores would continue to hold little weight on the council.
She described the proposed changes as “nothing-game changing.”
For these smaller municipalities, she said, “it’s a small win at best.”
There are currently 28 seats on the CMM council, 14 of which are held by representatives from the City of Montreal. In the instance when a vote results in a tie, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante holds the deciding vote.
The proposed changes would see Montreal’s representation reduced to 12 seats on a 26-seat council. Plante, however, would retain the deciding vote in a tie.
The proposed changes were included in Bill 104, which was unveiled in the National Assembly on May 21 by Municipal Affairs Minister Andrée Laforest. In addition to reducing Montreal’s weight on the governing council, the proposal would also slightly increase the weight of the North Shore and South Shore representation. The municipalities in Vaudreuil-Soulanges are considered part of the South Shore region, or “couronne sud.”
“At the end of the day, you have to consider the couronne too, because we give a lot, lot, lot of money, and without the couronne, Montreal cannot live,” Pilon explained. “We have a big impact (and) we want to have an impact on the decisions, too.”
Among the CMM’s largest responsibilities are economic development and regional planning for the municipalities in the Greater Montreal region, an area that includes more than 4.4 million people, almost half the population of the province.
Included under the responsibility of regional planning is the task of setting population densification targets – a hot topic in several municipalities, including St. Lazare, where the threat of increased population density has left many residents worried about the impact on the rural identity of the town.
Lachance has warned that the CMM is expected to require new development projects to increase density to 40 homes per hectare – a significant jump from the current average of 2.7 homes per hectare in St. Lazare.
As for Pilon, he has been taking the temperature of local municipalities, gauging their sentiment toward the regional authority.
“There’s no town who, if given the choice to stay on the CMM or leave, they’d stay. Everyone would leave,” he said, adding that the municipalities would prefer greater control over their own planning and development.
Bill 104 is currently awaiting adoption by the National Assembly.