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December 2000

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Fusions Forcées - Forced Mergers
As members of a democratic society, we the undersigned categorically reject the forced mergers of our municipalities by the Government of Quebec, without consultation and over our objections.

12/Dec/2000 Finding a way to fight Sid T. Hawl
By: MIKE BOONE The Gazette
Me, I'm against forced municipal mergers. But many of my imaginary friends think that Bill 170 is a great idea and they've been busy signing Mayor Pierre Bourque's petition. Through the magic of the Internet, you can show your support of one island, one city by going to www.ville.montreal.qc.ca, clicking on Nous sommes tous Montrealais and typing in your name.
Click to Petition page if above fails

29/Dec/1999 From our files no change!
Surveys done by Le Devoir has indicated that in a one month period, the number of people polled who were opposed to forced mergers, increased from 46% to 56%. Will the legislation be passed in the face of this increased opposition? The answer is, ... of course. Voir aussie
notes for December 2000

29/Dec/2000 Megacity slate firming up
By: JANE DAVENPORT The Gazette
Jean Drapeau's right-hand man and the former rector of Concordia University are among seven people who have been invited to serve on the committee that will oversee the creation of a megacity on Montreal Island, The Gazette has learned. Yvon Lamarre, chairman of Montreal city council's executive committee under Drapeau, and Patrick Kenniff, former rector of Concordia, acknowledged yesterday that they have been approached about the positions, but would not confirm whether they have been appointed. [A nut that can be controled is better than one that can think ..the PQ might say]
12/28/00 Westmount takes Quebec to court over Bill 170
not only followed through on its longstanding promise to take the Quebec government to court over Bill 170-it did so just one day after the controversial bill was passed in the National Assembly in the early morning hours of Dec. 20. www.westmountexaminer.com/actualite.php3?code=359&Chronique=Actualite ,,Along with the City of Westmount, Peter Trent is listed as a plaintiff as a private citizen, as are Westmounters Jill Hugessen, Howard Hoppenheim, Victor Drury, Judy Mappin, Doug McDougall and former city councillors John Shingler, James Wright and André Gervais. Also listed as co-plaintiff is the Citizens' Association for the Preservation of the City of Westmount.
...lawyer Gerald Tremblay said that one of the strategies being taken in the case is that Westmount was founded in 1874 as a Common Law corporation-which cannot be dissolved without the consent of its members. "This means you can't get rid of us without the consent of our founders," said Mayor Peter Trent. "Needless to say, that would be rather difficult at this point."
12/28/00 Westmount 2001 budget reflects anti-merger fight
revealed the devastating impact the forced merger bill would mean for citizens in the coming years.
Wed 12/27/00 6:55 AM Keeping power in the boroughs
As the dust settles over the turmoil-filled enactment of Bill 170, many critics of this law to impose a mega-city are rebounding from their setback with intelligence.
Their first response is to push onward with various court challenges against Bill 170's legality. The outcome of these suits, which various suburbs and a citizens' group called DemocraCite are launching separately, is, of course, uncertain. The critics are, therefore, devising an ambitious contingency plan. This strategy calls for the early organization of a Montreal Island-wide political party.
Tue 12/26/00 6:54 AM Merger stokes tax fear
By: LINDA GYULAI The Gazette
Future mayoral aspirants, take heed: a majority of Montrealers fear that their taxes will go up and services will worsen when Montreal gobbles up its island suburbs.
That's one finding of a Gazette public-opinion survey conducted Dec. 13-20. As reported Saturday, a majority of Montreal Island residents said they're against the Quebec government's megacity plan.
Tue 12/26/00 6:54 AM Democracy in the megacity
One important way the Bouchard government could lessen suburbanites' dread of its megacity law would be by forcing an end to Montreal's long tradition of autocracy. The city's penchant for dictatorial leadership is truly disturbing to many suburbs; their own robust democratic traditions go a long way toward explaining the relatively high quality of their services.
For a blueprint of how to organize a system of accountability for the megacity, the government does not have far to look. A thoughtful report published last month proposes several encouraging reforms.
24/Dec/2000 Wary of who's in charge
By: DARREN BECKER The Gazette
Suburban mayors said yesterday they are deeply insulted the provincial government intends to appoint the head of the transition committee that will oversee the creation of a megacity in Montreal without consulting them. "The government has shown complete and utter contempt for residents and mayors on this merger issue, so nothing is surprising any more," said Cote St. Luc Mayor Robert Libman.
