Unfair Taxes Charged to Demerging Municipalities by Agglomeration Council

Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec
Nathalie Normandeau, Minister of Municipal Affairs
Lawrence Bergman, MNA for DArcy McGee
Russell Copeman, MNA for Notre-Dame-de-Grвce
Philippe Couillard, MNA for Mont-Royal
Jacques Chagnon, MNA for Westmount-Saint-Louis
Raymond Bachand, MNA for Outremont
Yolande James, MNA for Nelligan
Pierre Marsan, MNA for Robert-Baldwin
Jacques Dupuis, MNA for Saint-Laurent
Monique Jerфme-Forget, MNA for Marguerite Burgeoys
Tony Tomassi, MNA for Lafontaine
Lise Thйriault, MNA for Anjou
Line Beauchamp, MNA for Bourassa-Sauvй
Michиle Lamquin-Ethier, MNA for Crйmazie
Geoffrey Kelley, MNA for Jacques Cartier

We, the undersigned, as your constituents living in one of the demerged Municipalities on the Island of Montreal, demand that your government review the Agglomeration Councils 2006 budget. Specifically, we demand that you:

1) Decrease the Agglomeration Councils budget, and accordingly the tax rate, to reflect costs, which by your own decree, were shifted from the Agglomeration Council down to the individual Municipalities. (E.g. Cost of contributions to the Montreal Metropolitan Community, Cost of distribution of water) Without this adjustment, the demerging Municipalities are being taxed twice for the same expense once in their local taxes and once in the Agglomeration taxes.

2) Review the administrative costs passed by the City of Montreal onto the Agglomeration Council. The Agglomeration Council should only be paying for the incremental cost incurred by the City of Montreal as a result of the Agglomeration Council, and not a portion of the entire costs of running the City of Montreal.

3) Put in place controls over the Agglomeration Council to ensure that financial decisions are taken in a fair process, given that Mayor Tremblays administration cannot be trusted to do this on his own. An independent body/auditor should be asked to review the financial records on an annual basis to ensure the rules are being respected.