Montréal, laboratoire politique. Une métropole à l'épreuve du pouvoir d'agglomération
Résumé
Montreal as a political laboratory. A metropolis confronted with the power of the agglomeration.
Both the territory and the social and economic fabric of Montreal are extremely fragmented. Faced with this problem, at the end of the 1990s the government of Quebec annouced its intention to implement a sweeping reform of local institutions. However, it was the provincial government of Quebec that look the lead, overhayling institutions with an unexpected result : Montreal's urban area, the core of the governement's project, was paradoxically divided, and Montreal, a new city located on its central island and which integrated all be so-called "suburban" communities, was given powerful institutions allowing it to restructure municipal competencies and the services of the agglomeration. Determined overall by the rationales of the city's élites, this reform reflects a hybrid political model.
Both the territory and the social and economic fabric of Montreal are extremely fragmented. Faced with this problem, at the end of the 1990s the government of Quebec annouced its intention to implement a sweeping reform of local institutions. However, it was the provincial government of Quebec that look the lead, overhayling institutions with an unexpected result : Montreal's urban area, the core of the governement's project, was paradoxically divided, and Montreal, a new city located on its central island and which integrated all be so-called "suburban" communities, was given powerful institutions allowing it to restructure municipal competencies and the services of the agglomeration. Determined overall by the rationales of the city's élites, this reform reflects a hybrid political model.
Au terme d'une enquête sur les fusions de municipalités réalisées en 2001 à Montréal, une réflexion est engagée pour comprendre comment les grands objectifs initiaux de planification stratégique de la loi à l'échelon de la métropole se sont considérablement transformés au fil des négociations politiques. Les arbitrages conditionnés par la culture politique propre aux élus et aux leaders économiques de la ville de Montréal ont joué un rôle décisif pour que le pouvoir d'agglomération s'impose comme un rouage décisionnel à part entière dans le mécano institutionnel canadien.