23/Dec/2000 MAYORS VOW TO CONTINUE ANTI-MERGER FIGHT
Suburban mayors on the island of Montreal say they're headed to court as a group to block the island-wide city. full cbc story
23/Dec/2000 See you in court, Westmount says
By: JANE DAVENPORT, MIKE KING of The Gazette
Before the last referendum, Westmount Mayor Peter Trent decided that if Quebec became independent, he would continue to make his home here.
"One of the beautiful things about Quebec is how small municipalities with anglophone roots can flourish in a francophone province - it's a sort of tacit compromise," Trent, speaking in French, said yesterday. "It never occurred to me at the time there was any danger of losing my town."
23/Dec/2000 Majority rejects merger
By: LINDA GYULAI The Gazette
A majority of Montreal Island residents want nothing to do with one island, one city, a Gazette public-opinion poll indicates.
The poll, conducted by the SOM surveying firm between Dec. 13 and 20, shows that 53.2 per cent of respondents in the city of Montreal and the island suburbs are opposed to creating a megacity.
22/Dec/2000 Baie d'Urfe fights back
By: ANN CARROLL, BASEM BOSHRA
Farmers once demanded tolls of travelers heading along the road skirting Lac St. Louis, west of Montreal.
Yesterday, Baie d'Urfe volunteers contented themselves with stopping motorists and handing out anti-merger fliers at three symbolic checkpoints on Lakeshore and Morgan Rds.
21/Dec/2000 Westmount launches Bill 170 lawsuit tomorrow
By Martin C. Barry
Westmount is poised to fire the opening shot in a legal war against Quebec's forced municipal mergers.
21/Dec/2000 Bill 170 a 'masquerade of democracy': Liberals' Chagnon
By Martin C. Barry
Westmount MNA Jacques Chagnon is calling Quebec's handling of Bill 170 a "masquerade of democracy."
21/Dec/2000 Contempt for democracy
Premier Bouchard loves to rhapsodize about Quebec democracy's extraordinary robustness. In ramming the municipal-merger legislation, Bill 170, through the National Assembly this week, he cynically turned that notion upside down. Democracy is supposed to show respect for the will of the people. Throughout this sorry saga of municipal mergers, which spans several years, the Bouchard government has shown only disdain for public opinion. Shortly after 2 a.m. yesterday, this contempt reached a dreary climax.
21/Dec/2000 MNAs put on 17-hour circus
By: SEAN GORDON
Because of procedural jiggery-pokery by the opposition Liberals, the inevitable was postponed until exactly 2:13 a.m. yesterday. That's when groggy, sleep-deprived government MNAs rose to applaud Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel, who could offer only a wan smile and a limp wave to herald the passing of Bill 170, the most contentious piece of legislation of the Bouchard era.
21/Dec/2000 Anti-Clarity Act is vital law: Bouchard
By: KEVIN DOUGHERTY
The Quebec National Assembly adjourned until March yesterday after adopting Bill 170, creating one city on the island of Montreal and absorbing the suburbs of Quebec City, Levis, Longueuil and Hull-Gatineau into other new megacities. But assembly business was overshadowed by the public dispute pitting prospective Parti Quebecois candidate Yves Michaud against Premier Lucien Bouchard.
21/Dec/2000 Bourque to the future: a preview
By: MIKE BOONE
A bunch of my auteur buddies in the Plateau are planning to make a movie about life after municipal mergers. Shot over the next 10 days at a cost of $43 (subject to upward revision if they don't return empties), the futuristic flick will offer chilling glimpses of life on our happy, unified island. Some highlights of the shooting script for 2001: A Spaced Oddity:
21/Dec/2000 BOURQUE GETS HALF THE SIGNATURES HE EXPECTED
The mayor of Montreal says 50,000 people put their names on his petition in favour of "one island, one city". full cbc story
21/Dec/2000 Clear advantage
By: BILL BROWNSTEIN
We had really hoped to reflect on the desperation of suburbanites unwillingly annexed to the fiefdom of Pierre Bourque. But we, too, felt as ineffectual as pinned butterflies under glass on display at Bourque's beloved Insectarium.
21/Dec/2000 Mayors plan strategy
By: LINDA GYULAI; BASEM BOSHRA
The campaign for mayor of the new Montreal megacity is well under way behind the scenes. Montreal Mayor Pierre Bourque - who shied away yesterday from declaring his candidacy - is wooing current councillors from the suburbs to run for his Team Bourque/ Vision Montreal party in the first megacity election next Nov. 4, suburban mayors contend.
