“We can’t complain.” In the mouth of Kenny Grover, who owns a clothing store in Verdun, this reaction sounds like a sigh of relief.
The Plante administration’s budget presented on Tuesday provides for a 2.9% increase in commercial property taxes, below the 3% ceiling requested by the Montreal business community. The latter reacted positively in the minutes following the unveiling of the document.
“It’s less than inflation, so it’s not that bad. We should be happy about that,” continued Mr. Grover, whose family business has been in business for 97 years on Wellington Street. “Now, are we going to receive the services that should go with this increase? I do not know. In Verdun, merchants will pay an average of 1.8% more in 2023 than in 2022.
At the other end of the island, in Ahuntsic, Ginette Gosselin operates the restaurant La Poule Fleury on the street of the same name. “We’re going to live with it and we’re going to do the best we can with it,” she explained to The Press. In his borough, merchants’ tax bills will increase by an average of 2.5% next year. “It could have been worse, it could have been better. »
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Ginette Gosselin, owner of La Poule Fleury restaurant
“Better” is the news that many downtown property owners will receive with their municipal bills in a few weeks: a reduction in property taxes. Due to the stagnation in the value of office towers in the heart of the metropolis, commercial property tax bills in this sector will decrease by an average of 2.7%.
The industry rejoices, but…
At the Industrial Association of East Montreal (AIEM), general manager Dimitri Tsingakis welcomes the limitation to 2.9% of commercial taxes, on average. “The increases have been reasonable overall. It is perceived positively among our members. Now, we have to see at the level of the property assessment of each of the players. It’s really the tax bill that will ultimately prove everything,” he explains to The Pressmentioning however that the taxes will be higher in certain sectors, in particular in Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles or Anjou, where increases of 7.3% and 8.6% are respectively expected.
Mr. Tsingakis also recalls that it will take time to determine who will be most affected by the tax increases. “Taxation is a budget item. But there are several others that come into play: the cost of energy and labor, in particular. It will really be necessary to evaluate the whole to be able to quantify the impact of this budget on each sector of activity, depending on the type of industry,” continues the CEO.
His remarks echo those of the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM) Michel Leblanc, for whom the decision to limit the increase in property taxes to 2.9% for non-residential “is excellent news in a context difficult for Montreal SMEs”. “It’s a good budget in difficult circumstances,” Mr. Leblanc clearly mentioned on Twitter.
Montreal must “absolutely carry out a rigorous review of its activities and expenditures,” added Mr. Leblanc. “The City must invest better and spend better, by targeting its actions in its areas of jurisdiction. »
The Urban Development Institute (IDU), which represents major property developers and owners, is much less positive, however. “The City does not seem to want to correct the tax burden imposed on non-residential. With a burden 4.33 times higher for commercial buildings compared to the residential sector, Montreal is by far the city in Canada that drives investment away the most. In 2021, Montreal imposed a non-residential overweight of 4.21, Quebec of 3.51, Vancouver of 3.46 and Toronto of 3.36,” the organization lambasted in a press release on Tuesday.