Municipal mergers, as well as the sharing of employees and services between municipalities, are an underlying trend, confirms the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest.
Municipal mergers and intermunicipal cooperation work, “it’s certain that it’s more and more popular, we see it,” said Minister Laforest at a press scrum in Quebec on Tuesday.
“Just in the work of intermunicipal cooperation, we have 329 municipal projects – either they share the general director, or they share common services. So it’s definitely becoming more and more popular. »
As for mergers, seven to eight projects are already on the drawing board in Quebec, mentions the minister.
“It’s certain that it comes from the community, but we still see that there is a trend currently, either to regroup or to share services. »
A new wind of mergers is blowing across Quebec, with at least twenty towns and villages interested in such a scenario, reported The Press Tuesday.
Sharing services or employees is also increasingly common. The labor shortage, as well as limited resources in the face of the growing responsibilities of municipalities, are often at the origin of these movements.
Three groups of municipalities have already submitted their merger request in Quebec, and four others have obtained government funding to carry out preliminary studies, indicate data provided by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MAMH).
The village of Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies, in the Chaudière-Appalaches region, is even studying two merger projects simultaneously.
Financing from Quebec
The Legault government financially supports this trend.
“It has to be a request from the municipalities, on the other hand, we have programs, we have amounts,” underlined Minister Laforest.
A sum of $20.1 million over five years was allocated to the Municipal Regrouping Financial Assistance Program (PAFREM) in the last budget. Some $30 million is also available for resource sharing, the minister said.
with Tommy Chouinard, The Press