20/Dec/2000 It's one big city now
By: SEAN GORDON The Gazette Montreal Mayor Pierre Bourque's "one island, one city" mantra has become reality. The government invoked closure yesterday to cut off debate on Bill 170, which imposes municipal mergers on Montreal Island and four other metropolitan areas.
19/Dec/2000 "DEMOCRACY STIFLED": MAYORS FURIOUS THAT MERGER DEBATE IS OVER
The Bouchard government has invoked closure in the National Assembly, which effectively stops all debate on the forced merger legislation. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/19/yeomans001219
19/Dec/2000 DEBATE TO CLOSE ON MERGERS
The Bouchard government has invoked closure on Bill 170, the legislation that forces amalgamation of municipalities in the Quebec City, Montreal and Outaouais regions. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/19/closure001219
Dec 19 2000 1:19 PM EST Rick Kalb reports for CBC Debate to close on mergers QUEBEC CITY - The Bouchard government has invoked closure on Bill 170, the legislation that forces amalgamation of municipalities in the Quebec City, Montreal and Outaouais regions.
18/Dec/2000 By Quebec's logic, all 10 provinces should fuse
By: WILLIAM WATSON
In this last winter before the 28 municipalities on Montreal Island merge into One Big City, two early-season dumps of snow in three days last week sparked a vigourous snow-removal competition. Many of the towns threatened with extinction - such as my own the 5,200-person, 103-year-old Montreal West - seemed tOWN to outdo themselves to show their worth.
Snow removal has always been very good here, but the first dump of nine inches or so last Tuesday had actually been plowed, plowed again and then snow-blown into trucks less than 24 hours after the first flakes had fallen. This beat the city of Montreal, though that's not hard, since these days Montreal clears snow the way the Habs clear pucks, which is to say slowly, if at all. The official word is that side streets - that is, those streets that most Montrealers live on - are not a priority.
18/Dec/2000 A federalist party for Montreal
By: JACK JEDWAB
The likelihood that Montreal Island municipalities will be merged raises an important question: should a political movement be formed that reflects the views of the majority of the new municipality's citizens on national unity?
This has recently been the subject of considerable debate in Montreal newspapers.
18/Dec/2000 Petition push falls short
By: ALLISON HANES The Gazette
Mayor Pierre Bourque failed yesterday to come up with the names of 100,000 Montrealers in favour of one island-one city. "We're not giving up. We're going go non-stop until the end and we'll present the results once the bill has been voted on," a sheepish Bourque told reporters gathered at Montreal city hall yesterday, expecting to learn the final tally of signatures he gathered in favour of municipal mergers during a two-week blitz to counter the vociferous opposition of the suburbs.
17/Dec/2000 MAYOR TOURS ISLAND IN SUPPORT OF PROVINCE'S MUNICIPAL MERGER LAW
City of Montreal Mayor Pierre Bourque spent the weekend touring the Island of Montreal. . montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/17/petition001217
17/Dec/2000 AMENDMENTS TO MERGER BILL DON'T PLEASE MAYORS
The Municipal Affairs Minister has introduced a series of amendments to the bill on municipal mergers. . montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/15/amendments001215
17/Dec/2000 Mayor's race for megacity is crucial
By: NORMAN WEBSTER The Gazette
It might be naive, but some of us persist in the belief that there is a penalty to be paid for bad governing - even in Quebec. Surely an administration that can't tie its own shoelaces has to take a hit at the polls eventually. And where, save in British Columbia and perhaps Zimbabwe, have we seen a consistently worse performance in recent years than here in la belle province under the hand of the Parti Quebecois? Everything these guys touch turns to ratpoop. The health system has been riddled and raddled by dumb decisions. Anyone who deals with the health bureaucracy in Quebec City reports almost total incompetence and gridlock.
Le point de fusion
par Carole Beaulieu et Pierre Cayouette Qu'importe les risques politiques, Lucien Bouchard fera les fusions municipales. Car Montréal, dit-il, est destinée à jouer un rôle immense en Amérique du Nord. Voir: www.lactualite.com/laune/pg000001.html
15/Dec/2000 Des modifications au projet de loi 170 déposées à l'Assemblée nationale
TVA Plus rien ne peut arrêter les fusions municipales. La ministre Louise Harel a accepté d'apporter quelques amendements à sa loi 170 qui sera adoptée la semaine prochaine. Voir: archives.infinit.net/textecomplet/2000/12/20001215-124107.html ou TVA
16/Dec/2000 22:26 AMENDMENTS TO MERGER BILL DON'T PLEASE MAYORS
The Municipal Affairs Minister has introduced a series of amendments to the bill on municipal mergers. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/15/amendments001215
17/Dec/2000 Quebec would call the shots in megacity
By: TOMMY SCHNURMACHER
We all know the Parti Quebecois has every intention of going through with the forced mergers of municipalities.
