Municipal taxes rose 4.1% in Montreal, the first time in 12 years

Owners of primarily residential buildings in Montreal will see their tax bills rise by an average of 4.1% next year. Conference Board Inflation in Canada will increase by 4% in the metropolitan area in 2023.

4.1%, an increase Tax Account The Montrealers’ management will be twice as big as last year An average increase of 2% was dictatedThus honoring the promise made a few months ago during the election campaign.

The variance — unheard of since 2011, when municipal taxes rose 4.3% — would increase $164. Medium value residence $567,600, the city estimates, It recently updated its rating list.

Like every year, the increase in residential tax declarations varies from one city to another. The increase will be smallest in Ville-Marie (+1.7%), and the largest in L’Île-Bizard-Sainte-Geneviève (+6%).

Again this year, the increase in tax assessments for non-residential buildings (shops, offices, industries, etc.) will be lower than for residential buildings.

The increase will reach an average of 2.9% in 2023. However, it varies from city to city. Owners of non-residential buildings in Ville-Marie will even see their tax assessment drop by 2.7%.

At the other end of the spectrum, those in Lachine will pay 15.2% more in 2022; Saint-Laurent 11.2%.

The budget is 30% higher than during Godere

The mayor of Montreal, Valéry Plante, and the president of the executive committee, Dominique Olivier, presented a record budget of 6.76 billion dollars (B$) to the Boncourse market on Tuesday morning, which is 300 million dollars (M$ year) compared to last year.

That’s 30% more than the Coderre administration’s last budget, which reached $5.2 billion in 2017.

The Service de police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) will see its funding increase to $63.2 million in 2023, allowing it to hire 123 of the 270 additional police officers promised by 2025.

The Ten-Year Capital Expenditure Plan (PDI) 2023-2032 reaches $22 billion, compared to $19.54 billion last year. This means the city plans to invest an average of more than $2 billion annually in its infrastructure over the next 10 years.

These documents are made public the day after the Société de transport de Montreal (STM) budget is presented. It announced a $77.7 million deficit for 2023 on Monday.

An old plan will come true

To balance its budget, the city is introducing two new eco-financing measures.

Specifically, it will introduce a tax on water consumption in non-residential buildings, which should bring in $15 million by 2023. This amount will be paid into the water fund.

So we will see the implementation of an old plan from the administration of Mayor Gerald Tremblay, who installed water meters in his territory in the 2000s.

Owners of non-residential buildings must comply with progressive pricing. 1000 to 10,000 cubic meters (m³) water, they had to pay 10¢ per cubic metre. The rate increases to 20¢ from 10,000 to 100,000m³ and 60¢ for 100,000m³. First 1000 cubic meters of water is free.

Another environmental financing measure: The City of Montreal will extend the tax on outdoor parking spaces to all non-residential buildings with an area of ​​more than 20,000 square meters. The levy, which has so far only been levied on downtown, should allow for less than $5 million to be collected.

Some of these environmental financing measures may not be enough to ensure the proper functioning of municipal operations in the long term, the City of Montreal underlined again on Tuesday.

A summit on municipal taxation, to be held in the spring, should make it possible to identify new financing instruments with a view to renewing the financing agreement concluded with the Quebec government.

The Plante administration’s 2023 budget, titled “Building the Montreal of Tomorrow,” runs to more than 400 pages.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Jerome Labe

The budget tabled on Tuesday confirms that Public transportation on the Island of Montreal is free for people 65 and older From July 1, 2023.

The weight of debt, for its part, will increase from 111% to 115% of the city’s annual revenue in 2023. The administration, which exceeded the 100% regulatory limit in 2019, still hopes to return to this rate in 2027.

However, the situation is not hopeless; The City of Montreal had its credit rating upgraded last June by S&Pargued on Tuesday.

With Benoit Chaptaline and Mathieu Prost