BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

Hudson council Monday evening hired a legal firm to serve official notice to the MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges that it does not intend to pay for policing services it claims it never received.

The move comes after the town received a bill in September for $159,000. The bill stems from a complex formula used to determine the amounts municipalities are charged for services provided by the Sûreté du Québec before a court ruling earlier this year forced the MRC to change the calculation method.

In outlining the town’s objection to the MRC’s charges, Hudson Mayor Chloe Hutchison explained the town is not only claiming the MRC’s latest bill for $159,000 that references charges dating back to 2020 has no merit, but it will be seeking to recuperate an additional $316,000, which represents the amount Hudson has paid to the MRC for similar charges in previous years.

“It’s a substantial amount of money,” Hutchison said, referring to the total of $475,000 she hopes the town will reclaim.

Hutchison argues the MRC’s practice of billing towns extra – over and above their share for policing services – is illegal. Towns should be charged only for services rendered, she argues.

“I was questioning the legitimacy of this,” Hutchison said, referring to the practice, adding the legal firm Hudson has hired has provided the town with a preliminary assessment of the MRC’s claim, saying the regional authority “does not have a leg to stand on.”

The issue is complicated. In broad strokes, the amount regions are charged for SQ services is apportioned based on property valuations, which provides for the so-called richest regions to pay more. As such, MRCs like Vaudreuil-Soulanges end up footing more of the provincial bill to reduce the financial burden of the SQ on other, less affluent regions.

As per the system, MRCs that pay the most receive a partial reimbursement. The distribution of these reimbursements up until 2021 had been determined through a complex formula that allowed some larger towns to recoup a significant sum, while smaller towns would receive less, or in some cases face additional charges.

In 2021, the MRC passed a resolution to change this calculation method. In response, four towns in the region – Vaudreuil-Dorion, Pincourt, St. Zotique and Les Coteaux – challenged this new approach. Earlier this year, the court upheld the new method.

But what the ruling did not do, Hutchison said Monday, was outline how the redistribution of the reimbursements be applied. And this is what Hudson is calling into question now.

The MRC, she says, has launched an internal review of its billing practices. She anticipates the issue will be settled without having to take the matter to court.

“There is quite a bit of discomfort at the regional level,” Hutchison admitted.

Contacted yesterday, a spokesperson for the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges said officials are working on the dossier.