Mayors across Quebec have gained a lot more power over city and town employees, much to the dismay of unions.
The new powers given to cities and towns include the ability to impose working conditions and salaries on city workers, without resorting to binding arbitration.
“A lot of work had been put in in recent months to negotiate this agreement,” said Premier Philippe Couillard, who was joined by mayors Denis Coderre and Regis Labeaume, along with the heads of the Federation of Quebec Municipalities and the Union of Quebec Municipalities for the official transfer of power.
The plan has been in discussion for months and in recent weeks the groups that represent small towns and large cities in Quebec voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal.
There is a catch: the province is reducing the amount of tax money it gives to cities and towns, and will now give them $3.2 billion over the next four years, which is about $1 billion less than they received historically.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said his city could work with less money as long as it had more control.
"I think that the principle today of the protocol that we're signing today is that we have a government who respect us as a level of government ourselves," said Coderre.
He added that cities will no longer be at the mercy of binding arbitration if contract negotiations stall.
"[They] understand that what's going on on our territory regarding our employees, that we will have better tools to have a better balance in the way that we're managing our taxpayer money. That's the bottom line,” he said, adding, “When you have a budget of $5 billion and out of it about 53 per cent is based on salaries, any decision regarding that has a major impact on everybody.”
CAQ leader Francois Legault said the deal doesn’t add up, adding that the decrease in transfer payments will take a toll, even if cities have more control over workers' salaries.
“These municipalities will have no choice but to increase taxes, so I'm nervous to see tax increases in the next year,” said Legault.
Unionized workers throughout Quebec did not like the idea of transferring power to cities, and crashed a meeting last week where mayors were discussing the provincial government's proposal.
They are accusing the government of giving municipalities an unfair advantage in negotiations and are promising that they won't give in without a fight.
Last year the provincial government passed legislation overhauling the funding of pension plans throughout Quebec, and ordered cities and employees to come to new terms that saw employees paying more for their retirement.