But the main question remains: What's in it for the PQ?
15/Dec/2000 Mergers won't hurt PQ much
By: MICHEL DAVID Le Soleil
Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel didn't seem too ruffled by the demonstration that brought several tens of thousands of people into the streets of Montreal last Sunday.
Harel promised a few changes to Bill 170, which will rearrange the municipal landscape of Montreal, Quebec City and the Outaouais, but as long as she refuses categorically to grant taxing powers to the future boroughs, the changes will be essentially cosmetic. >
15/Dec/2000 A government addicted to reform
By: GRETTA CHAMBERS Freelance
Commentary has bristled with impatience all week at the Quebec government's apparent inability to manage the incessant "reforms" to which it is addicted.
Le Soleil's J. Jacques Samson suggested that Premier Lucien Bouchard's next reform should be the prohibition of any new reforms for the remainder of his mandate: "The word itself now sends shivers through the population. The municipal-merger question is simply the last straw after, in rapid succession, reform of welfare, health, manpower training, daycare, drug insurance and now education, all of which have gone off the rails somewhere along the line and caused much anxiety."
15/Dec/2000 Mayors fail to sway Bouchard
By: ELIZABETH THOMPSON The Gazette
The Quebec government will move forward with plans to adopt Bill 170 despite an 11th-hour bid by mayors to persuade Premier Lucien Bouchard to delay adoption of the controversial municipal-merger legislation, Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel said yesterday.
Harel emerged from a two-hour meeting with suburban mayors and Bouchard to tell reporters nothing the municipal politicians had said changed the government's determination to go forward.
15/Dec/2000 Protesters made point on mergers
By: L. IAN MACDONALD Freelance
'Do you think this will do any good?" It was the question of the day at Sunday's anti-merger rally in downtown Montreal.
It certainly did some good in the sense that thousands of citizens, some of whom had never before carried a placard, went into the street to protest against the forced municipal-mergers legislation.
15/Dec/2000 Mayors fail to sway Bouchard
By: : ELIZABETH THOMPSON The Gazette
The Quebec government will move forward with plans to adopt Bill 170 despite an 11th-hour bid by mayors to persuade Premier Lucien Bouchard to delay adoption of the controversial municipal-merger legislation, Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel said yesterday.
Harel emerged from a two-hour meeting with suburban mayors and Bouchard to tell reporters nothing the municipal politicians had said changed the government's determination to go forward.
14/Dec/2000 Merger hurdle denied
By: LINDA GYULAI; SEAN GORDON
A Quebec Superior Court judge has refused an injunction that would have blocked passage of the provincial government's municipal- merger legislation, Bill 170.
Citing parliamentary privilege, Judge Jean Crepeau denied the injunction request by five Montreal-area residents who are members of the anti-merger group DemocraCite.
13/Dec/2000 Suburbs to Quebec: see you in courtl
By: MICHAEL MAINVILLE The Gazette
Opponents of Quebec's municipal-mergers bill are preparing to undertake a series of legal actions against the legislation, after the apparent failure of Sunday's demonstration to have much effect on Quebec's determination to adopt the plans. And they'll be watching Quebec Superior Court closely today to see whether the first of many potential legal challenges will win an injunction to prevent the adoption of Bill 170, which would merge Montreal Island's 28 municipalities into a megacity with 26 boroughs.
13/Dec/2000 We're all Montrealers
By: PIERRE BOURQUE
Municipal reform has raised a lot of doubts and questions and Montrealers naturally want to know more. Why do we need to make these changes in our municipal life and why is this reorganization so necessary to the development of Montreal and Quebec?
Beyond such considerations as equalizing taxes and social responsibilities, which I feel go a long way toward justifying this government decision, the following reasons, expressing basic principles we all share, will help to explain why the Quebec government proposed this reorganization.
12/Dec/2000 Everybody out of the pool
By: IRWIN BLOCK The Gazette
The third in a series on possible effects of forced municipal mergers It was late afternoon at the Pointe Claire Aquatic Centre and outside, snowflakes were falling.
11/Dec/2000 Snow: The takeaway issue
By: CHARLIE FIDELMAN The Gazette
The second article in a series on the possible effects of municipal mergers It was a frigid February day when Marc Denoncourt stepped out of his apartment on Tupper St. to find his black Volkswagen had gone.
