New joint committees are slated to be set up beginning this fall that could pave the way to eventually overhaul how the island-wide decision-making body — the agglomeration council operates.
Beny Masella, the mayor of Montreal West, tells Global News the Plante administration has agreed to hold the meetings to discuss outstanding issues between the suburbs and Montreal.
The meetings will focus on several issues including giving the suburbs more input in the $5.5-billion island-wide budget; establishing a new formula for billing suburbs to pay for shared island-wide services — such the SPVM, the fire department and public transit and eventually an entire overhaul of the agglomeration council itself.
“We’ve actually set up some committees to look at some things that we feel need to be addressed short-term,” Masella said.
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Disputes over how the agglomeration council operates have divided the mayors of the 15 suburban towns on the island of Montreal with the metropolitan city for years.
One example, Masella says, is that billing for police services is based on property values in a suburb and not the population. That especially hurts cities like Montreal West and Westmount which don’t have large residential populations but have very high property values.
“We just want something that is fair and dynamic for the whole island,” Masella said.
At least one other suburban mayors agrees — but Georges Bourelle of Beaconsfield tells Global News the reset button needs to be hit on how the entire agglomeration council operates.
“Our residents in the de-merged cities today pay a whole lot more than they should for actual services rendered,” Bourelle said.