Merger and Demerger
The concept of having one municipal government for the island of Montreal was first proposed by Jean Drapeau in the 1960s. The idea was strongly opposed in many suburbs, although Rivière-des-Prairies, Saraguay (Saraguay) and Ville Saint Michel, now the Saint-Michel neighbourhood) were annexed to Montreal between 1963 and 1968. Pointe-aux-Trembles was annexed in 1982.
In 2001, the provincial government announced a plan to merge major cities with their suburbs. As of January 1, 2002, the entire Island of Montreal, home to 1.8 million people, as well as the several outlying islands that were also part of the Montreal Urban Community, were merged into a new "megacity". Some 27 suburbs as well as the former city were folded into several boroughs, named after their former cities or (in the case of parts of the former Montreal) districts.
During the 2003 provincial elections, the winning Liberal Party had promised to submit the mergers to referendums. On June 20, 2004, a number of the former cities voted to demerge from Montreal and regain their municipal status, although not with all the powers they once had. The following voted to demerge: Baie-d'Urfé, Beaconsfield, Côte Saint-Luc, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Dorval, the uninhabited L'Île-Dorval, Hampstead, Kirkland, Montréal-Est, Montreal West, Mount Royal, Pointe-Claire, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Senneville, and Westmount. The demergers were effective on January 1, 2006.
Anjou, LaSalle, L'Île-Bizard, Pierrefonds, Roxboro, Sainte-Geneviève, and Saint-Laurent had majority votes in favour of demerger, but their turnout of voters was insufficient to meet the requirements for the decision, so those former municipalities will remain part of Montreal. No referendum was held in Lachine, Montréal-Nord, Outremont, Saint Leonard, or Verdun - nor in any of the boroughs that were part of the former city of Montreal.
the Island of Montreal now has 16 municipalities (the city of Montreal proper plus 15 independent municipalities). The post-demerger city of Montreal (divided into 19 boroughs) has a territory of 366.02 km2 (141.32 sq mi) and a population of 1,583,590 inhabitants (based on 2001 census figures). Compared with the pre-merger city of Montreal, this is a net increase of 96.8% in land area, and 52.3% in population.
The city of Montreal has nearly as many inhabitants as the former unified city of Montreal (the recreated suburban municipalities are less densely populated than the core city), but population growth is expected to be slower for some time. Analysts note that the overwhelming majority of industrial sites are located in the territory of the post-demerger city of Montreal. The current city of Montreal is about half the size of the post-1998 merger city of Toronto (both in terms of land area and population).
The 15 recreated suburban municipalities have fewer government powers than they did before the merger. A joint board covering the entire Island of Montreal, in which the city of Montreal has the upper hand, retains many powers.
Despite the demerger referendums held in 2004, controversy continues as some politicians note the cost of demerging. Several studies show that the recreated municipalities will incur substantial financial costs, which will require them to increase taxes (an unanticipated result for the generally wealthier English-speaking municipalities that had voted for demerger). Proponents of the demergers contest the results of such studies. They note that reports from other merged municipalities across the country that show that, contrary to their primary raison d'être, the fiscal and societal costs of mega-municipalities far exceed any projected benefit.
Read more about this topic: History Of Montreal