8/Dec/2000 Future a mystery for libraries
By: ALLISON HANES The Gazette
First in an occasional series on the potential effects of municipal mergers Every morning when the Cote St. Luc Library opens at 10, Harry Greenberg hikes from his apartment across the street to begin his daily ritual.
12/Dec/2000 Bourque's petition languishes By: MICHAEL MAINVILLE The Gazette
Initial results don't bode well for Montreal Mayor Pierre Bourque's campaign to get residents to sign a petition supporting his one island, one city plan. As of Sunday night - three days after Bourque put out the call for supporters to sign the petition - about 14,000 people had done so.
12/Dec/2000 7:39am Road crews at ready for first storm
in Westmount sidewalks also clean but not in Montréal
By: MIKE KING Municipal and provincial snow-clearing crews were on red alert last night for a white-out. With the first major snowstorm of the winter forecast to hit overnight, an army of workers and equipment was at the ready to keep highways, streets and sidewalks open.
12/Dec/2000 Rally changes nothing : Harel
By: DAVID JOHNSTON, MICHAEL MAINVILLE
No. That was Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel's response yesterday to Sunday's massive downtown rally that called on the province to scrap its plans for forced municipal mergers on the island of Montreal.
11/Dec/2000 THE DAY AFTER: GOVERNMENT UNFAZED BY HUGE RALLY
Blowing whistles and carrying placards, tens of thousands of angry Quebecers marched through downtown Montreal on Sunday to protest against the province's plan to create one mega-city. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/11/rallymtl001210
11/Dec/2000 Huge No to megacities
By: MICHAEL MAINVILLE and MONIQUE BEAUDIN; CHARLIE FIDELMAN and DARREN BECKER
Organizers of yesterday's massive rally in downtown Montreal say Premier Lucien Bouchard has no choice but to respond to the outpouring of opposition to his municipal-merger plans. "The government cannot ignore what has happened here today," Verdun Mayor Georges Bosse said yesterday afternoon, shortly after tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against Quebec's municipal-merger plans. "I think when 75,000 people show up on a winter's day they deserve to be listened to."
11/Dec/2000 MERGER SUPPORTERS TRICKLE INTO MONTREAL CITY HALL
montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/10/merger20001210
11/Dec/2000 CAN COURTS INTERVENE IN MUNICIPAL MERGERS?
A judge will announce on Wednesday whether he'll grant an injunction to stop the municipal merger process in Quebec. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/08/democracite001208
11/Dec/2000 HAREL STANDS FIRM ON MERGER BILL
Organizers of a rally to oppose Bill 170, the province's legislation to force municipal mergers, are expecting 40,000 people to turn out for a demonstration in downtown Montreal on Sunday. Quebec's municipal affairs minister, Louise Harel, is wishing them well. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/09/merger20001209
11/Dec/2000 We'll lose services, pay more: protesters
By: MONIQUE BEAUDIN and MICHAEL MAINVILLE The Gazette
Thousands of people marched through downtown Montreal yesterday protesting against the Quebec government's plan to forge ahead with mergers in Montreal, the South Shore, Quebec City and Hull. Here's what some of them had to say when asked what they were afraid would happen if the mergers proceed:
CAN COURTS INTERVENE IN MUNICIPAL MERGERS?
A judge will announce on Wednesday whether he'll grant an injunction to stop the municipal merger process in Quebec. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/08/democracite001208
10/Dec/2000 STANDS FIRM ON MERGER BILL
Organizers of a rally to oppose Bill 170, the province's legislation to force municipal mergers, are expecting 40,000 people to turn out for a demonstration in downtown Montreal on Sunday. Quebec's municipal affairs minister, Louise Harel, is wishing them well. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/09/merger20001209
10/Dec/2000 Mayor's taking names
By: AMANDA JELOWICKI, DARREN BECKER
Looking smart in a charcoal-gray wool suit, Mayor Pierre Bourque put on a brave face yesterday at city hall.
He stood in the marbled lobby of the venerable Notre Dame St. building yesterday afternoon, waiting patiently for people to come in and sign a petition in favour of municipal mergers, but few people were showing up.
9/Dec/2000 March for democracy
You may have noticed a full-page ad that the Quebec government has placed in English and French newspapers. It is a masterpiece of deception. It also a vivid indicator of what the Bouchard government thinks of democracy and why tomorrow's anti-merger rally is so important. In the ad, the government attempts to promote municipal mergers by claiming that there's been more than enough consultation on the issue already. "We've been talking about municipal mergers for over 30 years," begins the ad. It then rattles off some impressive statistics: "158 days of public hearings, 241 studies, analyses and reports, 922 briefs, 1,556 groups and organizations consulted."
