An agglomeration, or urban agglomeration, is an administrative division of Quebec at the local level that may group together a number of municipalities which were abolished as independent entities on 1 January 2002 but reconstituted on 1 January 2006.
Urban agglomerations have certain powers that would ordinarily be exercised by individual municipalities.
The 2000–06 municipal reorganization in Quebec proved to be controversial in several municipalities, and in the aftermath, several municipalities voted in a 2004 referendum to reverse their amalgamation. However the supralocal urban agglomeration level of government was retained over each formerly merged region.
The Act respecting the exercise of certain municipal powers in certain urban agglomerations defines the expression urban agglomeration as follows.
One municipality in each agglomeration is known as the central municipality and has special status under the Act. The others are called related municipalities.
The Act defines the powers exercised by the agglomeration and those exercised by the reconstituted municipalities, known as agglomeration powers (compétences d'agglomération) and local powers (compétences de proximité).
Agglomeration powers are exercised by agglomeration councils (conseils d'agglomération).
These are defined by statute. Many governmental functions are performed by the central city in each agglomeration; for example, the Montreal city police (SPVM) have jurisdiction in the neighboring communities.
A list of these can be found on the website [1] of the Ministère des Affaires municipales et régionales.
For each agglomeration, the legally designated central municipality appears first.