By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
Sutton Mayor Robert Benoit and director general Pascal Smith presented the municipality’s 2025 budget and infrastructure plan at a Dec. 18 council meeting. They described the budget as “reasonable and forward-thinking” and “something that we can be proud of.”
With tax increases ranging from -0.11% to 1.39%, depending on the sector, the Town is undoubtedly proposing one of the most moderate increases among Brome-Missisquoi municipalities,” said Robert Benoît. “We congratulate ourselves on having achieved this feat while maintaining the level and quality of our services to citizens, and pursuing structuring projects for the town’s development.” Priorities laid out in the budget presentation include improving services to citizens, investing in engineering projects that reinforce climate resilience, working toward connecting the Mountain sector to the town water network and incentivizing affordable housing.
In 2025, residential taxpayers in the Village sector will see their bills rise by an average of 1.19 per cent (serviced properties) and 1.39 per cent (properties not served by municipal water and sewer services). Taxes in the Mountain sector will be reduced by 0.11 per cent. These figures are based on the average assessed value of a residence in Sutton, which is $472,939 in 2025. Taxes are expected to decrease for properties valued at $200,000 or less in the Village sector and $500,000 or less in the Mountain sector, according to a spreadsheet provided by the city.
There will be a 2.5 per cent increase in the basic tax rate for all types of property. Additional taxes aimed at servicing debt and funding public works will rise by 1.11 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively. Waste removal, sewage and septic tank fees will decrease, but water fees will increase by slightly less than 7 per cent (6.77 per cent or $13).
On the infrastructure front, the town plans to conduct detailed studies concerning the cost and the work involved in piping water from the Village to the Mountain sector, upgrade the current water network and work toward converting the former Calvary Church (which was an art gallery until last year) to a daycare centre and community hall.
The city once again dipped into its surplus to balance the budget, taking $300,000 from its reserves, despite having previously planned not to touch the surplus this year. “It’s not normal to use the surplus to pay our expenses; it’s not normal to use credit to pay for groceries, but [otherwise] we were not able to achieve the objective of a balanced budget,” Smith said.
Benoit said the town needed to dip into its surplus to pay fees owed to the MRC Brome-Missisquoi and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ). He said the fees for both had risen by 9.6 per cent this year. “I don’t think any municipalities can survive with [SQ fee increases] of nine or ten per cent. The other [concern] is the MRC, where over the last three years we’ve had a roughly 10 per cent increase each year on average, which doesn’t make sense because they don’t really provide services for consumers.” He said the current SQ fee structure particularly penalized wealthier parts of the MRC like Sutton and Brome Lake, which had less crime and less regular police presence but a larger tax base. Councillors voted to send protest resolutions to the MRC and the director general of the SQ denouncing the fee increases.
Other issues weighing heavily on the town’s finances were an influx of new residents and needed upgrades to the road and drainage systems. “We have major [public] works to do, and we’ll have to finance those projects. That will be a big challenge also for the next coming years,” said the mayor.
However, he said the municipality was not in a position where services would have to be cut this year. “Public works is our priority – we have 245 kilometres of roads here and we have to maintain them, especially with climate change and the melting and refreezing. We don’t want to cut back on direct services to the population. If we don’t [invest], we’ll hit a wall at a certain point and we’ll have to spend money on crisis management, and that’s going to cost a lot more.”
Benoit and his Action Sutton slate of councillors were first elected in 2021. He told the BCN he is considering running again. “My focus was to deliver the budget first, and then think about [the election] next year. It’s a big decision, because the challenges are huge … but I’m pretty proud of what we’ve accomplished.”
Detailed French-language summaries of the budget and infrastructure plan can be accessed on the city website. English versions are expected to be available after the holidays.