Municipal elections are six months away, but the political landscape is heating up. Jean Doré has officially announced that he will take another kick at the mayor's can; departing Police Chief Jacques Duchesneau says he's also thinking about it. The Montreal Citizens Movement, currently the official opposition at city hall, will choose its mayoral candidate this weekend.

One has to wonder whether any of them can make a real difference. The truth is that ever since former mayor Jean Drapeau left office in 1984, the provincial government has consistently undermined Montreal's ability to manage its own affairs. Using Mayor Pierre Bourque's ineptitude as a screen, the Bouchard government has stripped city hall of every last ounce of political clout. And as long as we keep laughing at Bourque, the Bouchard government makes fools of every single Montrealer.

Who will stand up and fight the Bouchard government? And how? Montreal's next mayor will have to dig the city out of a deep hole. In an effort to assist the candidates, the Mirror has compiled a Top 10 list of the many nefarious ways Quebec City has stuck it to Montreal time and time again.

1. The pension plan secret deal-gone-wrong >> When the city needed cash around the time of Expo '67, mayor Jean Drapeau struck a secret deal: the province would allow the city a one-time-only deferral of its annual contribution to the municipal employees' pension plan to temporarily redirect that sum to infrastructure projects.

But city hall continued "deferring" its pension plan contributions. Drapeau was happy to keep the secret because he got to spend the money on other pet projects. And the province was happy too, because it meant Drapeau always owed them a favour.

According to Abe Limonchik, a former member of the Doré administration, it wasn't until halfway through Doré's tenure, around 1989, that anyone figured out what was going on. By that time, Montreal's pension tab was running in excess of $800 million and growing. "When we discovered it, we should have picked a fight over it," says Limonchik, who is now president of the MCM. By keeping the secret for all those years, he says, Montreal sank deeper into debt and was left at Quebec's mercy.

2. The real estate-only tax structure >> Back in 1979, then-PQ Finance Minister Jacques Parizeau changed the tax structure: henceforth, virtually all municipal revenue would be based on property taxes. Montreal no longer receives any revenue from sales and amusement taxes; Quebec City keeps every penny of those.

The new property tax-only system worked great from 1985 to 1989, when real estate prices skyrocketed. Then the bottom fell out of the market and it became painfully clear that Montreal was too dependent on a single source of income. Normally, property values, on which taxes are based, are reviewed every three years; lower values mean less tax revenue for the city. Afraid revenue will fall even lower, the government has already postponed re-evaluations for this year, and wants to again next year.

3. Economic development money down the drain >> This problem brings to light the other half of the real estate-only tax equation. Montreal spends $2 million every year promoting tourism. Montreal's film development corporation spends $5 million getting Hollywood to produce films here. Both industries are a boon for provincial coffers, because they result in higher sales and amusement tax revenues--but Montreal's city hall doesn't get any of that money. And neither tourism nor film really does that much to help raise real estate values.

The bottom line: Montreal spends millions on economic development, while Quebec City reaps the benefits.

4. Encouraging urban sprawl >> For most of the last 30 years, says City Councillor Marvin Rotrand, the province has focused on building highways (making it easier for people to leave the city core) and encouraging low-density suburban development. "As those areas grow, they need their own hospitals and schools," he says. "Successive governments have forced themselves into some difficult choices, and decided to let the city centre deteriorate." Rotrand points to the hospital in L'Assomption, which opened just before many of Montreal's own hospitals were shut down.

Meanwhile, those who leave for the suburbs tend to be wealthier property owners. In other words, the most coveted taxpayers are the ones who desert the metropolis first. Some neighbourhoods in Montreal continue to languish with vacancy rates above 10 per cent. While the province doesn't gain financially by encouraging urban sprawl, they do gain politically: they can easily play Montreal off against its surrounding communities.

5. Off-loading the cost of public transit, and more >> Most provinces help pay for the cost of urban public transit. But Quebec, which previously paid for 35 per cent of the MUCTC's operating expenses, decided to pull out in 1991. Montreal was left to absorb $120 million in additional costs. The MCM's Limonchik sees the transit issue as another missed opportunity from the Doré years: city hall, he says, should have picked a bigger fight over that one as well.

The off-loading continues to get worse. Quebec stuck Montreal with an additional $46 million worth of costs just last year, and more is on the way for 1998. The end result of all this debt, says Limonchik, is that Montreal can be easily held for ransom: "Because of the financial crisis caused by Quebec's off-loading, they're taking advantage of the city, the mayor, the MUC and taxpayers."

6. The Blue Bonnets Hippodrome hijinks >> City hall is now totally over the barrel: the only way to raise revenue is to sell off city property. But values are low, and Montreal is so broke they're willing to sell at less than market value. More often than not, they end up selling it to the province.

The Blue Bonnets' deal is a perfect example of Montreal's desperation: after investing more than $59 million in the Hippodrome, city hall was still prepared to sell it to the province for a mere $22 million. The final deal is still pending, but city hall will be swimming in red ink no matter what.

7. The World Trade Centre: bought for a song >> Possibly the worst of Montreal's real estate fire sales: When the World Trade Centre office complex on St-Antoine went bust shortly after it opened, city hall bailed out the developer, purchasing the complex for over $88 million.

By 1996, the development began to turn a profit. That's when city hall sold it to the provincially managed Caisse de dépot for $30 million. Total loss: $58.6 million.

8. The bridge to the casino >> City hall owns only one of Montreal's bridges: the Pont de la Concorde, stretching from the Port to Île Ste-Hélène. The problem: most people use the bridge to get to the Casino de Montréal, the province's biggest cash cow. Montreal picks up the tab for regular bridge maintenance and administration; Quebec City makes a killing.

The last time the bridge needed major repairs, Loto-Québec paid for half the repair bill--even though, as they reminded everyone at the time, they didn't have to pay a cent. Critics say Loto-Québec should foot the entire bill. "If I wanted to pick a fight with the province, I'd claim that bridge needed more repairs and would shut it down--even if it doesn't need repairs, " says one political observer. "The province would think of all the lost Casino revenue and they'd negotiate."

9. The amazing, disappearing fiscal pact >> The province knows Montreal can't make ends meet on property taxes alone. Since 1994, Quebec has promised to create a special "fiscal pact" that would give Montreal additional sources of revenue.

It's been in negotiation ever since, and will probably be in negotiation for years to come. The reason: Montreal has no clout, and the current status quo works in Quebec City's favour. Observers say Quebec's idea of a fiscal pact is to simply force city hall to sell of its real estate at gunpoint.

10. The ultimate humiliation: Quebec now decides Montreal's budget >> Last winter's city budget deliberations made one thing perfectly clear: all decisions about Montreal's annual budget are now made by Municipal Affairs Minister Rémy Trudel in Quebec City. "Rémy Trudel is now the mayor of Montreal," says Rotrand.

"I had hoped that the entire city council would have stood up and demanded that the province stay out of the budget file," says independent City Councillor Marcel Sévigny. Without purse strings to pull, he notes, what's the point of having a city council?

Rather than place all the blame on Mayor Bourque, Sévigny says this time everyone's a political eunuch. "Thérèse Daviau is leader of the opposition at city hall, and where was she on this issue? She's the one who has to carry the ball."