(Quebec) The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) wants to allow seniors to defer paying their property taxes, as demanded by several municipalities, including the City of Montreal. The measure can help to keep older people at home, they say.
Posted at 7:00 am
The Liberals are asking the Legault government to allow local governments to set up a property tax deferral program for low-income seniors aged 65 and over on application.
“The goal really is to allow people to live in their homes or prevent them from selling them early,” explains Liberal seniors spokesperson Linda Caron.
The MNA for La Pinière also argues that this measure is necessary given the rising cost of living and inflation. This is a “tangible measure” to enable seniors to “make ends meet”.
The PLQ believes that Quebec could negotiate the terms of the program with municipalities when the fiscal compact is renewed, with the current partnership covering the 2020-2024 period. This has also been a requirement of the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ) since 2019.
“It has been offered in eight other Canadian provinces for 10 to 15 years and […] each province has different framework conditions. We, our goal, in the context of housing shortages, inflation and the cost of living, is to give seniors flexibility to stay in their homes for as long as possible. [L]The finer points could be discussed with the municipalities,” explains Ms. Caron.
The Montréal case
The city of Montreal also accepted a motion tabled by the official opposition last January that would mandate the Plante administration “to make representations to the Quebec government” for the implementation of a program that would enable low-income seniors , “Deferral of Payments”. the property tax increase until the sale of their property”.
The application notes that according to Statistics Canada’s 2021 data, “Approximately 23% of households in the city of Montreal had a person aged 65 or older as their primary financial support, i.e. the majority of retirees with a fixed income.”
However, the real estate value of properties in the metropolis increased by an average of 31.4% in 2023-2025 according to the real estate appraisal roll. “Increasing property taxes may prove to be substantially larger than increases in the cost of living or income for homeowners, particularly in neighborhoods with high real estate activity,” the motion said, which may put pressure on homeowners.
Le Devoir recently reported that cities of different sizes, such as Saint-Lin-Laurentides and Terrebonne, have also advocated such a measure.
Similar measures exist in British Columbia, Alberta, New Brunswick, Yukon, California, and Halifax and Ottawa.