One island, one city, one snowplow

The city of Montreal reportedly thinks it could do a better job of handling snow clearing after a big snowstorm if it got special powers to oversee the job which is now handled by the boroughs.

Mayor of Rosemont-Petite Patrie André Lavallée reportedly believes snowclearing methods are outdated and the executive committee member says they need to think outside the box to improve operations: by getting special powers from the Quebec government to handle the job post-snowstorm, with Montreal's director general in charge, deciding on priorities and redirecting blue collars.

Karim Boulos, deputy mayor of the downtown Ville Marie borough, says that could work - in theory.

"If you're creating two teams, what's that going to look like? How much is that going to cost Montrealers?"

Boulos says it's not the first time the Tremblay administration has used the idea of one island, one city when it's convenient.

"You can't have it both ways: come up with a structure and stop whining (about) how the city can't do this and the city can't do that."

Boulos says boroughs know best where the priorities are and that could be tricky to recentralize.