Québécois municipal reorganizations

The term Québécois municipal Réorganisations refers to a set of measures legislative and of popular consultation of the government of Quebec, started in 2000 and concluded in 2006, and being unrolled in two distinct phases:

on the initiative of the government of Lucien Bouchard, then of that of Bernard Landry, adoption of a law aiming at gathering with their city-center several tens of Québécois municipalities. This legislation raises a strong opposition;
then, with the come to power of Jean Charest, introduction of a process chief clerk for if required reconstituting some of the disappeared municipalities.

The majority of work were led under the minister Louise Harel. In 2007, she declared that one of the prinipaux objectives of fusions was to solve the Housing shortage, which persists in spite of the reforms. The journalist Yves Boisvert then addressed an acknowledgment of failure of the operations by affirming that the opponents with the project had good sense.

Municipal fusions of 2002

During the year the 2001 government of the Quebec, directed by Lucien Bouchard then Bernard Landry, decided to accelerate the movement of regrouping of municipalities undertaken during the years 1990. The principal goal of this reorganization was to attach the suburbs of the big cities to those. More than two hundred municipalities disappeared from the kind on January 1st, 2002, in spite of the opposition of certain groups of citizens coming from suburbs.

Creation of the new town of Quebec (Capital-Main road) by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the towns of Holy-Foy, Beauport, Charlesbourg, Sillery, Loretteville, Valley-Bélair, Cape-Red, Saint-Augustin-with-Desmaures (*), Old-Lorette the (*), Saint-Emile, Basket maker and Lake-Saint-Charles.

Creation of the new town of Montreal by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the towns of Anjou, of Bay-With Urfé (*), of Beaconsfield (*), of Dollard-Of Ormeaux (*), of Hampstead (*), of Kirkland (*), of the Island-Dorval (*), of Lachine, LaSalle, Mount-Royal (*), of Montreal-Is (*), of Montreal-North, Montreal-West (*), of Outremont, of Pierrefonds, Point-Claire (*), of Roxboro, the St. Lawrence, Saint-Léonard, Holy-Anne-with-Bellevue (*), of Holy-Genevieve, Verdun and Westmount (*), of the old cities of Coast-Saint-Luc (*) and of Dorval (*), of the old village of Senneville (*) and of the old parish of Saint-Raphaël-in-the Island-Bizard.

Creation of the new town of Longueuil by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the towns of Boucherville (*), of Brossard (*), of Greenfield Park, LeMoyne, Saint-Bruno (*), of Saint-Hubert and Saint-Lambert (*).

Creation of the new town of Gatineau by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the towns of Aylmer, Buckingham, Hull and Masson-Angers (**).

Creation of the new town of Lévis by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the towns of Charny, Saint-Jean-Chrysostome, Saint Nicolas's Day, Saint-Redeemer and Saint-Romuald, the municipalities of Pintendre and Saint-Etienne-with-Lauzon and of the parishes of Holy-Helene-with-Breakeyville and Saint-Joseph-of-the-Point-of-Levy.

Creation of the new town of Saguenay by the fusion of the towns of Chicoutimi, Jonquière, the Bay, and Laterrière, the municipalities of Shipshaw and Lake-Kénogami and part of the canton of Tremblay.

Creation of the new town of Shawinigan by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the towns of Grandmother and Shawinigan-South, of the municipality of Lake-with-the-Tortoise, the village of Saint-Georges, the parishes of Saint-Gerard-of-Laurentides the and Saint-Jean-of-Piles and of the not organized territories of Lake-of-Five the and Lake-Wapizagonke.

Creation of the new town of Rimouski by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the town of Point-with-Father, of the municipality of Mount-Lebel, the village of Rimouski-Is and of the parishes of Holy-Blandine and Holy-Odile-on-Rimouski.

Creation of the new town of Rouyn-Noranda by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the town of Cadillac, the municipalities of Arntfield, Bellecombe, Cléricy, Nailsmith, D' Alembert, Destor, Évain, McWatters, Mount-Brown, Montbeillard and Rollet and the not organized territories of Lake-Montanier, Lake-Surimau and Rapid-of-Cedars.

Creation of the municipality of the Iles-de-la-Madeleine by the fusion of the municipalities of Fatima, Large-Entry, Currant (*), of Harbor-with-Houses, Pond-of-North and the Island-of-Harbor-Aubert and the village of Cape-with-Grinding stones.

Creation of the new town of Sherbrooke by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the towns of Bromptonville, Fleurimont, Lennoxville and Rock'n'roll Forest and the municipalities of Ascot, Deauville and Saint-Élie-with Orford.

Creation of the new town of Three-Rivers by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the towns of Cape-of-the-Madeleine, Holy-Marthe-of-Cape, Saint-Louis-of-France and Three-River-West and the municipality of Point-of-Lake.

Creation of the new town of Saint-Jerome by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the towns of Bellefeuille, Lafontaine and Saint-Anthony.

Creation of the new town of Valley-in Or by the fusion of the old city of the same name and the municipalities of Dubuisson, Sullivan, Valley-Senneville and Vassan.

Creation of the new town of Beauharnois by the fusion of the old city of the same name, the town of Maple Grove and of the village of Melocheville.

(*: These municipalities were reconstituted thereafter. See " Défusions local elections of 2006" Ci-low.)

(**: The case of the town of Masson-Angers is a particular case since the debate is always in hand and the court still did not decide a sound definitively leaves, Masson-Angers thus formed still part of the town of Gatineau, until deposit of a judgment against-code.)

Défusions local elections of 2006

Civic movement aiming the reconstitution of old municipalities amalgamated at central cities of Quebec disappeared on January 1st, 2002, following a law adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec.

Taking as a starting point what had been made with Boston with the Massachusetts and in Ontario (in particular with Ottawa and Toronto), the government of Quebec encased the step and amalgamated several tens of municipalities in order to reinforce the capacities of the great urban centres, in spite of an important coming movement of opposition elected local officials and citizens.

The official opposition of the time, directed by Jean Charest, promised to create a law making it possible to make a flashback by consulting the population by democratic way relating to the decision of the government.

The general election of the April 14th 2003 signed the defeat of the Parti Québécois and the arrival a new government resulting from the Liberal party from Quebec from Jean Charest, in particular by the vote of opposition in certain electoral constituencies where took place of municipal fusions.

Faithful to its promise, the new government adopted law 9 creating a formal process allowing the old municipalities to be reconstituted. This process required that 10% of the voters domiciled on the territory of an old amalgamated municipality sign a register asking for the behavior of a referendum. Additional clause the behavior of such a referendum, two conditions were to be filled:

That yes (with the défusion) that is to say majority.
That holding them of yes at least 35% of the whole of the registered voters represent.

The June 20th 2004, 89 referendums were held in various municipalities of Quebec. Yes carried it in several old municipalities, without the bar of the 35% of the registered voters being reached.

Consequently of these referendums, of the municipalities amalgamated in Quebec, Montreal and Longueuil recovered their independent statute (see list Ci-high), but with certain flat. Indeed, law 9 envisages generates the creation of a council of agglomeration gathering the cities previously amalgamated. Those thus must always of the accounts at the city centers, allowing the division of certain essential services.

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