Gone are the days of “forced mergers” of the Quebec government… More than twenty years later, more and more cities are taking the initiative to merge to solve two problems that didn’t exist in the past: inflation and more all things considered labor shortage.
Last autumn, the city of La Pocatière decided to fund a study on the relevance of a merger with six of its neighbors: Saint-Onésime-d’Ixworth, Saint-Pacôme, Saint-Gabriel-Lalemant, Rivière-Ouelle, Saint-Denis – De La Bouteillerie and Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière.
The idea came from the new mayor of La Pocatière, Vincent Bérubé. In early 2022, he visited his neighbors to consult with them. “The goal is to grow better together,” he summarizes. He adds that labor shortages mean that municipalities are now “competing” for the same workforce.
The proposal is surprising given that in the 1990s the city struggled to weather debate over a merger with Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, a project that was eventually rejected. But Mayor Bérubé believes the population has moved on. “It had been done emotionally for people, but now, in 2023, we’re somewhere else. »
Lac-des-Aigles, another much smaller commune in Bas-Saint-Laurent, has also taken steps to merge with its neighboring resort, Saint-Guy.
Lac-des-Aigles has 500 inhabitants; Saint-Guy, 76. For her, it’s an opportunity to grow, but also to stop doing interviews, explains the mayor of the first, Pierre Bossé.
“In five years, Saint-Guy has changed its general manager three times and its mayor three times. At street level, we always have to start over. For employees who drive trucks, there is a lot of work everywhere. And we don’t have the budget to pay them more than we do for the big runs. »
Since the road director’s retirement eight years ago, Lac-Des-Aigles have not been able to replace him permanently. “We are very small and cannot find the workers we need. »
Together, he hopes, they can offer candidates a better salary. “The idea is to integrate all resources and become a bit more efficient. With the two budgets together we save 10% [du budget]. The file is now in the hands of the municipal commission, which has until July 15 to recommend to the ministry whether the merger should go ahead or not.
wave of retirements
Small municipalities are not yet done with the struggle to recruit staff, if certain data are to be believed.
The managing directors who manage the finances of the cities are on the way to becoming a rarity, says the president of her association, Sophie Antaya.
Between 2019 and 2022, 670 of them retired, more than half of all director generals (Quebec has about 1,100 municipalities). Additionally, according to a survey by the Association of Municipal Directors of Quebec (ADMQ), 340 others plan to do the same within five years.
“It’s important,” Ms. Antaya said. Especially since the replacement deliveries are shorter. “In the past, business leaders who arrived in a community stayed until the end of their careers, which is no longer the case. »
According to the mayor of Lac-des-Aigles, this issue is crucial. “They carry everything on their shoulders, but we can’t necessarily pay them the salary they deserve,” he said. In large municipalities, the DGs have technical assistants. When there are two of us in the office, that’s nice! »
And the mayors, you?
But what about mayors? Doesn’t the merger necessarily mean that one of the spouses will lose his job?
This is not always a problem, replies the mayor of the new town of La Morandière-Rochebaucourt in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the result of a merger that came into force on January 1st.
The new community is fifty minutes by road north of Senneterre and remained small even after its unification. Almost 336 people live there.
“In the region in the past we’ve had trouble recruiting local councillors,” notes Alain Trudel, who previously ran the city of Rochebaucourt.
The other mayor, Alain Lemay, had already planned to move for personal reasons when discussions about a possible merger started. “We didn’t automatically have to ask ourselves who would become mayor,” says Mr. Trudel. “There were no obstacles. »
The merger, according to the elected official, has made it possible to “boost the sector” and improve certain services to citizens, such as road maintenance, as leadership teams are bolstered.
In his opinion, small municipalities should think about such mergers. “I encourage them to do it because if you will, there are economies of scale. And between the administration of a municipality with 200 and 400 inhabitants, these are the same problems. »
Possibility of partial merger
But when there is a trend towards consolidation, not all cities go through this process. Pohénégamook, for example, has just decided to merge its urban planning department with the neighboring town of Saint-Athanase.
“We do not hide the fact that many small communities do not have the means to pay a full-time employee for these positions,” summarizes Pohénégamook Mayor Benoît Morin. “It’s hard to find. »
In addition, the government supports municipalities that do this, he explains. “The fact of the merger enables the search for resources. »
For example, the salary of its new director of urban planning will be reimbursed 80% by the government for five years as part of an inter-municipal cooperation program of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
Even the mayor of La Pocatière does not rule out the scenario of a more partial merger, explains the mayor. However, some services are already merged with the surrounding towns, such as the fire protection services in particular with Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies.
Discussions about a possible merger are also ongoing elsewhere in Bas-Saint-Laurent, between Trois-Pistoles and Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. According to the local newspaper Info Dimanche, the lack of workers was the deciding factor there too.
Elsewhere in Quebec, two cities in the Eastern Townships — Courcelles and Saint-Évariste-de-Forsyth — have also submitted a draft filing to the Municipal Commission.
The latter last week recommended that Minister Andrée Laforest move forward. Commissioner Alain R. Roy states in a report that he believes labor shortages are “a real problem that is important for maintaining quality municipal services at a reasonable cost”.
He adds that he is also not “insensitive” to the argument that the merger “encourages better recruitment of candidates for local council offices, which benefits better and healthy local democracy”.
It is up to the minister to give the go-ahead for the merger or not by decree. In case of doubt, it can also propose changes to the proposed merger or even order a referendum to be held.