Published June 6, 2024

JOHN JANTAK
The 1019 Report

A proposal to merge the four municipalities on Île Perrot into one city is generating pushback from elected officials in the towns.

“I’ve always been against a merger and so is the majority of my council,” said Danie Deschênes, mayor of Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot, the second largest town on the island.

Each municipality has its own unique needs, Deschênes told The 1019 Report, and a merger would not address each town’s special characteristics.

“I don’t think a merger would be easy or harmonious because each municipality has very different needs financially and regarding planning the territory,” she said.

Deschênes was commenting on a plan put forward last month by a group of residents on the island to fuse the four municipalities on the island – Pincourt, Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot and Terrasse Vaudreuil – creating the second-largest municipality in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region.

Deschênes feels the best way forward is to maintain the status quo, which is to keep cooperating with the other municipalities and continue sharing resources.

“We worked so hard for collaboration between our municipalities and we’ve had a lot of success doing this, which is what the province wants,” she said. “I think this is what we’re going to keep doing because three out of the four cities on the island do it well.”

“The fire station is the best example,” she said, offering an example of inter-municipal cooperation. “We buy equipment together and we share services with Pincourt and Terrasse-Vaudreuil. We’ve been great at collaborating the last few years and it’s going well. Why would we want to change that?”

Pincourt Mayor Claude Comeau also opposes a merger, saying it wouldn’t benefit the town’s residents.

“Each town is unique in its own different way and our citizens are proud and enjoy living here,” Comeau said. “A merger wouldn’t be good for our citizens, projects and finances.”

Pincourt, with a population of about 14,540, is the largest municipality on the island.

Adding his name to the mayors who oppose the idea of a merger is Terrasse-Vaudreuil Mayor Michel Bourdeau.

“It’s not at all good for us,” Bourdeau said. “We prefer to keep the same collaboration like we have with the Notre Dame library and Pincourt public security.”

Bourdeau is also worried about how a merger could impact its financial status.

“We don’t have a debt. If we go ahead, we could be faced with accumulating the other municipalities’ debts,” he said.

“It’s hard enough when two towns merge. Can you imagine what it would be like if the four towns merge?” he added. “It’s best for us to keep it as it is and continue sharing services.”

L’Île Perrot Mayor Pierre Séguin did not respond to requests for a comment.

The bilingual non-profit grassroots group Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot officially launched a campaign in May to foster support for the merger of the towns. It has outlined a series of benefits for residents, including formulating a global vision to better provide existing services and expand that offering to encompass more sports and cultural facilities and events as well as financial benefits through reducing redundancies and overlaps.

The new municipality would have a population of about 40,600, only slightly smaller than Vaudreuil-Dorion, the largest municipality in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, which has a population of just under 43,300, according to the 2021 census. It would also be represented by one municipal council – a single mayor and eight councillors, down from four mayors and 24 councillors.

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