City doesn’t plan to cash in on rise in property evaluations

Peter Black

peter@qctonline.com

The city’s new property assessment roll for the years 2025-2027 features some major increases in the value of buildings and land. Taxpayers need not worry about a bigger tax bill, the city says, since increases in value will be offset by a decrease in the tax rate.

City officials unveiled the new roll at a media session at City Hall on Sept. 5. The highlights include an average increase of 27.4 per cent on residential properties, 25.3 per cent on multi-residential housing of six units or more, and 24.4 per cent on vacant but serviced land. The overall increase in property value is 23.5 per cent.

Mayor Bruno Marchand said at the news conference, “There is no reason to be afraid. There will be no tax shock.”

That said, given a range of cost pressures, the mayor said, “It is impossible for the city not to raise taxes next December,” although he vowed such a hike would be less than the rate of inflation, as it was in the last two budgets.

Marchand said, “Depending on the increases we are experiencing, depending on the costs that are rising – because we are also experiencing inflation – we are going to make a colossal effort this year to make difficult choices to ensure that we are below inflation in the growth of taxes.”

The new tax roll shows the average value for tax purposes of a single-family home rose from $296,205 on the previous roll to $378,964 on the new one. Buildings with up to five units rose from $382,897 to $489,082 on the new roll.

The category of buildings that saw the largest increase was non-residential (hotels, motels and tourist accommodations) which leaped by 38 per cent. The city lists 145 buildings in this category.

Office buildings, on the other hand, actually decreased in value on the city roll by 7.6 per cent.

The new roll is now available for viewing on the city’s website.