Published by the Students' Society of McGill University
www.mcgilltribune.com
Volume 27 Issue 14 • December 4, 2007
Montreal deep in debt Winter wonderland City dips below national average on camous and T.V. K ristin M aich
A recent Winnipeg study has named Mon treal the most indebted major Canadian city, with debts over three times higher than the national average for Canadian cities. The study, entitled "Local Government Performance Index: A Financial Analysis of 30 Canadian Cities," was released last Monday by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Former Mayor of Westmount Peter Trent agreed that Montreal was "very seriously in debt.” "Montreal has traditionally been a basketcase, financially," he said. "It still is. [Mayor of Mon treal Gérald] Tremblay is doing nothing about these debt problems." Citing Thejaty's policies on subsidies and new residential developments as examples of poor policy, Montreal's interim Director of Fi nances Jacques Marleau blamed past manage ment mistakes for the present debt situation. "It's a well-known fact that, generally speak ing, cities from Quebec have a higher debt bur den than [other] cities in Canada," he said. "It is quite difficult to compare cities across Canada. You can have discrepancies in accounting and also in the way cities are, and have been, man aged. But the authors themselves noticed that
there are a lot of limitations to the way they have done the study." Trent asserted that Montreal has had a "his tory of poor asset management for years." "Montreal is generally very poorly run," he said. "We've got a problem [with] the political class in Montreal. [It's] fairly low calibre, [with] in experienced mayors with no management skills running the city." Yet Montreal has a relatively good credit rating of AA2 by Moody's Investors Services, a group that rates bonds in descending alphabeti cal order from A to C, from highest to lowest. AA2 is two steps below the highest rating possible. Marleau pointed to the discrepancy between the Frontier Centre's findings and the city's good credit standing. "I think that the conclusion they have reached— [the city's debt] cannot be that figure; we wouldn't have such a good [credit] rating if it was,"Marleau said. Trent explained that such a system, which he had implemented when he ran Westmount, meant that the costs of new projects would be reflected in increased taxation. Montreal, on the other hand, goes out to borrow for"simple" proj ects like street repairs.
See POLICY on page 4
NDP calls for change Tuition re-freeze at crux of talk T homas Q uail Following closely behind debate surround ing provincial education this month, New Demo crat MP Denis Savoie from Victoria gave an infor mal talk this past Thursday at Gert's on the NDP's stance regarding the current and future state of post-secondary education in Canada. Savoie, the NDP's post-secondary education critic, called upon, the Harper government to stop hiding behind its growing surplus and make a positive impact on the lives of students in Canada. "AtThe moment, years of under-funding in post-secondary institutions is starting to catch up with the Canadian system,"Savoie said. Students' Society Vice-President External Max Silverman kicked off the afternoon speak ing about free education.
"If we get the funding back to where it was 15 years ago in Quebec, we would have the most funded and most accessible education system in Canada,"Silverman said. Although refusing to disclose details re garding free education, Savoie asserted that she thought it was both feasible and attainable. "I do think that post-secondary education is a public good," she said. "We want to ensure equitable access to people that are qualified and those who have the motivation. I don't think the debt load should be as burdensome as it is in some parts of Canada." Addressing the House on Nov. 26, Savoie questioned the moral fibre of the governing party. Her website, denisesavoie.ca, provided a
See MP on page 4
Celebrate the winter season, Christmas and capitalism with the Features section. Check out the super-special holiday pullout on page 11.
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