Date Published:
July 20, 2017, 12:11 p.m.
Montreal is the most populous municipality in the province of Quebec and the second-most populous in Canada. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary" it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city.
The city is on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. It has a distinct four-season continental climate with warm to hot summers and cold snowy winters.
In 2016 the city had a population of 1,704,694. Montreal's metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,942,044 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. French is the city's official language and is the language spoken at home by 49.8% of the population of the city, followed by English at 22.8% and 18.3% other languages (in the 2016 census, not including multi-language responses).
Montreal is classified as a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfa/Dfb).[80][81]
Summers are, on the whole, warm and humid with a daily maximum average of 26 to 27 °C (79 to 81 °F) in July; temperatures in excess of 30 °C (86 °F) are common. Conversely, cold fronts can bring crisp, drier and windy weather in the early and later parts of summer.
Winter brings cold, snowy, windy, and, at times, icy weather, with a daily average ranging from −9 to −10.5 °C (16 to 13 °F) in January. However, some winter days rise above freezing, allowing for rain on an average of 4 days in January and February each.
The Montreal City Council is the governing body in the mayor-council government in the city of Montreal, Quebec. The head of the city government in Montreal is the mayor, who is first among equals in the city council. The council is a democratically elected institution and is the final decision-making authority in the city, although much power is centralized in the executive committee. The council consists of 65 members from all boroughs of the city. The council has jurisdiction over many matters, including public security, agreements with other governments, subsidy programs, the environment, urban planning, and a three-year capital expenditure program. The city council is also required to supervise, standardize or approve certain decisions made by the borough councils.
City council City council is the city’s primary decision-making body. It is composed of 65 elected officials: The mayor of Montréal, who is also the mayor of Ville-Marie borough 18 borough mayors and 46 city councillors
City council is the city’s primary decision-making body. It is composed of 65 elected officials.The mayor of Montréal is elected democratically by residents of Montréal. Residents of reconstituted cities do not vote for the mayor of Montréal.
The city charter specifies city council’s local jurisdiction, which includes:
In addition, city council oversees, standardizes and approves decisions made by the borough councils.
City council meets once a month, except for the month of July. At the beginning of each meeting, a question period for the public is on the agenda, as specified under the By-law concerning rules of procedure for council meetings and internal rules for council management. Please note that beginning at the September 2009 meeting, citizen registration for the question and answer session will be done by random drawing as per the conditions of the procedure for the meeting and the question and answer session described in the document titled, "Summary of dispositions for the procedure of the meeting and the question and answer session," which appears below.
