Civic Alert: Montreal’s conflict could speed Agglom reform

While Zampino’s rejection of Marks’s

suggestion was only to be expected, it has focused more attention on the basic flaw of the Agglom—the lack of fairness and accountability to all parts of the Island in the decision-making.

The request has inadvertently strengthened the arguments for a different kind of Agglom.

Zampino is Montreal Executive Committee Chair and Mega-mayor Gérald Tremblay’s designated front man on the Agglom council. The Executive Committee makes all the decisions. But it does not represent all the interests.

Not only are the suburban mayors not represented, but boroughs not electing Tremblay supporters are absent, too. That means nearly 550,000 people are excluded.

The new property evaluation roll, and Zampino’s reaction to it, demonstrated the problem. It had an unusual result. There are extreme variations everywhere, but the highest increases are in the lower-income areas of Montreal. For instance, the average increase in Villeray borough was 60 per cent, while in Westmount it was 35 per cent.

In fact, most of the Montreal boroughs had above average increases, while most of the demerged cities had lower—the opposite of the usual trend and a balancing out of property transactions over the years.



Charest gave Montreal power



Zampino was trying to protect the Montreal boroughs, but ignoring the too-high taxes in the suburbs. Fortunately, the minister’s spokesman quickly refused the main request, but was supportive of some of Zampino’s other suggestions so we may hear more of it.

The dramatic hand-on-heart gesture still does not remove the reality that decisions by the Tremblay team will continue to favor Montreal. Normandeau has shown that she, in turn, prefers them, too

Why be surprised? Megacity control over the Island was required by the Liberal’s flawed demerger laws. Jean Charest gave Montreal the power to manage the Agglom without any meaningful oversight. Is it Zampino’s—or Tremblay’s—fault for taking advantage?

But they should admit that they are taking advantage, heart-fluttering notwithstanding!



Mayors’ new strategy



Minister Normandeau also had a September letter from Karin Marks, written on behalf of the demerged cities. This is something of a triumph in itself. A fact of life is that 14 independent cities are likely to have 14 independent-thinking mayors and getting agreement on anything is a challenge; a position-

defining letter is an Everest!

The mayors have a new, condensed strategy which was determined after the summer hiatus. Instead of a long list of requests, which MNAs were having difficulty understanding, the new wish-list was reduced to a handful of items.

Maybe the original list was a challenge for Normandeau, too! Although the minister had asked for ideas to improve the Agglom, she never responded to the mayors’ earlier suggestions.

Key request this time was for the Agglom to be reorganized “along the lines of the MUC,� with votes for all Montreal councillors as well as participation by suburbs.

While a semblance of democracy is desperately needed at the Agglom, it is hard to imagine why the mayors resurrected this terminology. It has become a hard-line myth in Quebec City that “the MUC did not work�—a fable that is repeated without evidence. Tremblay likes to spread it, too, although he was not a participant in those years.



Why not an MUC?



Clearly, there was more democracy at the MUC than at the Agglom. It worked well for nearly all of its 21-year life span. The police policed, buses ran with annually increasing punctuality and air got a little cleaner each year. They still do under the megacity (except air quality standards, which have not improved during the Tremblay years).

Meantime, the management of the Agglom has become dysfunctional—particularly the council—and the budget has increased at twice the rate of inflation.

Sure enough, when La Presse sought a reaction from Quebec City to the mayors’ idea, it again came from Normandeau’s spokesman (perhaps the minister can no longer speak or write) who was quick to say “We are not turning back the clock.�



Renaming the police



Although the mayors’ are keeping their letter to Normandeau in their Top Secret drawers, La Presse also revealed another, but more acceptable, suggestion from them—that the police organization should be renamed the Montreal Agglomeration Police Service.

Yes, all the police cars would have to be re-painted and new badges stitched onto all the uniforms, but it would demonstrate that the force serves everyone on the Island and not just the Executive Committee.

That is the reality, as they showed with their response to the Dawson tragedy.



Liberals bidding for Zampino?



Meantime, there is new speculation over the future of Frank Zampino. La Presse this week suggested that he was being sought by the Quebec Liberals to run in Jeanne-Mance-Viger, which is held by Michel Bissonnet, the current Speaker of the National Assembly.

Zampino indicated that his “passion� for Montreal would lead him to continue his present mandate.

Of course, he is also considered for the top job as a possible successor to Gérald Tremblay.



Here and there



• Westmount held a public consultation on Tuesday for neighbours of a proposed fenced artificial playing surface on the lower field in Westmount Park. Some nearby residents are very concerned.

Meantime, a Leger poll forecasts that soccer will be the most popular sport in Quebec by the year 2020. Perhaps we will need an indoor arena for soccer as well as one for hockey.



• Of all the guest hosts on Daybreak during the summer, I thought the one most appreciative of Montreal was Mike Finnerty. So I am not surprised that he will become the CBC’s next morning man. But he faces a huge job switch. Although he began in Quebec City radio, he has worked for the BBC World Service in London for the last decade. He is currently editor of three one-hour daily news programs, heading a staff of 20 journalists and calling on all the world-wide correspondents of the BBC. It will not be quite the same at Daybreak!



• As well as holding public meetings for its participatory budget process, the Plateau Borough has sent a leaflet to all homes asking for input. Residents can indicate their preferences for capital spending and mail it postage free to the borough.



• Calgary is offering residents who switch to energy-efficient washing machines a $100 rebate—$50 each from the hydro and water utilities.



• The CMM has called an unscheduled meeting for this evening at its downtown Sherbrooke Street headquarters.



• Ottawa is looking for a replacement for its police chief, who is retiring. A public meeting will be held next week so that community groups and citizens can put forward their requirements for candidates.



• A tenth anniversary celebration for the TAG Teen Center is being lined up for next month.



• This year also marks the tenth anniversary of the distribution in Westmount of the orange bags for used batteries. Unfortunately, a huge number of spent batteries are still going into regular garbage.



• Latest polls show Toronto’s outgoing mayor David Miller has a commanding lead in his re-election bid. In Ottawa, however, two-term mayor Bob Chiarelli is in a three-way tie. The high megacity taxes are the key issue with potential voters, according to a Decima poll for the Citizen.



• Mega-mayor Gerald Tremblay missed last week’s Agglom council meting. He was attending the Francophonie conference in Bucharest, Rumania. He was one of 166

mayors from 46 countries who attended.



• Minister Nathalie Normandeau went to make her duty speech to the annual conference of the Federation of Quebec Municipalities—the small, rural towns and villages. She encountered more complaints: the Charest government’s plans for proportional representation favored the cities rather than the regions, her hosts said.



• If current progress is maintained through the test program, the metro extension to Laval will open in May, two months earlier than expected.



• Community activist Don Wedge can be reached at calert@web.net. His columns are archived at www.westmountexaminer.com">www.westmountexaminer.com">www.westmountexaminer.com under Opinion.