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”