9/Dec/2000 Timing's everything
By: KEVIN DOUGHERTY The Gazette Organizers of tomorrow's huge rally against the plan to merge all Montreal Island municipalities into one megacity are hoping a massive turnout will dissuade the Quebec government from its chosen course.
In taking to the streets, the demonstrators are following in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, who relied on peaceful protest in their historic struggles.
9/Dec/2000 Who is planning for the megacity? At the moment, it's no one
By: LINDA GYULAI The Gazette City councillor Andre Cardinal is a patient man. As he sat through 20 hours of budget hearings this week at Montreal city hall, Cardinal listened quietly as the other members of council's standing committee on administration and services asked city bureaucrats question after question - not about the 2001 budget, but about what might happen to municipal services in 2002, the year Montreal is supposed to become a megacity.
"It's interesting that they're talking about this stuff, but we're really not getting any information," Cardinal, a member of the opposition Montreal Citizens Movement, said.

Peter Trent & Karan Marks

8/Dec/2000 Both ´Phones Take Megaphone Against a Megacity
By JAMES BROOKE
Nationalists believe they are on the verge of exacting revenge on the anglophone enclave of Westmount, Quebec. The provincial assembly plans to approve a bill that would forcibly merge Westmount into a Montreal megacity. Ny Times www.nytimes.com/2000/12/08/world/08QUEB.html
12/04/2000 MONTREAL EXPANSION RIPPED AS POWER GRAB
By Colin Nickerson, Staff WESTMOUNT, Quebec - The signs bristle on the expensively groomed yards of the mock-Tudor mansions high on Mount Royal's west summit, on the doors of the handsome brick townhouses at mid-slope, and in the windows of the elegant shops below: "Ne touchez pas a MA ville."
Don't touch MY city. globe/search
8/Dec/2000 Look at Louisville
Has Lucien Bouchard ever been to Kentucky? Perhaps he should consider a visit. If he did, he would discover that the city of Louisville and adjacent Jefferson County are amalgamating. The move doubles Louisville's population to 527,000. This rare municipal merger south of the border might seem to be grist for Mr. Bouchard's mill, as he forces mergers on Montreal Island, the South Shore and the Quebec City and Hull areas.
After all, the premier constantly argues that mergers are a trend and that Quebec must be part of it in order to avoid becoming a loser in the global economy.
8/Dec/2000 'Stop the war,' Harel urges mayors
By: KEVIN DOUGHERTY The Gazette
Eight days of hearings on Bill 170, the government's blueprint to create five megacities, wrapped up yesterday with the government and opposition still at loggerheads. "It is a bit of a shame," Roch Cholette, the Liberal municipal-affairs critic, said as the hearings ended.
8/Dec/2000 Mayor on mega mission
By: MICHAEL MAINVILLE The Gazette
After months of watching suburban residents vote in referendums and take part in rallies against his "one island, one city" plan, Montreal Mayor Pierre Bourque is finally calling on megacity supporters to show their colours by signing a petition. Bourque yesterday said he hopes to show up on the doorstep of the National Assembly on Dec. 18, around the time the provincial government is expected to approve its merger bill, with 100,000 signatures in hand.
Rally 'key event'
Municipal-merger foes are making every effort to mobilize residents for what they hope will be a massive rally in downtown Montreal Sunday. The rally, they say, could make or break their campaign to persuade the Quebec government to drop or scale back Bill 170 - omnibus legislation that would merge suburbs with their central cities in Montreal, Quebec City and the Outaouais.
8/Dec/2000 CAN COURTS INTERVENE IN MUNICIPAL MERGERS?
A judge will announce on Wednesday whether he'll grant an injunction to stop the municipal merger process in Quebec. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/08/democracite001208
8/Dec/2000 MUNICIPAL MERGERS CLOSER TO REALITY
Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel says municipal reform legislation is one step closer to reality. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/08/harel001208
7/Dec/2000 MAYOR LAUNCHES PETITION IN SUPPORT OF MERGERS
Montreal mayor Pierre Bourque says groups opposed to 'one island - one city' have been waging a campaign of misinformation. The mayor has launched his own petition, calling on people to support the merger legislation.
7/Dec/2000 Bouchard's U-turn
By: MICHAEL MAINVILLE The Gazette
A little more than a year ago Premier Lucien Bouchard was saying, in reference to municipal mergers, that "a forced marriage is never good."
