Registration tax | A 400 million computer problem at the SAAQ

The refusal of the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) to levy an annual tax of $50 per car in the 450 for technical reasons arouses suspicion and impatience in the municipal world, which has run out of funding for public transport.

Philippe Teisceira-Lessard
The Press

The extension to the suburbs of the registration tax – already imposed for 10 years on Montrealers – was voted in 2019 by the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM), but has never been applied. Result: 400 million less in four years for public transport (TC), according to the organization.

On Tuesday, elected officials in Montreal officially challenged the schedule of the SAAQ, which swears that its IT department needed a period of five years to apply this tax grab, approved almost unanimously by the mayors of the CMM. The fact that this technical obstacle emerged at the time when the Minister of Transport was expressing his strong disapproval of the idea of ​​a new tax raised eyebrows in the corridors of the authorities of Greater Montreal, was able to confirm The Press.

In a motion adopted by the entire city council, Montreal asked the SAAQ to levy this tax “as of 2023”.

“It takes more funding, without that, we’re going into a wall, without that, we won’t be able to keep TC as an essential offer. There are existing remedies. There, we have reached the third stage: we must apply them, ”said Eric Alan Caldwell, president of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), to the city council. “Clearly, this motion is a call for mobilization, for the maintenance of TC’s offer, so that when the CMM speaks with one voice, we apply the solutions. »

Computer problem

The SAAQ is however formal. In an email, spokesperson Mario Vaillancourt invited the CMM to resubmit its request for registration tax expansion in 2024. “The modernization of its computer systems continues, he wrote to The Press. Current computer systems date back to the 1980s.

The new systems should be ready in 2023, but “a period of running-in and consolidation will however be necessary”, hence the postponement to 2024 of any request.

The Minister of Transport of Quebec, François Bonnardel, had rejected the idea of ​​a new tax on cars, in 2020. “It’s not. There will be no $50 tax for suburban motorists,” he said.

These days, his position is more nuanced. “Our government has made a commitment not to increase the tax burden of Quebecers and we want to respect this commitment,” said his cabinet in a written statement. However, the collection of this revenue is a prerogative of the municipalities and not of the Government of Quebec. »

MWC too

On the MWC side, impatience is also being felt.

Denis Martin, mayor of Deux-Montagnes and member of the CMM’s executive committee, voted in 2019 in favor of implementing the registration tax in the 450, like 81 of the 82 mayors of the organization.

“There is no tax that does not please any elected official or any citizen,” he said in a telephone interview. It doesn’t please anyone. But the suburban mayors (except one) were won over by the long-term projections for funding Greater Montreal’s public transit and its maintenance deficit. “We debated quite a bit,” added the mayor. We made the decision to go that route. »

When he learned that the SAAQ said it was unable to collect this tax, Denis Martin “had a question”.

At the end of January, the organization renewed its request to the Quebec government for compensation that would compensate for the SAAQ’s inability to collect this tax. The sum amounts to 275 million for the years 2020-2022 and is close to 400 million including 2023.

“We’re going to need the money in other ways,” said Mr. Martin. The transport needs are there. »