By Trevor Greenway

After property assessments went through the roof in La Pêche this year, the municipality says it is doing its best to keep the tax rate low on next year’s budget, but with increasing costs, labour shortages and pandemic recovery, the tax increase could be close to five per cent or higher.

“Council’s objective is to adopt a budget that limits the increase of the tax burden of median household owners to approximately five per cent,” said La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux, whose council will adopt its 2025 budget on Dec. 16. “Of course, these are preliminary numbers and could change. There are a lot of variations in property evaluation increases. If your property value increase is below the average property value increase, you may see a reduction in your tax bill, for instance.”

This year’s eight per cent tax increase, coupled with next year’s potential five per cent increase means La Pêche residents are facing a 13 per cent tax hike over the past two years. 

On average, property values in La Pêche went up close to 60 per cent on average this year, with the median home increasing from $296,000 in 2021 to $454,500 this year as part of the MRC des Collines triennial assessment roll. Lamoureux said that those living in the median home – $454,500 – will see a $135 increase on their tax bills. 

“Ideally, on a normal year, a municipal budget should not increase by more than a few percentage points,” Lamoureux added. “The cost of contracts go up, salaries go up but at rates that are generally manageable. At a local level, council recognized that we had both a managerial and infrastructure deficit. We decided to hire more staff and invest more in infrastructure. And then the global context in recent years – the pandemic, the labour shortages, the inflation – had its impacts on the cost of labour, contracts, materials and interest rates.”

Lamoureux said that 2025 will be a year to “course correct,” as the municipality may opt not to replace every vacant position. He also said council intends to “considerably reduce the size of our triennial investment plan” to keep costs down. 

“We’ll focus on essential projects and projects for which we expect external funding,” added Lamoureux. “That should limit the increase of the part of our budget that goes toward servicing the debt in coming years.”

La Pêche will adopt its budget at a public meeting on Dec. 16.