The four mayors making up the new group St- Baie-de-Senn-West have announced their new allegiance to the ADQ and so a third party has entered the Montreal Island scene, a municipal opposition born from demerger frustration with the Liberals.
Most of the suburban mayors and their colleagues on the South Shore and in Quebec City are not prepared — at least for now — to align themselves with the ADQ, even with this week’s startling poll showing their increased popularity.
But they are just as determined as the defectors to have less abusive aggloms. They are becoming increasingly outspoken at being taken for granted and will make this clear to Jean Charest when they meet on Monday.
Westmount’s Karin Marks, vice-president of the Liberal riding association, chair of the Island mayors and spokesman for the provincial coalition, spelt it out this week. “The government went halfway with the demergers. That is no excuse for not finishing the job.”
Gérald Tremblay likes to pass off the critics of the dysfunctional Island government that he persuaded Charest to sponsor by telling protestors: “You knew what you were voting for in the demerger referendum.”
What they gained was control over their local affairs — the half Charest did allow. Across the island, the suburbs’ 2007 local taxes either reduced or increased only slightly, while Tremblay’s tax has increased five per cent. Homeowners got a sharp reminder this week as they received their agglom bills.
The problem has become the abusive approach by Tremblay. “We hope to persuade Jean Charest to recognize this and do the right thing,” Marks added.
“The present laws were politically expedient,” she acknowledged this week. “They are not about what makes sense.” Ironically, that assessment was first coined around the time of Mario Dumont’s summer visit to Westmount Rotary Club.
While the frustration boils over and the provincial elections near, Gérald Tremblay waits for word from Jean Charest for permission to raise new taxes.
Joint solutions?
Could the solution be to find some convenient joint answer? If Tremblay is allowed new ways to raise municipal funds, would he allow Charest reduce his control of the agglom — and maybe even city council, too.
Perhaps Quebec has realized at last it has a responsibility to rein in the Tremblay power trip.
When it leaked out that Premier Charest had agreed to a meeting with the suburban mayors — now likely to be in the premier’s Montreal office on Monday afternoon — some mayors presumed that he would re-hear their complaints. Many appeals remain unanswered, though some are nearly a year old.
The suburbs have a history of assuming false hopes. Despite Minister Normandeau promising that individual credits of the $41 million tax over-charge in 2006 would be shown on the tax bills going out this week, Montreal has found a way to avoid meeting the debt, which, incidentally, was to be shared by all Montrealers, not just the suburbs.
“The government required there to be a credit item with this year’s individual property tax,” Dorval mayor Edgar Rouleau reminded me. “But when I opened the bill for my home on Monday, the credit was not given.
“Sure, an accountant can go through the huge budget books and find the $41 million but somehow it just got lost in the $2 billion expenses.”
Rouleau is concerned that the Tremblay publicity machine claims to have contained tax increases. This year’s budget was around $2 billion, as last year. Property evaluations have increased, more so in Montreal than Dorval and most other suburbs.
“Yet Tremblay is taxing us five per cent more!”
Rouleau, too, hopes that Charest will recognize that the system is wrong.
Who will be at the table?
Who will be involved in this latest protest meeting? The Premier’s office was unhelpful earlier this week.
“It is a private meeting and so we don’t give out details,” I was told. “Geoff Kelley has been speaking about it so, perhaps he will know.”
A “private meeting” to address the needs of 240,000 disenfranchised tax payers who do not have voting rights!
“My colleague Nathalie Normandeau is making the arrangements and will finalize them at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting,” Kelley said. A Beaconsfield resident and the local MNA, he is also a member of the Charest cabinet.
In the firing line
If the ADQ is to be a realistic threat to the Liberals, then Kelley is in the line of fire.
He is a strong apologist for government actions or lack of them. On Friday, when the ADQ announced the support of St-Baie-de-Senn-West, Kelley’s office organized the rebuttal sent to the media the same afternoon.
He wants consideration for two major problems that the government has —a democratic majority strictly applied would give no voice to a 12 per cent minority of the suburban population, yet there was a need to allow a balance for fairness.
He also emphasized that problems of meeting regional costs long pre-dated the forced mergers. I assume he was referring to the MUC, where costs were contained much better than today. He should talk about this with one of his mayors; Pointe-Claire’s Bill McMurchie, is a veteran of the MUC executive committee.
Kelley, surprisingly, had not been kept informed the mayors he represents on developments following their November meeting with the minister! Two of those mayors have now swung to the ADQ.
Can Charest relieve the pressure?
TMR’s Vera Danyluk was blunt. “I’m not sure how much Jean Charest can do or say at this stage. Geoff Kelley seems to be implying that the government could review the list of Montreal facilities that are charged as agglom expenses — like the junior sports clubs.
“That’s a very small step, but it would be a start.”
St. Anne’s Mayor Bill Tierney suspects a modest proposal could be forthcoming. “Charest may do enough so that those Liberal mayors who are least happy about boycotting the agglom would be able to take their seats without loss of face.”
Civic Studies
Fast lane With the total boycott by the suburban mayors, the business part of the agglom council last Thursday was over in eight minutes. Spending or borrowing of about $74 million was authorized.
Airless Agglom member Michael Applebaum, the CDN-NDG mayor, made his first intervention. As chair of the environment committee, he refused a request by STOP’s Bruce Walker for a public session to be devoted to air quality issues.
Classy supporter 1 Patrick Barnard says that Phyllis Lambert signed on to his Save the Park petition on January 22 — her eightieth birthday.
Classy supporter 2 Ottawa’s new mayor, Larry O’Brien, supported a fundraiser to meet the election expenses of his defeated opponent, Alex Munter.
Mayoral opponent Jean D’Amour, Mayor of Rivière-du-Loup, will be Mario Dumont’s Liberal opponent in the next provincial elections.
More GPS The City of Saguenay is equipping 150 snow clearing vehicles with GPS devices. Quebec City is also considering GPS.
Youth swings Beginning in April, Katie Malloch will host a new two-hour weekday jazz series on CBC Radio Two. It is part of a new “youth policy.” Awesome, Katie!
Community activist Don Wedge can be reached at calert@web.net. His columns are archived at
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Steven Guilbeault - 
