Bill 170

Since January 2002, under bill 170, there has been a merger of all the municipalities on the Island of Montreal, becoming the new city of Montreal with its boroughs.  Exceptionnally, Glenmount, which used to belong to Côte-des-Neiges in the former city of Montreal, has been merged to the borough of Mount Royal, responding to the will of the citizens.

Pros for Glenmount...

Even if many services have still not been harmonized (snow removal, parking, etc.), for different reasons, including the unfinished blue collar union agreement, it has allowed citizens of Glenmount to obtain many services that were difficult to access.  Until then, certain community services, such has the municipal swimming pool or the library, were allowed, sometimes with restrictions, to citizens of Glenmount, thanks to administrative agreements between the city of Montreal and the town of Mount Royal.  These agreements had indeed been negociated by the former members of the Glenmount Community Association.  With the merger, the citizens can not only have an unrestricted access to these services, but also, can walk to the TMR city hall to settle various city problems, and have seen the harmonization of other services, such as garbage removal and recycling.  For the reasons mentionned above, there is still a lot to do.  Indeed, TMR city hall regularly asked Glenmount citizens to go to the Côte-des-Neiges/Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough for services not yet offered from the former.

Bill 9 (demerger)

With bill 9, the demerger bill, it is now possible, for former municipalities, to regain their legal status.  It is of interest though that the administration of these former cities will be quite different as it used to be before 2002.

Many TMR citizens are working very hard to get their old TMR demerged.  To be able to regain their old legal city, 1391 of them need to sign a registry, from May 16th to 20th 2004, which would allow them to vote, in June of 2004, for the possible demerger.  For the demerger to happen, at least 35% of the population of the former TMR must be in agreement.

A hole in democracy for Glenmount

Since bill 9, Glenmount has lost a good deal of democracy.  First, the borough mayor, Mme Suzanne Caron, has left the political party of mayor Gérald Tremblay, to become independant.  Both counsellors, Mr Cliff Carrie and Mr Nicholas Stephens, have followed her.  Since then, the three of them have openly and actively been supporting the demerger of the former TMR.  It has been a major problem for the citizens of Glenmount, since they have been therefore showing much less interest into our area.

There is now a major problem as the citizens of Glenmount now only have admnistrative representants who have no real interest in our area.

Can we vote?

As bill 9 and TMR are concerned, a question is often asked by the citizens of Glenmont:  "Can we vote?".  The answer is "no".  Bill 9 allows the population of Glenmount to vote in the Montreal area to know if they want to demerge the former city of Montreal from the new big city.  Of course, there is no reason for us to ask for it.

Sadly, citizens from Glenmont cannot vote with their former TMR neigbours for the demerger of the former town of Mount Royal.

What would happen with Glenmount...

If the demerger of TMR happens, it is obvious that Glenmount will go back with the Côte-des-Neiges/NDG borough.  It would be done without the former administrative agreements on community services, unless renegociated.

We will therefore have to fight hard if the demerger happens and if we want to be granted the services that we deserve.