Come Apart
In 2000, the provincial government of Quebec forcibly joined some tens of cities (I think the number is ~30) near Montreal into a single mega-city. The purpose of this move is, as it is when it happens in the us, to enlarge the tax base of the central city, which provides a lot of centralized services to the municipalities. A drive downtown tells you that this is a good idea -- the roads are potholled like you wouldn't believe. Wouldn't believe. Would not believe.

What else is there? Water and electricity are provincial monopolies, so that's out. Same with education -- and, unlike in the US, the schools here are apparently uniformly outstanding; it's an irrelevancy when looking for a place to live. Fire services and police services -- those are two things which must be paid for by each city (and which they grudged offering each other), and which was centralized under the forced merger.

Well, now there are ~23 cities which are in the process of voting themselves back into cities. See, unlike in California, where once the city has been merged, it has to vote itself into de-merging, here, the individual cities can vote themselves as demerged. That way, they can each get their own little tax base, have their own mayor and elections, run fire houses and police departments.

The city is coming apart.
- posted by Unknown @ 6/15/2004 05:09:00 AM