Dumont reaffirms anti-Agglom stand

The mayors of the island’s 15 reconstituted cities are marking the beginning of their second year of demerger with a renewed protest that the City of Montreal is still

abusing its control of the Agglomeration Council.

They are also suggesting that the Liberals could face a hard time on election day in Montreal’s suburbs, because of a failure to deal with the continuing Agglomeration

problem.

With a majority of the population on the island, the City of Montreal dominates voting on the governing body set up by the province, and effectively controls budget allocations and other crucial matters.

Seizing on the discontent, ADQ leader Mario Dumont told a gathering of Rotarians in Westmount last June that the ADQ, which holds only a few seats in Quebec’s National Assembly, would abolish the Agglomeration Council and replace it with a structure resembling the former Montreal Urban Community (MUC).

Repeating those pledges last week, Dumont said he was counting on the support of suburban voters in the next

election.

Commenting on the new developments, Westmount mayor Karin Marks said this week, “We’ve always said that we’re going to make sure that this is an election issue … I think it’s wonderful that Mr. Dumont is making this part of his platform and is going to certainly raise it as an electoral issue, and I suspect that the PQ will also have it as an electoral issue.

“The Liberals made a fairly vast promise in the last election,� Marks added. “They kept half their promise and they seem to feel that that’s enough. We don’t feel it’s enough and we don’t feel it’s healthy for the whole island of Montreal because they’ve created a

structure that creates lots of conflict.�

When asked whether the Liberals plan to eventually respond to the demerged cities’ complaints by changing the Agglomeration, Chagnon told the Examiner, “Before the next election I don’t believe so, because that will require some legislative amendments and I don’t believe we will have anything else in the budget before the election.�

Saying he expects an election in the spring, he acknowledged, however, that the Agglomeration is “dysfunctional� as currently structured. “That kind of Agglomeration doesn’t work. We have to find something else.�

Asked whether the prospect of Liberal support declining in Westmount-St. Louis concerned him, Chagnon said, “Democracy is the way to permit the people to say what they want to say.�

In Côte St. Luc, where anti-Agglomeration feelings also run high, Mayor Anthony Housefather said he and city council will soon be considering whether to take an active role in the upcoming election.

“It’s getting close to an election, and if the election comes soon and (the Liberals) haven’t done anything, I think that there’s potential ramifications,� he said. “The ADQ’s promise—if they’re going to keep that promise—it’s certainly a very good promise and something that I strongly agree with.

“I’m hoping that before my council and I have to make this decision—which will be a difficult one in the event we choose to get ourselves involved—that the Liberal

caucus, the premier and the minister of municipal affairs will recognize that they

created an unjust system … and that they come up with something different to offer us and implement it before they call an

election.