Montreal: the quest for a metropolis.

GERMAIN, ANNICK and DAMARIS ROSE. Montreal: the Quest for a Metropolis. Chichester, England: John Wiley and Sons, 2000. Pp. 306.

Quebec's major cities are undergoing a sea change in the nature of their organization, finance, administration, system of representation, politics, and long-term planning. Bill 170, passed over significant public opposition in many of the affected municipalities, has formally established the framework for municipal mergers leading to the creation of a new mega-city of Montreal (also Quebec City, Hull-Gatineau, Longueuil and Levis, with the other three census metropolitan areas [CMA's] Chicoutimi-Jonquiere, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivieres to follow). The publicly-stated goals are to increase administrative efficiency and effectiveness, provide a better balance between the supply and demand for local government services, assure greater equity in the distribution of costs and benefits, all while maintaining the principles of democratic decentralization and local control.

The willingness of the PQ government to weather the political firestorm organized by suburban mayors leads us from text to subtext. With considerable opposition being expressed by the public to municipal consolidation and greater confidence in municipal than provincial politicians by the public, why has the Minister gone out on a limb to advance her reform and reorganization program? So doing probably cost the separatist Bloc Quebecois several seats in the last Canadian parliamentary elections.

Montreal as the most important population center and the motor of Quebec's economy is at the heart of the controversy. Some groups argue that the "One Island, One City" movement led by Mayor Bourque is but a facade to make the potential partition of Montreal and Quebec in the event of a "successful" independence referendum an impossibility. The mayoral and council races for the new "greater Montreal" are already heating up, even before all the details of the new municipality and the mergers have been worked out. The many failures, financial and service-wise of the Toronto mega-city and the arguments of scholars who find few if any cost savings in consolidation have largely been ignored.

With all of the changes to take place, the plethora of reports and propositions, and often conflicting data ...