JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
At the urging of a grassroots groups advocating for the merging of the four towns of Île Perrot, L’Île Perrot’s council has approved a resolution requesting the Quebec government conduct a feasibility study on the possible fusion of the four municipalities on the island. But it is going to take more for the study to be triggered.
“We consider it to be a good coup,” said Gérard Farmer, president of Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot, of the resolution, explaining that other towns will have to pass similar resolutions before the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing will conduct the analysis.
L’Île Perrot’s council opted to make the first move, unanimously adopting the resolution at its July 8 meeting, because the study would outline the pros and cons for any potential merger, said Mayor Pierre Séguin.
“The council and I think that if there was a serious study made that said the pros and cons (of a merger), the citizens could make a decision about whether they’re for it or not,” Séguin said in an interview last week.
The study can only be done at the request of two or more municipalities. Avenir Île Perrot – Becoming Île Perrot — a grassroots group focused on promoting the merger of the municipalities of L’Île Perrot, Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot, Pincourt and Terrasse Vaudreuil into one city — recently launched a petition calling for each of the four municipalities to request the study. The petition has collected more than 500 signatures.
The group had previously met with officials from Pincourt, but Farmer said there is little indication that elected officials are looking seriously into passing a similar resolution. A request for comment from Pincourt Mayor Claude Comeau went unanswered.
Though the group is content that L’ Île Perrot council took this step, it doesn’t come as a surprise.
“During our presentations (earlier this spring), the people from the Town of L’Île Perrot were very receptive,” Farmer told The 1019 Report. “So there wasn’t much surprise there because the majority of the councillors at that point were quite in favour of the unification of the cities.”
Séguin has previously spoken in favour of a merger and explained that his council felt the offer of a free, no-obligation feasibility study by Quebec would be too good to pass up. However, he added, “it takes two to tango.”
Both Farmer and Séguin said a feasibility study would at least provide answers to these long-standing questions about merging the towns. Séguin added that he has been hearing the same debate since the 1980s.
“If the study isn’t done, the conversation will continue anyway,” Séguin said. “We can’t ignore the question. Does it make sense? Or, does it not? “If it doesn’t make sense, we stop. That’s it.”
Notre Dame Mayor Danie Deschênes had described the subject as “dépassé” and a “non-issue” in an interview back in May.
“I don’t have any citizens who talk to me about this except those who write to me asking ‘Come on, what is this idea?’” she explained.
Merging the four municipalities would mean combining things like municipal debt, Deschênes said.
“It’s us who will take the lion’s share of this debt,” she said of her town, pointing out the higher average property value.