Listen carefully come election time, say suburban mayors

In a press conference held at Montreal City Hall after the walkout, they made it clear that this did not signal the end to the boycott they began when the budget was tabled in November.

“We only came today to vote against the budget and it is an important thing to do because otherwise the minutes of this meeting would reflect that the budget passed unanimously,� said Westmount Mayor Karin Marks. “We’ve said very clearly we would not return to this agglomeration council unless there was a reason to do so.�

The budget was passed by the majority of votes cast by the City of Montreal members of the agglomeration.

When the boycott began, Marks said that the suburban mayors wanted to see proposals from the provincial government for the creation of a better structure for Montreal’s shared services before they would resume their attendance of agglomeration meetings.

That has yet to happen.

Also, according to Marks, requests made to the province, regarding amendments to Bill 55 were not adopted, such as the establishment of a secretariat on the agglomeration council, and the formation of an agglomeration executive committee separate from the City of Montreal’s executive committee.

“We were waiting last week for important changes to bill 55 and so we expected that perhaps we’d be able to return with at least something meaningful that we could give our citizens and that we could really feel good about,� said Marks. “This didn’t happen.�

Beaconsfield Mayor Bob Benedetti read a statement from the government which gave the agglomeration council the mandate to go forward with the proposed 2007 budget, and called into question the integrity of a government that would support what he described as a structure which doesn’t function democratically. “Eighty-three per cent of the vote is predetermined,� said Benedetti. “The government knew this.�

“Now the time has come for us to say what moral authority do the Charest Liberals have to govern us,� said Benedetti, “when they are prepared to ignore 250,000 electors on the island of Montreal; to condemn them to fork over over a quarter of a billion dollars to the agglomeration without a single way of influencing in any manner the way that money is spent?�

Benedetti went on to say that the Liberals were leaving the seats of some good Liberal candidates, like Jacques-Cartier MNA Geoffrey Kelley, at risk, by not backing agglomeration reform.

When asked where other parties stood on the issue of the agglomeration, Marks said that the ADQ had come out against it. “I’ve certainly heard the ADQ speak about the fact that they feel that the agglomerations are badly designed,� said Marks, adding later that voters should really listen to the issues when the next election begins. “We’re going to ask our citizens to listen darn carefully to what’s being offered to them and that’s what we’re going to pressure for, is to get people to offer them something that makes sense.�

Montreal West Mayor, Campbell Stuart says that he hopes voters in the next election will worry a little less about the classic Quebec federalist/separatist dichotomy and concentrate on issues that have more direct and immediate effects on their daily lives. “There is a big problem municipally,� said Stuart. “That’s where people live and that’s where most of what happens in their life, that’s where it happens.�

“I think we need to change the discourse,� said Stuart. “Municipal rights is neither separation nor staying in, but believe me the people in my town and the people in the demerged towns, when they get a tax increase, that they do not have any deserving to get, those people are going to start saying... there’re other much more important issues here on the table and the Liberals are going to find out very soon that frankly a lot of people don’t give a damn about them.�

Stuart has hinted that he might even run for a provincial seat, in order to get the issue to Quebec, but he says that that decision and for which party he would affiliate himself with, are still undetermined.

Having heard NDG representative Russell Copeman admit on CBC that the agglomeration council was “dysfunctional�, Côte Saint-Luc Mayor, Anthony Housefather said that he felt local MNAs may be having difficulty getting the issue heard. “I think our local MNAs might realize that this is a very large problem and they’ve had difficulty making an impact either at the cabinet level or in the Liberal caucus level,� said Housefather. “I think that now we have to up the pressure so as to help them... understand that this is a really important issue and that there is a disquiet that is brewing amongst 250,000 residents on the island of Montreal.�

The boycott will continue and according to Marks, the demerged municipalities will also be meeting with members of the agglomerations of Longueuil and Quebec City where there is also discontent with their structure. “Now we will continue to try and work with the other agglomerations because we’re not the only one that doesn’t work,� said Marks. “It doesn’t work here, it doesn’t work in Longueuil, it doesn’t work in Quebec City and at some point, the government has to realize that the small cities that worked well before... have a right to return to the kind of efficient and effective governance.�

“There’s no underlying principal that have been the guiding force for these agglomeration and as such, they’re a matter of political push and pull and we’re asking them to create some principals, say here’s what’s fair, here’s why it’s fair,� said Marks.