By Dan Laxer and
Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban
Projet Montréal tabled its 2025 budget, along with its ten-year capital expenditure program, at a council meeting last week. The document, released last Wednesday, November 20, boasts “the city is able to invest more in the immediate needs of Montrealers, whether in housing, fighting homelessness, maintaining its infrastructure or for the vitality of its downtown, all while minimizing the tax burden on residents.”
Ensemble Montréal, the Official Opposition, is warning residents not to be misled.
The budget promises to cap the increase in property taxes for an overall increase of 2.2% for the residential sector, and 1.9% for the non-residential sector. That’s the city average. The rates vary depending on the borough. The Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough’s increase, for example, is slightly higher, at 2.9%. The lowest in the city is Ville-Marie at just 0.2%, whereas Pierrefonds-Roxboro gets hit with the highest at 4.1%.
Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis said, “they don’t know how to budget and manage Montreal. They are running a city into disarray—it’s dirty, transit is a mess, one issue follows another, all while there’s a gridlock to make way for bike path construction. They fail to prioritize their spending. Beis also says that the administration’s mismanagement of funds has compelled communities like his to raise borough taxes. “They make it appear as though they are implementing only minor tax raises, yet since taking office, they have increased taxes to fund Plante’s pet projects. This has led communities like mine to increase borough taxes.”
By way of comparison, Mayor Valérie Plante pointed out that …Montreal’s tax rate is far lower than both Vancouver and Toronto and in line with inflation.”
Opposition leader Aref Salem disagrees, however, that the tax hike is equal to inflation, telling the mayor in council, “you broke your promise four times during your mandate. Four times you raised taxes over the rate of inflation. Taxes have gone up 38% during your administration.”
The new budget comes with investments of $100 million for housing, $12 million to fight homelessness — which Salem points out is only a $3 million increase from the last budget – and $10 million to deploy the city’s Downtown Strategy.
Ensemble Montréal says the administration would do better to get their spending under control. “We need to spend not more, but better,” says Alan DeSousa, St. Laurent Borough Mayor and Official Opposition spokesperson on financial matters. “Projet Montréal’s administration has failed to meet its responsibilities. Apart from bike paths and greening initiatives, its record is practically non-existent and demonstrates a flagrant lack of sense of priority.”
The new budget is Valérie Plante’s last as mayor, and the party’s eighth since they came to power. Last month Plante announced that she will not be seeking a third term. In tabling the new budget, she said “I am proud to leave the house in order.”
When her term ends, Salem says, she will have left the city “in really bad condition, at least fiscally.” n