Nearly half of Quebec municipalities with less than 100,000 inhabitants have not complied with legal requirements by regulating the adoption of their budget for the year 2021, according to an audit carried out by the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ).
Each year, municipalities are required to adopt their budget and they must comply with the requirements described in the Municipal Code of Quebec and in the Cities and Towns Act to achieve this.
Thus, they must adopt their budget between November 15 and December 31 – with the exception of election years which allow this period to be extended to January 31. They must also devote an exclusive session to the budget and the three-year capital expenditure program (PTI) so that elected officials and citizens are not distracted by other issues. And finally, they are required to announce the adoption of the budget in a notice published at least eight days before the meeting.
Large-scale operation
To carry out its audit, the CMQ carried out verifications with 1074 municipalities with less than 100,000 inhabitants in Quebec. Remember that Quebec has a total of 1,108 municipalities. It was a large-scale operation that had never been done in Quebec before, says Isabelle Rivoal, spokesperson for the CMQ. However, the audit did not relate to the financial management of the municipality, but of course to the “technicalities” that cities must respect and which must not be taken lightly, underlines Ms. Rivoal: “It is important for citizens. . We are talking about sound governance ”.
Thus, only 57% of the audited municipalities complied with legal requirements. In the case of 323 cities, either the budget adoption period was not respected or the municipality failed to devote an exclusive session to it. In addition, 81 municipalities did not publish a notice within the prescribed deadlines.
These results surprised the CMQ. “We hoped for fewer non-compliant municipalities. It means that there is work to be done, ”points out Isabelle Rivoal.
No sanction is foreseen, but the cities caught in default will have to present an action plan to correct their shortcomings. “Auditors refrain from interpreting conformities and non-conformities. […] Our goal was to point out the gaps, make a recommendation and follow up to see if these 43% [municipalités non conformes] have corrected themselves. “
Five cities without a budget?
The audit reveals, however, that five municipalities which have not adopted a budget for the year 2021. According to the CMQ, they have adopted a by-law on taxation “believing they have adopted the budget”.
The Parish of L’Ascension-de-Notre-Seigneur, a municipality of 2,027 inhabitants located in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, is one of the five municipalities singled out. “We have a budget and we send it to the population,” retorts the director general of the Parish of L’Ascension-de-Notre-Seigneur, Normand Desgagnés, joined by The duty. “But we would have had to adopt our budget and our tax regulations separately. I grouped them together. They asked me to do it separately for the next budget. This is what I will do in the future. “