From 1er January 2024, motorists of the 450 will also have to pay a registration tax, intended to finance public transport.
The elected officials of the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM) ratified, Thursday morning, a regulation which establishes at $ 59 the amount that will assume from next year the motorists of the crowns. For their part, motorists on the island of Montreal, who have already been paying a registration tax of $45 since 2011, will see it rise to $59.
The CMM, which brings together 82 municipalities in the metropolitan area, estimates that by extending the application of the tax, it will be able to collect more than $125 million per year. This sum will allow the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) to diversify the sources of funding for public transit, which has suffered from a significant drop in ridership in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the next few years, new projects such as the extension of the metro’s blue line, the commissioning of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) and the addition of new reserved lanes will lead to higher operating costs and fixed assets for the ARTM, whose financial framework will increase from 3.2 to 5.7 billion, underlines the CMM.
During the CMM meeting on Thursday, two elected officials voted against the regulation on the registration tax, namely Jean Martel, mayor of Boucherville, and Ludovic Grisé Farand, mayor of Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville.
IT issues at the SAAQ
The CMM had already adopted, in 2019, a regulation to extend the registration tax to the municipalities of 450, but the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) had never been able to collect it. She then invoked the obsolescence of her computer systems. The SAAQ specified Thursday that it would however be able to do so as of 1er next January.
An agreement to this end should soon be concluded with the SAAQ, indicates the CMM.
In recent years, the CAQ government has not shown much enthusiasm for imposing an additional tax on commuters. “It is not our intention to increase citizens’ taxes. On the contrary, we want to give money to Quebecers, ”said Chantal Rouleau, then minister responsible for the Metropolis, in 2018.
However, the Act to modify the organization and governance of public transit in the Montréal metropolitan region grants the CMM the power to introduce such a tax.