Commentary: Agglomeration system in need of thorough overhaul

Justine McIntyre, a former City Councillor, says the Montreal Agglomeration needs an overhaul, top to bottom.

Response to Victor Schukov’s column Montreal’s Agglomeration system is feudal (West Island Gazette, Nov. 22, 2017).

As former city councillor representing the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro at the time, I stood with Beaconsfield Mayor Georges Bourelle in voting against the 2017 operating budget; first to express my solidarity with the under-represented demerged municipalities and second to express my dismay with the entire process.

Montreal’s Agglomeration structure is indeed deeply flawed. It is a system that encourages micro-local levels of government (the city’s 19 boroughs plus the island’s 17 demerged municipalities) to operate independently of one another in a highly inefficient and inherently inequitable manner, one that puts the demerged municipalities at a power disadvantage with the City.

Under this fragmented system, political representation is a hodgepodge. Continue reading “Commentary: Agglomeration system in need of thorough overhaul”