Communauté urbaine de Québec

The Communauté urbaine de Québec (also known as the Québec Urban Community) was a regional municipal body that existed in the area around Quebec City from 1970 to 2001.

In the late 1960s, the Government of Quebec saw increasing problems arising in the governance of the urban areas of Quebec City, Montreal and Hull because of the system of municipal organization in effect at that time:

The current remedies involving intermunicipal agreements, amalgamation and annexation were seen as being inadequate, as they were discretionary and piecemeal in nature. The Province opted to establish "urban communities" in all three areas, which would possess mandatory and optional powers appropriate to each. A particular concern in the Quebec area was the large presence of government agencies whose exemption from property taxes created a significant revenue shortfall to the municipalities, together with the need to strengthen intermunicipal cooperation to deal with the situation. This was confirmed in the debate on the implementing bill, where then Minister of Municipal Affairs Robert Lussier stated that the reform was "aimed at economies of scale through administrative centralization, and at reducing futile rivalries between municipalities." The move was supported by all MLAs in the Quebec area, including former Premier Jean Lesage and former Créditiste member Gaston Tremblay.

This was not the first consolidation effort the Province had undertaken at the local level, as local school boards had already gone through something similar in the early 1960s. Officials at the local level had already begun discussions as early as 1965 on possible ways to establish joint activities, but nothing concrete had emerged by the time the Province unveiled its draft bill in June 1969. Although Quebec City itself was favourable to the provincial proposal, there was significant opposition from the other municipalities in the area, but such tension tended to fade away over the five years following the CUQ's creation.

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