Possibly the most important element of the pact, brokered by Quebec's Municipal Affairs Ministry between Montreal and the island's 15 demerged suburbs, will see taxpayers in the demerged areas receive one municipal tax bill instead of two, as had been the case since demerger in 2006.

Control of arterial roads on local territory, which was another contentious issue, returns to the suburbs. Montreal is receiving a number of advantageous tax-raising powers from the province in exchange for the concessions.

"There were two deals," said Hampstead mayor Bill Steinberg, speculating on why Montreal agreed to the arrangements. "One was to get rid of some of the problems in the Agglomeration structure. The other one was to give Montreal more taxing powers and more money.

"So obviously if Montreal wanted to get those additional taxing powers, wanted to get the additional annual revenue, wanted to get special status as the economic engine of Quebec — all very important things for Montreal — then they had to cooperate on the Agglomeration, as well. It's basically a win-win deal for everybody. Montreal certainly wins and the suburbs win."

Common services, for which the Agglomeration had been billing individual taxpayers until now, will be billed directly to demerged municipalities, said Montreal West mayor Campbell Stuart. "Effectively what that means is that Montreal will no longer be able to fool around with mill rates and the like in order to shift the balance and burden of its costs onto the demerged towns," he said, referring to what had been one of the suburbs' main objections.

"We're always going to have to be careful that they don't actually charge to our common account local requirements," he added. "It's going to be less difficult for them, once they've got the budget loaded with their own stuff. It's going to be impossible for them then to fiddle with the mill rate so that the demerged towns pay a bigger portion of it."

According to Stuart, the pact also brings "substantial relief" for suburban taxpayers, amounting to about $30 million for the 15 demerged cities. "That's big money," he said. "In Montreal West, if that had come into effect this year, it would have been $700,000 for our taxpayers. This is around five per cent of our taxes. Too bad it's not retroactive, but you can't have everything."