2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal

However, following a change of government in the 2003 Quebec election and a 2004 referendum, some of those municipalities became independent cities again on January 1, 2006.

This merger was part of a larger provincial scheme launched by the Parti Québécois all across Quebec, resulting in the merging of many municipalities.

The merged city of Montreal was divided into 27 boroughs (known in French as "arrondissements") in charge of local administration.

The city government was responsible for larger matters such as economic development or transportation issues.

One central plank of the Liberal campaign was that if elected, they would allow merged municipalities to organize referendums in order to demerge if they wished to do so.

In several areas, the referendums failed because even though a majority of those voting supported demerging, it did not meet the required threshold of 35% of registered voters.

Oddly, one of the 15 municipalities recreated, L'Île-Dorval, had no permanent inhabitants at the 2001 census, being a cottaging island.

Corporate lobbies close to the Liberal Party of Quebec stress the fact that after the demerger, the city of Montreal still has almost as many (approx.

The post-demerger city of Montreal will be slightly greater than half the size of the post-1998 merger city of Toronto, with roughly two thirds its size in terms of population reflecting higher population density in Montreal even including those 'suburban' municipalities which opted not to demerge.

miles), with 3,431,551 inhabitants living inside its borders in 2002; it is thus larger in area and population than the city of Toronto (even after its 1998 merger).

However, the city of Toronto is larger than the city of Montreal proper, and Toronto's metro area (not a legal entity) is larger than the Montreal Metropolitan Community, with 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 sq mi) and 5.8 million people.