Montreal opposition Projet Montreal is arguing that Mayor Denis Coderre's borough finance reform - announced in July - is designed to punish areas that didn't vote for his party. 

Under Coderre's plan, four boroughs in the core of the city will lose nearly $30 million, as Outremont, Plateau Mont Royal, South West and Ville Marie boroughs see budgets slashed.

Meanwhile, the less central boroughs of Ahuntsic Cartierville, Montreal North, Pierrefonds Roxboro and RDP Pointe aux Trembles will see a budget increase totaling roughly $16 million. LaSalle will also see its budget grow by about $9.5 million.

Coderre said the goal of refinancing the boroughs is to create equity for all Montrealers, no matter where they live.

"At the end of the day if you look at it, you have nine who have more and 10 who have less, but even in the nine who have more you have Rosemont. Am I playing small politics with Francois Croteau?" said Coderre.

Rosemont is a borough controlled by Projet Montreal, with Croteau as borough mayor.

Projet Montreal leader Richard Bergeron says he has spent some time analyzing the numbers and now, he's even more upset with the plan.

"I noticed a month and a half ago, the day after this report was published, July 8, I noticed at that time that the four boroughs that constitute the core of the city saw their budgets cut by $30 million, so the city core will have $30 million less, while the periphery will have $16 million more," he said.

"We made the parallel between these numbers and the results of the last elections and we realize that half of the elected people from Coderre were elected in those four boroughs. In the city core, which is paying so much for this reform, those four boroughs elected 16 candidates from Projet Montreal and nobody from the Coderre party. That's small politics, to make people who vote against me to force them to pay and for those who voted for me will be rewarded," said Bergeron at a press conference Monday.

Bergeron said that it is planning a publicity campaign to bring more attention to the borough funding issue.