Talking to Le Reveil a Jonquiere, a weekly newspaper in his riding, Bouchard said municipal mergers are a good way to promote economic development and should be encouraged, but never imposed, by Quebec.
5/Dec/2000 20:16 SECRET DEAL WITH UNIONS OVER MERGERS: LIBERALS
Quebec's Opposition Liberals are accusing the Bouchard government of sealing a secret pact with the union that represents blue collar municipal workers.
5/Dec/2000 20:16 FEWER POWERS FOR BOROUGHS AFTER MERGERS: REPORT
Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel will amend Bill 170 to ensure the new larger city of Montreal cannot delegate any powers to the boroughs which make it up, according to a report in newspaper Le Devoir.
5/Dec/2000 They shall not pass, Yeomans says
By: HAZEL PORTER The Gazette
Dorval Mayor Peter Yeomans said he plans to lock the doors at city hall when transition specialists are sent in by the provincial government next month. "I will be abiding by the law," Yeomans said.
5/Dec/2000 Calling megacity out on strike
By: LINDA GYULAI
One island, one strike?
A top city of Montreal official warns that labour conflicts in a Montreal megacity would affect the whole island because the province's municipal-merger legislation, Bill 170, calls for the creation of island-wide unions.
4/Dec/2000 Case against mergers (4)
One argument being made in favour of the Bouchard government's one-island, one-city scheme is that a mayor who represents all of Montreal Island will, by virtue of representing 1.8 million people, be powerful enough to defend the city's interests in Quebec City. It's an attractive argument - until you think about it. Then the logic falls apart. Yes, it is certainly true that provincial politicians have been kicking sand in Montreal mayors' faces, and that it's high time Montreal stood up for itself.
4/Dec/2000 Merger foes raise heat
By: MONIQUE BEAUDIN; LYNN MOORE and DEBBIE PARKES The Quebec government's plan to force municipalities to merge got a rough ride from several quarters yesterday, with a rally on the South Shore and three sets of public hearings on Montreal Island. And provincial Liberal leader Jean Charest turned up the heat, saying the Parti Quebecois government can't be trusted when it says island suburbs won't end up paying Montreal's debt in the new megacity.
4/Dec/2000 'People feel their backs are to the wall'
By: LYNN MOORE The Gazette
At a public-consultation session held by West Island Liberal MNAs in Kirkland yesterday, Dorval Mayor Peter Yeomans approached the spectre of civil unrest more obliquely than his feisty counterparts in Montreal West. The proposed revamping of Montreal Island municipalities is not just "a money-grab" for debt-laden Montreal but is "a redesign of society" and a move to render municipal politicians across the province "sterile and servile," he said.
December 4.
2.1 Team Westmount: Council has retained Gérald Tremblay, of McCarthy Tétrault, Jean Marois (Ferland Marois Lanctôt) and Julius Grey for the legal fights against the laws on forced mergers or any reduction in the powers of the city.
2.2 Provisions: In resolving to appoint them, council specified in their mandates that:
Law 124 (territorial reorganization) and Bill 170 (forced mergers) would jeopardize the existence of the city;
Bill 170 would abolish the city and its institutions; it is unconstitutional and violates rights guaranteed in Quebec and Canada;
Westmount's municipal institution is vital to the safeguarding the anglophone minority living in its territory;
Legal proceedings are needed to protect the institutions and the common good of citizens;
Westmount citizens, or association of citizens, could be authorized to join the city in the protection of their rights and liberties and the preservation of their existence;
Peter Trent, as mayor and/or citizen, be entitled to obtain recognition of his rights and liberties guaranteed by the charters.
2.3 Downloading case: Westmount is leading 21 island suburbs in continuing to contest the legality of the Trudel downloading (Bill 92). It is claimed that the government acted illegally in having the municipalities collect taxes rather than doing so directly. A verdict was expected last July, but the judge hearing the case died. A new judge, Allan Hilton, has been designated but new hearings are delayed until May 29. The city has paid its share of the levy from 1998. Council resolved to continue the case as a responsibility to get reimbursement of overpayments for taxpayers. It was not only a case of recuperation, said the mayor, but was also to make a point against irresponsible government action.
2.4 Retained lawyers: Lavery de Billy and Bélanger Sauvé were mandated to conduct the case on the city's behalf. $50,000 was appropriated to cover costs in 2001.

3/Dec/2000 Fighting for survival
By: BILL BROWNSTEIN The Gazette
The hours suck. The aggravation? Don't even ask. And the pay? Well, let's just say that the ultimate indignity is that no sooner does he get a raise, from $33,000 to $49,000 a year, he could be rendered redundant in about a year.
