BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The town of St. Lazare posted a $5.5-million budget surplus for 2023, bringing its accumulated surplus to about $8.8 million, according to its audited financial report unveiled last month.

The report, approved by the city’s municipal council on June 11 and subsequently submitted to the provincial government, provides a detailed overview of the city’s fiscal performance in the last year.

According to the figures, the city posted total revenues of $36,700,722 in 2023, while all expenses came in at $31,161,212, leaving a surplus for the year of $5,539,510.

The city’s unallocated accumulated surplus as of Dec. 31, 2023, totalled $8.8 million.

In addition to the unallocated surplus, the city also controls an allocated surplus of $4.4 million. Of that sum, $2.55 million has been assigned to the city’s 2024 budget in an effort to reduce the tax burden on taxpayers.

According to figures released by the town, St. Lazare ended last year with a long-term debt of $26.7 million. Just more than half of that debt, 54 per cent, is carried by all property owners in the town, while 39 per cent is attributed to only some taxpayers who have been assessed with local improvement projects and specific water and sewer upgrades.

According to St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance, the level of long-term indebtedness of residents is pegged at a level of 94 cents per $100 of property valuation, well below the comparative level of $1.54 per $100 of valuation, which is the average for towns in the MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, and $1.69 per $100 of valuation for towns across Quebec of comparable size to St. Lazare.