Harel mum on agglo structure

Opposition party Vision Montreal mayoral candidate Louise Harel was vague on her plans for the island's agglomeration council and demerged municipalities' main two issues with it during an interview, acknowledging double taxation on water is somewhat unjust but insisting that taxes toward downtown infrastructure for suburbs should remain.

"I think that in demerged cities, there are a lot of people who work in Montreal, who use Montreal's infrastructures, and also, for example, festival infrastructures in the summer," Harel said, adding it is only fair that taxes are paid by those who live so close to their work places.

Still, though she seemed more willing to concede it is unfair to charge Montreal municipal water taxes to cities that get their potable water elsewhere, she did not present a clear solution. "I think this matter is before the courts right now," she said. When told that was not the case, she added she hopes it is solved quickly.

"I know that this is an important issue, but I can't come up with a solution to it today, right now," she said.

Last June, reconstituted towns and Montreal signed an agreement over Bill 22, a sweeping piece of provincial legislation that revised division of powers among them. Though Gérald Tremblay's administration called it "historic," many demerged town mayors pointed to double water taxation and downtown taxes as outstanding bones of contention.

"I do intend to revise these questions of how the agglomeration council functions," Harel said, adding she will be ready to announce the party's official position on governance in September.

Harel, who took over as mayoral candidate for Vision Montreal from Benoît Labonté two weeks ago, has strong ties to the agglomeration council's history.

She was municipal affairs minister under the Parti Québécois government that oversaw the forced municipal mergers of all municipalities to Montreal in 2001, when Mayor Pierre Bourque was in charge, at the helm of the same party she runs for.

The mayoral hopeful is determined not to dredge up the past. "I do not want to return to 'one Island, one city,' " she said.

She was a little more confrontational over the island's 19 city boroughs.

"Right now, we have 19 cities within a city," she said. "If I was mayor, I would take away the power of taxation from boroughs," she added.

Originally, the boroughs of Montreal did not elect a borough mayor, Harel recalled as well, but she fell short of stating she would take universal suffrage in boroughs away.

According to her, decentralization has led to unequal services among different boroughs. "Take one example, snow removal," she said, stating a single street that crosses two boroughs may have 15 centimetres of snow on one side, and five on the other during the winter.

"Citizens tell me they have the same taxation but not the same level of service," she said.

However, her suggestions were brushed off by Burt Ward, a councillor for the Pierrefonds/Roxboro borough.

"Montreal One and (post-demerger) Montreal Three are two different entities," Ward, a member of Tremblay's Union Montreal party, said, adding it is simply too difficult to run a city with 19 boroughs efficiently with centralized services.

Ward added he has seen what service centralization does, forcing some boroughs to go through Montreal for even minor changes such as changing or installing a traffic light or stop sign." In Pierrefonds, we can have our traffic committee convene an emergency meeting on that basis within a week," he said.

Besides Ile Bizard/Ste. Geneviève, Pierrefonds/Roxboro is the only area in the West Island where Harel will be seeking votes.

She may have her work cut out for her if voters there decide her sovereignist past and francophone status are a hindrance.

"I'm ready to work," she said, to reconcile with anglophones. "I am not unilingual," she said, adding her husband is originally an immigrant and she speaks English with her Arabic-speaking and anglophone family-in-law, though her interview with The Chronicle was conducted in French.

In Robert Baldwin, the provincial riding which covers most of Pierrefonds/Roxboro, the Parti Québécois had a poor showing in the last provincial elections, garnering only 7.61 per cent of the vote to finish in second place. As for Nelligan, which covers Ile Bizard/Ste. Geneviève as well as a small part of Pierrefonds, the separatist vote was slightly higher, with 14.5 per cent of the popular vote, and in second place once more.

John Abbott College political science professor James Leeke does not expect the elections to be carved out along linguistic and federalist/separatist lines. "I think people will make the difference between municipal and provincial politics in that sense," he said.

However, he also admit it might not be easy for Harel to leave her PQ baggage behind to a certain sector of voters. "Montrealers who define themselves as anglophones and federalists will find it hard to support Harel," he said.

According to Statistics Canada's 2006 census, Pierrefonds' anglophone population narrowly edges out its francophone one by about 5,000 residents, with

about 26, 500 of its population of around 58, 400 identifying English as their mother tongue. These numbers do not include Roxboro.

In Ile Bizard, the opposite is true, with almost 9,000 of its population of 14,000 being francophone. Ste. Geneviève is not included in these numbers.

Harel did not deny her PQ roots. "My convictions remain," she said, "but I'm Montreal before being PQ." Quebec's independence would not be dealt with municipally, she said. "We won't be deciding on Quebec's future at town hall."

Nevertheless, Leeke said he would not be surprised to see Harel, if elected, trying to push through the PQ's old plan for a merged Montreal if that party came to power during provincial elections. "I think it's pretty clear she is unhappy with the idea that some cities are a part of Montreal, and you have these former boroughs that became independent," he said.

Last week, Ste. Anne de Bellevue Mayor Bill Tierney told The Chronicle the prospect of a Harel mayoralty is of no great concern.

"It's going to be an interesting election," he said, but added Harel would not be able to push through any merger agendas as long as a provincial Liberal government was in power.

Chronicle, file photo