BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report
Two years after the island of Île Perrot celebrated its 350th anniversary with events that marked the many phases of its long history, a group of residents is launching an initiative they hope will open a new chapter – the fusion of the four municipalities on the island, creating the second-largest municipal entity in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region.
“We are an island and we have a need to work on projects together,” said Lise Chartier, a Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot resident who is a founding member of Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot, a bilingual grassroots non-profit organization formed for the purpose of fostering support for the merger of the towns of Pincourt, Île Perrot, Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot and Terrasse Vaudreuil.
The new municipality would have a population of about 40,600, only slightly smaller than Vaudreuil-Dorion, the largest municipality in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area, which has a population of just under 43,300, according to the 2021 census. The new merged town would be the 35th largest municipality in Quebec, the ninth largest among towns of populations between 25,000 and 50,000 residents and the fourth largest in the greater Suroît region, which includes Valleyfield, Châteauguay and Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
“We are citizens who want to improve our mileu,” said Chartier, a historian and author who has published three books on the history of the Île Perrot.
These improvements involve formulating a global vision to better provide existing services and expand that offering to encompass more sports and cultural facilities and events to the population who call the island home, the organization’s president, Francine St-Denis said an interview with The 1019 Report.
This includes joining forces to better afford to build venues like arenas and cultural event spaces, St-Denis explained. To do that a municipality needs to have geo-political heft, she explained. A merger would give the residents of the island more clout within the MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the larger Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal and with the provincial government, which provides a number of grants and subsidies for municipal projects, many of which are prioritized based, in part, on the number of residents these projects will benefit, St-Denis explained.
The population of the island is growing, but each town is still relatively small on its own, Chartier explained. This means community groups – from sports associations to local artist collectives and any number of organizations that make up the local artistic community – can share permanent facilities like sports venues, theatre spaces and meeting centres.
St-Denis said the group is not a political party, and she is not seeking to run for office.
“We are there to inform, to meet people, do research to bring about a consensus of bringing the four towns together – and the positive reasons to do that,” she explained.
The group has already reached out to the Quebec’s Municipal Affairs Ministry to seek its support and guidance to outline the necessary steps to merge the towns. It expects a date for a consultation meeting in the coming weeks or months, St-Denis said.
The founding group of about 30 residents have been meeting to discuss the issue of merger for about a year, obtaining its formal charter as a non-profit group last November. And they are welcoming new members every month, inviting more residents to get involved or merely listen to options that include the financial benefits over the long-term, explaining they have already done the initial research on what has happened in other regions of Quebec where similar merger initiatives are happening and the impact it has had on taxes.
The groups wants to share this information as it aims to generate greater public conversations on the subject.
The group is looking into a wide range of issues, including the protection of areas such as forests and wetlands, and maintaining the bilingual status that the town of Pincourt currently holds.
If the towns merge, the group says, residents would be represented by one municipal council – a single mayor and eight councillors.
“This is the vision we have at the moment,” said Chartier.
The group’s process aims to foster a sense that of listening to citizens, she added, explaining that the initial reaction from taxpayers has been: “It’s about time.”
“What is missing is a global development vision for the island,” St-Denis said. “It takes people with vision,” for what she describes as the long-term development of the island. “We have elected officials with short-term visions.”
She is hoping that residents who “are open to change and have a long-term vision” will step forward to run in the 2025 municipal elections to help support the movement.