Taxes will increase by an average of 3.4% next year in Longueuil. Mayor Catherine Fournier, who thus respects her commitment to limit the rise to inflation, said however to deal with a shortfall of 27 million, due to “repeated tax freezes” of the previous administration.
It was Wednesday evening, during an extraordinary meeting of the city council, that the first budget of the reign of the young mayor of 29 years was adopted. Up 5.8% compared to last year, for a total of nearly 488 million, this budget also provides for a tax increase of 3.4% which, recalls the Fournier clan, is under the inflation.
It was indeed around 4.7% in October and November, according to public data from Statistics Canada.
Raising the taxes was necessary, “in particular because of the shortfall of $ 27 million for the next year, which is caused, in part, by the repeated tax freezes of the last administrations”, hammered the vice-president of the committee. executive and chairman of Longueuil’s finance committees, Jonathan Tabarah, in a statement.
He maintains, however, that a plan is underway to ensure “a marked reduction in the deficit forecast to be filled over the next three years, from $ 27 million this year to around $ 9 million next year, to finally reach the balanced in 2025 thanks to various budgetary measures ”.
“Our goal is to no longer have to dip into our meager reserves to offset the growth in spending,” Mr. Tabarah illustrates in this regard.
Catherine Fournier, she recalled that her team had “little room for maneuver”, both “in terms of the adoption schedule and available resources”. She affirms that this budget was adopted “under the sign of citizen participation and science”. About $ 250,000 will be set aside for the creation of a Citizen Participation Office, which the elected representative promised to set up during the election campaign this fall.
Its administration will also lay out for the first time since the municipal mergers the triennial assessment roll for buildings 2022-2023-2024, which is due to come into force in January. The stated objective of the measure is “to avoid excessive disparities between the boroughs, the properties of Greenfield Park and Saint-Hubert having experienced a greater increase in average value than those of Vieux-Longueuil due to overheating. of the real estate market of the first buyers ”.
Only one elected member voted against the budget. He is in fact the only councilor who is not represented or allied to the Coalition Longueuil banner: the leader of the opposition and elected of Longueuil Ensemble, Jacques Lemire. He argued on Wednesday that nothing had been specifically planned in the budget to anticipate the impact of the Omicron variant and the rise in COVID-19 cases on public finances.
In Montreal, the average residential property tax bill will increase by 2% next year in Montreal and will notably finance a significant increase in the police budget. The metropolis will also double its spending on roaming and will continue to invest in the network of cycle paths as well as in public transport, Mayor Valérie Plante announced on Wednesday.