The Minister of Municipal Affairs has not finished hearing complaints about municipal tax increases, but how Andrée Laforest could intervene is not obvious.
“This is excellent news, finally! exclaimed Douglas Brooks, of Franklin, in Montérégie, when he learned that Minister Andrée Laforest had instructed officials to check the tax increases in “certain” cities. “We’ll make sure we get on the list!” »
Mr. Brooks, who was beaten in the last municipal elections after serving as councilor and then mayor of Franklin, assures that he will not stand again. The management of his village of 1900 inhabitants does not interest him less. The Minister will soon receive a letter from a small group of citizens, of which he is a member, demanding better supervision of the budgets of small municipalities. “We have to act because we see too many disparities in the way we do things. »
Laurentians and Estrie
In Rivière-Rouge, in the Laurentians, where the budget provided for a 25% increase in tax revenue, the municipality agreed to revise its copy downwards after receiving a petition with nearly 2,000 signatures. The new budget was to be presented to citizens on Thursday evening.
François Landry, a resident of La Macaza who had applied for council before withdrawing from the 2021 elections, launched a similar petition in his municipality of Laurentides. It had 350 signatures on Thursday, a number deemed “enormous” by Mr. Landry, since the locality has less than 1,200 inhabitants, including vacationers who are difficult to reach. The petition, which has received the support of the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, must be presented at the council meeting next Tuesday.
Petitions against the tax increases adopted in council are also circulating in Potton and Sutton, in the Eastern Townships. In Potton, those responsible for the petition have asked to see their deputy and hope that he will accompany them to meet the minister, says Michel Trudel, who was a candidate for the position of councilor in the last election.
Intervention uncertain
Many homeowners, especially in smaller municipalities, were startled when they received their new tax bill. The increase in property values, combined with inflation, has caused the bill to jump by more than 20% for some. However, there is no mechanism for Quebec to come to their aid.
“Unfortunately, there is not much recourse for citizens, apart from changing elected officials afterwards,” summarizes Tommy Gagné-Dubé, specialist in municipal taxation at the University’s Chair in Taxation and Public Finance. of Sherbrooke. “It is not part of the mandate of the Municipal Commission, these are not mechanisms that are planned,” says the researcher, who is also a municipal councilor for Manseau, in the Centre-du-Québec region.
“There is nothing in the municipal mission that says that citizens must pay as little as possible,” said UQAM professor specializing in municipal management Danielle Pilette.
In addition to recent inflation, the investments required to meet government requirements weigh heavily on small municipalities, she believes. Unless they share resources or merge, municipalities can hardly reduce these compliance costs.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Danielle Pilette, a professor at UQAM specializing in municipal management
This publicized crisis makes elected officials understand, a year too late, that temporarily, given the level of inflation and the difficulty of adjustment for households, they should have been more cautious and postponed projects. It’s a warning for next year: don’t do that anymore.
Danielle Pilette, professor at UQAM specializing in municipal management
Municipalities are facing cost increases well above inflation, recalls Jean-Philippe Meloche, director of the faculty of planning and specialist in local public finance at the University of Montreal. “Expense increases of 10% without any additional services, that’s completely normal this year. »
“It’s not an injustice”
A municipality should adjust its tax rate in relation to the increase in the average value, but for owners whose value increases more than the average, “there is nothing to do, they are just richer, it is not is not an injustice,” argues Mr. Meloche.
“It’s a distribution of the tax burden between those who become richer and those who do not. »
Taxing more or cutting spending is a political choice, however, he said. “And the response from citizens is: ‘You made the wrong choice!’ It’s quite healthy what’s going on. »
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- 35%
- Estimated average increase in municipal spending on snow removal for 2023
Source: Quebec Federation of Municipalities