By Joel Goldenberg
A change.org bilingual petition is calling on Premier François Legault to place the City of Montreal under trusteeship in light of steep commercial and industrial property tax increases for many in the past two years.Two owners of commercial properties in St. Laurent brought the petition to The Suburban‘s attention before the start of the February borough council meeting.
“In 2024, commercial and industrial property owners in the city of Montreal received incredulous increases for their municipal properties [of] between 15% and 20%-plus,” the petition says. “In 2023 it was 22%! As an owner, this makes absolutely no sense! To be at nearly 39% of increases in two years because of inflation is incredulous. The result is an increase in inflation: tenants pay more, consumers pay more and the cycle continues.”
Legault is being asked to place Montreal under trusteeship “to stop these incredulous annual increases. “Furthermore, we are also asking for a class action lawsuit for all tenants and commercial and industrial property owners on the island on Montreal.”
The petition can be seen at www.change.org/p/creation-de-l-inflation-par-la-ville-de-montr%C3%A9al-inflation-creation-by-the-city-of-mtl?utm_source=starter_dashboard_page_qr_code.
Rosemont resident Alfred Decivita, who has a 5,000-square foot mailroom equipment business in an industrial building on Sartelon in St. Laurent, told The Suburban that his property tax increased by $5,000 in the past two years — his bill this year is over $16,800.”The increase was not just me — I asked my neighbours on our street, we all got the same increase, 17 percent,” he added. “Last year, it was 22 percent. Next year, what’s it going to be? Another 17 percent?” The business owner also says owners like himself get less service, such as no access to eco-centres.
Jimmy Metaxas, who has a 3,500 square-foot industrial condo with his brother on Pitfield and rents to a paper business, said his taxes went up the same amount in the past two years. “It’s getting ridiculous, my bill is up to $14,000. It’s literally gone up 40 percent in two years. This is really getting out of hand — we’re talking about $1,200 a month just for taxes. There’s also school taxes — I don’t know what’s going to happen. If we’re talking about two to three percent inflation, we’re six times more with the tax.”
During the council meeting, Decivita addressed Mayor Alan DeSousa on the issue, saying the tax increase from the Plante administration is “not normal.
“Are you taking your budget out on the businesses?”
DeSousa said former Executive Committee chair Dominique Ollivier, who is a Rosemont city councillor, “made the budget that was proposed to council” and that he, City Councillor and Montreal Opposition leader Aref Salem and City Councillor Anna Nazarian also questioned the budget and voted against it.
“We found lots of places where the administration could and should have reduced expenses [to reduce the tax bills]. We made constructive proposals to the administration, saying the 4.9 percent residential average increase and the 4.6 percent average for non-residential is way too high in the current economic context. The administration refused to consider it. We had found ways to reduce everyone’s tax bill by at least one percent.”
Decivita urged DeSousa to visit his business neighbours.
“My neighbour’s a plumber. He’s got 35 plumbers, he laid off 10 this week!”
“Your concerns are our concerns,” DeSousa said, adding that the business owner should also bring his concerns to Montreal city council. He also mentioned to The Suburban that the much higher than average tax increase for some property owners was the result of valuation changes. n