According to a comprehensive list of bad accounts tabled in city council last month, unpaid residential electric bills amounted to nearly $18,768, while unpaid commercial bills came to almost $24,631, for a total of $43,398.

While the unpaid bills date back to the end of 2001, they are being accounted for by the City in the operating expenditures for fiscal 2006. About $14,000 of the unpaid accounts were with individuals or businesses who declared bankruptcy. A quick survey of the list shows most of the addresses are in the lower half of Westmount.

In a notation made in a recent transcript of the minutes of Westmount's Finance and Administration Committee, Director General Bruce St. Louis said he received a memo from Hydro Westmount director Marc Roy.

Roy said the Association des Redistributeurs d'Électricité du Québec (AREQ), of which Hydro Westmount is a member, was seeking a status modification from the Quebec government so as to be recognized as a priority creditor. Westmount city council recently passed a resolution expressing support for the modified status.

According to St. Louis, Hydro Westmount lost its priority creditor status around the same time the City of Westmount was forcibly merged.

"The highest priority creditors were cities for any taxes owing on the property," he said. "Because those cities had electric utilities as a division of the city, the amounts owing for electricity in those cities were also considered at the same level of priority.

"That was removed at some point in time," he added. "Now that Westmount is back as an independent city again, they, along with to the AREQ members, are petitioning the government to reinstate that order of privilege for overdue bills when a bankruptcy is declared … It will be much easier to collect in that fashion."