The Association of Suburban Municipalities will not participate in the study of Montreal's 2013 budget

MONTREAL, Nov. 1, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - Every year, two mayors from ASM cities review the budget of the Agglomeration of Montreal and make recommendations as members of Montreal's Finance and Administration Commission. The ASM mayors are not involved in any way with the preparation of the budget and are only provided with a copy of the draft budget a day or two prior to the start the budget review by the Commission. Since the Agglomeration of Montreal was created, virtually none of the mayors' recommendations has been heeded. The ASM no longer wishes to participate in this charade, nor lend credence to a process that inevitably rubber-stamps a budget controlled from beginning to end by the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal.

Given the current issues related to the City of Montreal that have overshadowed the budget and are preoccupying Montreal's senior elected officials, there is little likelihood of getting immediate assistance from Quebec on addressing the problem of spiralling municipal employee pension fund cost increases that have driven up spending by some $400 million since 2008. This matter has been an ASM preoccupation since 2010.

Before financing charges, the proposed spending of the City of Montreal in 2013 will have increased by 10.7% since 2011, well over double the rate of inflation. The amounts charged to the ASM cities by the Agglomeration Council will have increased by 25.5% since 2009, almost 3 times the rate of inflation.

The ASM, however, does wish to thank the Treasurer of the City of Montreal for his openness and professionalism during what must be an extremely difficult time for both him and those civil servants who worked on the budget.

In sum, the ASM mayors refuse to lend their names to the current budgetary exercise. Moreover, we cannot accept the budget  for a number of additional reasons: it still doesn't touch on two major issues that the ASM has been attempting to resolve with Montreal since 2008, these being costs related to the supply of water and amounts charged to suburban city taxpayers for 'centre city' improvements.

For all these reasons, the ASM representatives on the Commission will not participate in the upcoming 2013 Agglomeration budget review scheduled to begin on November 1^st.

SOURCE: ASSOCIATION OF SUBURBAN MUNICIPALITIES

Peter F. Trent, Mayor of the City of Westmount
Vice-chair, Finance and Administration Commission
514-989-5240

Robert Coutu, Mayor of the City of Montréal-Est
Member, Finance and Administration Commission
514-476-6209