Greater Longueuil | Saint-Lambert “on the edge of the abyss”, the debate on quotas relaunched

A new debate on quota shares is taking shape on the South Shore, while Saint-Lambert and its new mayor want to renegotiate the agglomeration agreement on the sharing of service costs. While in Longueuil Catherine Fournier shows little openness, other cities like Saint-Bruno are ready to follow suit. But one expert believes the current formula is here to stay.

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

“It’s simple: we no longer have the money to operate our city. We need help. It hasn’t always been the case, but now it’s us, the poor town. We no longer have a penny, we have no more money, and we have no cushion, ”fulminates Pascale Mongrain, elected in November in Saint-Lambert with 42% of the vote.

The new mayor, who says she was “forced” to impose an average tax increase of 8% on her residents this year to “continue to deliver services”, says her administration has only a very small surplus of about 7%, compared to the provincial average of 19%. “In our region, cities have an average of 26% cumulative surplus. Do you see the difference? “, she continues.

Saint-Lambert is therefore asking for a revision of the calculation of quotas in order to reverse the trend. For years, this calculation has been based on the strict “fiscal potential” of municipalities, i.e. mainly land and industrial values. M^me Mongrain proposes to renegotiate the agreement on the principle of user-pays, which makes “much more sense”. “The best example is the police or fire department. The two together, it costs us 12 million annually, when it is clear that we are not asking as much. Our city is much less visited by law enforcement agencies. It’s frustrating to pay for something you don’t benefit from, ”says the elected official. “Eight percent tax was to maintain our services. We even had to cut grants to our organizations. To maintain what we have, we had no choice. »

Threats to the “founding principles”

The new mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, closes the door to a complete renegotiation of the quotas. “The agglomeration formula was put in place to ensure the sharing of wealth. The user-payer, it would somewhat contravene this spirit, the founding principles of the agglomeration, ultimately, so there is no question for me of opening this debate, ”she decides in an interview.

“We must not forget that the level of services enjoyed by Saint-Bruno or Saint-Lambert remains much higher than in other comparable towns, such as Sainte-Julie, which does not have firefighters 24 hours a day. there are still clear advantages to starting from all that, ”retorts M^me Fournier.

However, the latter is open to making concessions, particularly on the environmental level. “On the management of residual materials, in particular, I have already indicated that we could have discussions in this direction. But there is nothing fixed. We haven’t had any debates yet, we haven’t analyzed the issue, but I’m ready to sit down on the environmental issue, ”says the 29-year-old young woman.

For the expert in metropolitan governance at the University of Montreal Jean-Philippe Meloche, the current system of quotas is quite true to itself. “I understand that for several cities, the deal is no longer good, because 50% of their taxes go without scrutiny, but at the same time, this is what they wanted the most there. 15 years, when they all voted to stay in the agglomeration. Now that you have it, pay”, he summarizes.

“It is not a mechanism that is vicious or inequitable, nor pernicious. There really isn’t any abuse. In the case of Saint-Lambert, it is true that they pay more than they receive, but at the same time they are richer. And this is true for several public services: the rich pay more than the poorest. These people are capable of taking it, ”he argues. For him, a user-pays principle would apply above all to services such as water, which could “encourage people to pay attention to their consumption”. “But for the rest, it seems to me a sterile debate,” he argues.

In Saint-Bruno, the new mayor Ludovic Grisé-Farand supports Saint-Lambert. “The method of calculation, it is not fair. There is no match between the service rendered and its funding,” he says. “That said, we understand that the confrontation of the last few years has yielded nothing, concludes the 30-year-old young man. When there is a squabble, everyone fights. There, we need to talk. »