But remuneration is the last thing on Westmount Mayor Peter Trent's mind these days. It used to be that a Westmount mayor's job was largely ceremonial. Smile and wave a lot. Go to flower shows. Lawn bowl, if you must. And make damn sure the garbage is picked up, the rinks are ready, and the snow is removed. Maybe it hasn't been entirely Camelot during his nine-year tenure as mayor, but Trent had never anticipated that he'd be putting in 18-hour days fighting for his city's survival.
3/Dec/2000 SUBURBS TO PAY PART OF MONTREAL'S DEBT: CITY MANAGER
A comment by a high ranking bureaucrat at Montreal City Hall has many suburban mayors more upset than ever about a forced amalgamation.
No help for city on debt
By: PIERRE APRIL, KEVIN DOUGHERTY
The provincial government won't help Montreal unload its debt on suburbs slated to become part of a new megacity, Municipal Affairs Minister Louise Harel said yesterday.
Quebec will not modify legislation that prevents Montreal from dumping part of its $3-billion debt on surrounding municipalities, she said.
3/Dec/2000 Case against mergers (3)
It's not hard to spot the importance of language in the Parti Quebecois government's one-island, one-city plan. Just glance at Bill 170, the new legislation to create a megacity named Montreal. Article 1 reads, "Montreal is a French-speaking city."
Most English-speaking Quebecers agree that French deserves primacy across the province and that safeguards are needed to ensure that. Yet even before the estates-general on language has studied Montreal Island's linguistic situation, Bill 170 would do more to diminish the place of English on the island than any other measure since Bill 101 came into force 23 years ago.
2/Dec/2000 SUBURBS TO PAY PART OF MONTREAL'S DEBT: CITY MANAGER
A comment by a high ranking bureaucrat at Montreal City Hall has many suburban mayors more upset than ever about a forced amalgamation. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/02/mergers001202
1/Dec/2000 MEGA-CITY ADS HAVE SOME FURIOUS
Opponents of Quebec's municipal merger plan say they're waiting for an explanation for the province's misleading advertising campaign touting the proposed mergers as "forward-looking." montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2000/12/01/megacity001201
1/Dec/2000 Bouchard gets an F on mergers
By: L. IAN MACDONALD W hether his report card comes with numerical or alphabetical test scores, Lucien Bouchard deserves a miserable failing grade on municipal mergers. Mayors rail against his merger bill, residents rally against it and voters in Monday's federal election sideswiped the Bloc Quebecois in three Quebec City ridings because of it.
November 2000
click here for November Notes archives
Peter Trent Friday 10 November 2000 In Westmount, words fail Vote notice sent out in mangled English CATHERINE SOLYOM ..Westmount Mayor Peter Trent couldn't understand it either.
The same form, a poor translation of the original French written by Quebec's chief electoral officer, was sent out last year before Westmount's municipal elections. ..It was obviously not made in Westmount. "I hit the roof when I saw it," said Trent, who prides himself on the quality of English and French in city-hall correspondence. "We were terribly embarrassed. The English is execrable." [this is a non event but we made the front page of the gazette. DTN]
Centralization and decentralization from New York City Since the 1960s two basic thrusts in city government have been in conflict in New York City. Some say that at issue is the very survival of the city or of any huge city. Others contend that the city. [britannica.com]

Peter F. Trent

938 Febuary 23 issues of Amalgamation with Westmount Mayor Peter F. Trent on Quebec's nefarious Down-loading & mega-city debate Yvette Biondi "One Island One City" ..Healthcare and Clarity Bill ..David Casgrain 'heritage' Victoria Avenue home by Wayne Larsen

Lucienne Robillard
10 Nov 1999 Wed923LR asked that we examine: debt targets, Tax relief / reform, Social infrastructure, Internet & new tech., Productivity?, 30$ our debt owned by foreigners, .. education = we cannot compete, 7.2% unemployment not acceptable, Poverty, jobs, SOLUTIONS:, Air Canada/ONEX/Canadian, John Ciaccia, Jacques Clément, Prof Tony Deutsch, Julius Grey, Simon Potter, Guy Stanley, Robin Wohnsigl

STEPHEN JARISLOWSKY
The worm has turned. Reality, to the extent that stock-market emotions permit, has briefly returned.
The high-tech bubble is gradually coming apart. First, it was the demise of the dot-coms - San Francisco entrepreneurs are joining the ranks of the unemployed. Next to fall was the computer industry, and now, it is extending more and more to the whole sector..