PROVINCE NEEDS TO FIX AGGLOMERATION SYSTEM

Property owners in island suburbs pay hefty tax bills with little political voice

By the time items are presented to the agglomeration council, spending decisions are a fait accompli and West Island mayors can only vote against in vain ...

The latest brouhaha between its de-amalgamated island suburbs and the central city of Montreal is yet another example of why the provincial government must step in and revise the agglomeration system, which has been labelled as feudal, flawed and unfair. Last week, the Association of Suburban Municipalities, which represents the demerged suburbs, slammed Montreal’s tax hikes imposed on the agglomeration, describing them as draconian. As it stands, the mayor of Montreal can determine how about half of municipal taxes collected from residents living in demerged cities — from seniors on fixed incomes to young families — are spent, albeit with the backing of the majority of Montreal city councillors. By the time items are presented to the agglomeration council, spending decisions are a fait accompli and West Island mayors can only vote against in vain, since their combined voting share is 13 per cent. Montreal councillors, plus the mayor, hold 87 per cent of the cards. Even if one of the 15 Montreal city councillors named to the agglomeration by the Montreal mayor has a change of heart, they cannot vote No against an item at an agglomeration meeting once it was already approved by Montreal’s city council, which in turn usually rubber-stamps items from the executive committee, also chaired by the mayor. You can argue that’s democracy and majority rules. But about half of tax bills paid by property owners in demerged island suburbs is for so-called regional services provided by the agglomeration that include property valuations (is there a potential conflict of interest?), police and firefighting services, public transit and water treatment. The management of water-treatment plants in Dorval and Pointe Claire was forcibly removed, even though the plants were being well run. There is no métro station in the West Island, but taxpayers in Dorval, Kirkland and Pointe Claire et al have been subsidizing Montreal’s downtown underground transit with stops in Laval and South Shore for decades. The future REM train network will, hopefully, eventually address this shortcoming. As for Montreal police, West Island towns pay plenty for the actual patrols they receive. Baie-d’Urfé, for example, has 3,890 residents and pays the agglo about $3 million a year for police services. It would make sense, since West Islanders in demerged cities are obliged to send about half of their property taxes to Montreal, that they should at least be given the right to mark a ballot for Montreal’s mayor because that person becomes king or queen of the agglomeration council. It could be argued that the current situation is best described as taxation without representation. The agglomeration council, which is essentially a centralized, top-down government model, came into existence 12 years ago. It followed the forced creation of a Montreal megacity in 2002 by the Parti Québécois. When the Charest Liberals took power, they launched a complex demerger process that culminated with a referendum in 2005. The latest example of the unfairness of the agglo tax-grab system comes just as the Quebec government gears up for a 2018 election. West Islanders demonstrated they were willing to break with conventional civic-voting patterns last fall. They could well be willing to consider all options in the Quebec general election scheduled for Oct. 1. While the PQ doesn’t have much of a chance in the mainly federalist West Island, the Coalition Avenir Québec could make inroads there. West Islanders should carefully consider whether it is the CAQ (led by Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue native François Legault) or the sitting Liberal party that offers the most suitable solution to fix the agglomeration system.