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We have our answer!

The City of Montreal will look a bit different on January 1, 2006. On June 20, we learned that 15 of the 28 municipalities that had merged into 27 boroughs will regain their former status in a little less than 15 months. But it will be the Agglomeration Council, on which the city of Montreal will hold the majority of votes, that will control the real levers of Montreal’s development.The reconstituted municipalities, on the other hand, will have much more limited powers. Even with these demergers, Montreal’s demographic weight will remain significant, accounting for almost 90% of the existing city’s population.

One of the almost immediate consequences of the referendums was the resignation of Robert Libman and Peter Yeomans, members of Montreal’s executive committee, who were elected in municipalities that chose to demerge. To replace them, Gérald Tremblay, mayor of Montreal, recently reshuffled his executive committee, calling upon Stéphane Harbour, councillor for Outremont, to look after territorial development, urban planning, and architecture and giving Georges Bossé the added responsibility of public security. The city council still has three regular meetings scheduled before the end of the year: October 25, November 22, and December 13. The budget presentation by Mr. Frank Zampino will likely be the main focus of discussions until 2005.

Health-care and equalization on the agenda
The agreement signed between the provincial and federal governments after midnight on September 15 eliminates one uncertainty. This agreement will give the premiers of the provinces and territories additional revenues to spend on health care. Over a six-year period, the federal government has agreed to inject an additional $18 billion into the country’s health-care system. Moreover, Quebec obtained special status within this “asymmetrical” agreement. Unlike the other provinces, Quebec has not agreed to meet any condition set by the federal government to obtain these new health-care funds. The other provinces and territories, on the other hand, must establish reasonable waiting times for their patients to receive needed health care by December 2005. On Quebec’s political scene, there’s a good chance this question will still be on the minds of parliamentarians when the National Assembly resumes sitting on October 19.

We also know that Prime Minister Paul Martin has called another First Ministers meeting for October 26, 2004, to discuss “equalization, Territorial Formula Financing (TFF), and other financial pressures facing provinces and territories.” Since the question of fiscal imbalance will likely be raised at this meeting, we will be monitoring it with interest.

Future alliances!
More specifically, on the federal scene, the throne speech to be read by Adrienne Clarkson, governor general of Canada, on Tuesday, October 5, will herald the opening of a very different kind of parliament. On June 28, for the tenth time in history, Canadians elected a minority government, and Prime Minister Martin will no doubt be forced to compromise with the opposition parties to gain support for his policies. One of Mr. Martin’s new cabinet ministers, Environment Minister Stéphane Dion, will visit the Board of Trade on October 14 to deliver his speech titled “The environment and the economy: A partnership for the future." Details on the Board of Trade’s Web site.