Montréal, February 25, 2025 – The Association of Suburban Municipalities (ASM/AMB) announces that the fifteen cities it represents, and which are related to the Montréal Agglomeration, have initiated legal proceedings against the City of Montréal, before the Commission municipale du Québec and the Superior Court of Québec.
These legal proceedings are aimed at challenging the $20 million loan by-law adopted on January 23, 2025, by the Montréal Agglomeration to finance the acquisition of land for the City of Montréal’s Namur-Hippodrome neighbourhood project. This loan, which was adopted by the only majority of votes held by the City of Montréal, and without any precise breakdown of costs or clear justification for the exact use of funds, represents an unjustified additional financial burden for the related cities and their taxpayers. This lack of information prevents any attempt to define and understand the true purpose of the by-law, and all related ASM municipalities denounce this breach of transparency and sound financial management principles.
Through these legal actions, the related municipalities are not only demanding the immediate cancellation of the loan by-law, but are also calling for more transparent and equitable governance in the management of the Montréal Agglomeration's public finances. The latter continue to call for a review of the Agglomeration's current governance rules, to ensure a more balanced representation of related municipalities in the financial decisions that directly affect them.
The ASM/AMB mayors state that “in view of the lack of transparency and the repeated, significant and unjustified increases in the tax burden for their taxpayers, the related cities have filed motions before the Commission municipale du Québec and the Superior Court of Québec to have this loan by-law invalidated. The objection is based in particular on the fact that the regulation does not comply with the legal requirements of clarity and justification of expenditure.”
The ASM/AMB stresses that these legal proceedings once again highlight the shortcomings of the decision-making process within the Agglomeration Council, where the City of Montréal holds an overwhelming majority enabling it to impose its financial decisions on the related municipalities, regardless of their unanimous opposition. This democratic imbalance deprives the municipalities concerned of any real decision-making power, even though they have to bear a significant share of the costs imposed.
About the Association of Suburban Municipalities
The Association of Suburban Municipalities (ASM/AMB) includes a total population of some 250 000 citizens and represents the fifteen cities linked to the Greater Montréal area, each of which has its own voice and is autonomous in its municipal management.
These municipalities, and their mayors, are Baie-d'Urfé (Heidi Ektvedt), Beaconsfield (Georges Bourelle), Côte-Saint-Luc (Mitchell Brownstein), Dollard-des-Ormeaux (Alex Bottausci), Dorval (Marc Doret), Dorval Island (Gisèle Chapleau), Hampstead (Jeremy Levi), Kirkland (Michel Gibson), Montreal East (Anne St-Laurent), Montreal West (Beny Masella), Mount Royal (Peter Malouf), Pointe-Claire (Tim Thomas), Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue (Paola Hawa), Senneville (Julie Brisebois), and Westmount (Christina Smith).
Source: Association of Suburban Municipalities (ASM/AMB)