The city of Montreal wants to get about 300 million more by diversifying its revenue streams to avoid having to raise property taxes too drastically.
Posted at 2:46 p.m
Isabelle Ducas The press
Some examples of planned new revenue streams: the introduction of a tourist fee and an increase in parking fees in the city center where the administration is considering establishing a low greenhouse gas emission zone.
Currently, property tax accounts for 63% of the city’s revenue, which aims to reduce its reliance on it.
“Cities have growing responsibilities, but revenue streams are limited. The property tax is no longer enough, we have to go further. In Montreal, as in other Quebec cities, we have no choice but to find new sources of revenue to meet these new mandates,” Mayor Valérie Plante said at a news conference on Monday.
“Montreal is in a context of fiscal balance that is nonetheless fragile,” added Executive Committee President Dominique Ollivier. “In addition to our traditional role of providing services to the property, such as snow removal, garbage cans, public area maintenance, the City of Montreal is increasingly being asked to assume expenses and responsibilities that result from our status as a metropolitan city, such as housing , community development and the fight against homelessness. »
Valérie Plante has therefore announced the launch of a project to rethink Montreal’s taxation, as she mentioned when presenting the last municipal budget.
First, a Montréal Taxation Forum will be organized in October 2022 with partners from across the metropolitan area to build consensus on the metropolis’ role and responsibilities, its budget limits, and the importance of fiscal and territorial fairness.
A summit meeting on municipal taxation will then take place in spring 2023, bringing together all partners from the municipal sector and representatives of civil society. His goal will be to identify concrete cost savings opportunities, new recurring revenue streams, and tax measures that will likely be the subject of negotiations during the renewal of the 2020-2024 Financial Partnership Agreement signed between the City of Montreal and the Government of Quebec, which expired on expires on December 31, 2024.
The City of Montreal will also set up a panel of experts to assist them through this process. This body, which will be appointed by the end of June, is made up of scientists, practitioners and representatives of civil society who have expertise in eco-taxation, the financing of large-scale projects and good knowledge of the municipal environment.
The City Hall opposition pledges to participate in the exercise, but regrets that it took the administration five years to present this project for taxation.
“Together we have to find a way to better finance infrastructure and services for the citizens. Municipalities are confronted with dependence on property taxes. On the other hand, we must not do this at the expense of the wallets of taxpayers, who are being caught by the throat with the increase in the cost of living,” stressed opposition leader Aref Salem.
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6.46 billion expenditures are projected in the City of Montreal’s 2022 budget
SOURCE: City of Montreal