More than 80 per cent of Montreal's police and firefighters don't live in the city according to figures released yesterday by Richard Bergéron, head of the opposition municipal party Projet Montréal. The figure drops among other employees but more than 40 per cent of all city employees live elsewhere.
The most striking example comes from the bedroom community of Repentigny, north east of the city: 292 Montreal police officers live there, while that municipality itself has a police force of only 105 officers.
Bergéron's party got the figures through an access to information request. He's quick to say that he doesn't want to criticize the employees themselves, but he does want to question why the city gives free parking and car allowances to some employees. Providing free bus passes would be a better measure, as well as cheaper, he said.
City officials as well as spokepersons for the unions of workers involved questioned Bergéron's estimates of how much money would be saved, although none challenged the figures on out-of-city-residence.
But no one tackled two thorny questions which are linked to the choices people make when deciding where to live. Houses are cheaper to buy (although not necessarily cheaper to live in) in the suburbs, and many city workers simply can't qualify for financing to buy a house or a condo in the city. Part of the solution to this problem is related to making affordable housing available in the city, and making sure that the people who work for the city earn decent money.
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