Lean times ahead at city hall
THE NEXT MUNICIPAL BUDGET won’t be pretty. Spending on central city departments will be reduced by $50 million in the coming year while borough budgets will be cut by two per cent. Linda Gyulai reports it’s a trend Montrealers can expect to continue in t
Montreal mayor Denis Coderre’s first municipal budget is going to hurt, his administration warned on Monday.
While no significant tax increases are in the offing for Montrealers, the administration has set off on a costcutting spree of about $64 million to balance the city’s soon-to-be unveiled $5-billion 2014 operating budget, Coderre’s right-hand man, executive committee chairperson Pierre Desrochers, said.
“The budget will be difficult,” he said during a break from a city council meeting. “It’s a transition budget.”
During the fall election campaign, Coderre promised not to increase municipal taxes above the rate of inflation. But after taking office, his team discovered the city’s finance department was wrestling with a “significant” shortfall as it prepared the 2014 budget, Desrochers said.
Under Quebec law, municipalities must table balanced budgets.
“We promised to not increase taxes more than two per cent,” Desrochers said. “So we agreed to work on expenses. And that’s what we’re doing. And we’ll get there, and without affecting services to citizens.”
The city’s central departments have been ordered to slash $50 million from their budgets, he said. Much of that will come from payroll, he added.
Coderre has already publicly declared a hiring “break,” as Desrochers called it, at the city to save money.
The 19 boroughs, meanwhile, face an average twoper-cent cut in their allotments from the city to cover the cost of local services and operations.
The boroughs were previously told they’d see their allotments from the city indexed to inflation in the coming year.
That’s out of the question now, Desrochers confirmed. The cuts, which vary from borough to borough, will total $14 million, he said.
However, it’s up to each borough to decide where it will cut. The city has asked them to avoid hitting services to the public, Desrochers said.
Meanwhile, city hall will embark on an administrative “reform” to ensure recurring savings, he said.
“What we want is to establish the basis for the years that are to come, for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, because it won’t be any easier,” Desrochers said.
Earlier in the day, he confirmed that municipal tax bills will be mailed out in February, a month later than usual, because the tabling of the city budget has been postponed until January.
However, the deadlines for paying municipal taxes will be put back by a month as well, Desrochers said. So Montrealers will have until April 1, 2014 to pay the first instalment of their taxes instead of March 1. And instead of the usual June 1 deadline to pay the second instalment, they’ll be able to pay by July 1, he said.
The delay will cost the city $3 million to $4 million, Desrochers said. However, the city plans to absorb that cost by reducing internal expenses, he said.
It’s not the first time the city has moved back the date for paying taxes because the budget was delayed by a change in administration.
In 1995, the newly elected administration of Pierre Bourque adopted its first budget in February. Most Montrealers received their tax bills in early March and were given until April 1 to pay the first instalment. The province allowed the city to cut the usual 90-day interval between instalment due dates that year to keep the deadline for the second instalment at June 1. In other news: Council ratified the appointment of a new city manager, Alain Marcoux, at an annual salary of $315,000. He’ll have an eight-year contract, and that drew questions from the official opposition, Projet Montréal, which also objected to not being shown a copy of the contract. Coderre responded that Marcoux has eschewed a severance package and his contract can be terminated on three-months’ notice. Still, the administration presented the contract to councillors and reporters before the vote.
City council passed a unanimous declaration calling on Canada Post to halt plans to eliminate home mail delivery in urban centres. Coderre said he’ll speak to the mayors of other Canadian cities to form a common front to fight the plan. Councillor Claude Dauphin, who heads the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, told council he expects a meeting with Canada Post “in the coming days.”