Is city’s water-tax increase necessary?

At city hall Tuesday, everyone agreed Montreal must spend massively to upgrade sewers and water mains to make up for years of neglect.

But other questions were up for debate. What does “massively” mean? Was an increase in the water tax really necessary? And where will those extra tax dollars actually go?

The scene: council chamber, where the Finance committee was studying an operating budget tabled last week by Mayor Valérie Plante that breaks a tax election promise, in large part because of a surprise water-tax increase.

The head of the water department, charts and tables in hand, outlined the sorry state of water infrastructure. Plante’s point man on water suggested more money is needed urgently.

And opposition councillors argued Plante is “trying to pull a fast one” with an unnecessary water tax hike.

In one chart, Chantal Morissette, director of the water department, pointed out that the average age of Montreal water pipes is 61 years, compared with an average 41 years in other Canadian cities.

The same chart noted that in Montreal there are 19 breaks for every 100 kilometres of water mains.

The Canadian average is nine breaks per 100 kilometres.

Would former mayor Denis Coderre also have broken an election pledge by hiking municipal taxes by more than the inflation rate?

A confidential document, examined by a Montreal Gazette reporter on Tuesday, indicates the Coderre administration was looking at imposing a bigger-than-promised hike in municipal taxes.

The document is dated Nov. 3, two days before election day. Like winner Mayor Valérie Plante, Coderre promised during the campaign to keep municipal tax increases to about the inflation rate.

Plante broke that promise in her budget, tabled last week.

Plante’s budget increased municipal tax bills by an average 3.3 per cent. The Conference Board of Canada predicts Montreal’s inflation rate will be 1.7 per cent in 2018.

Plante’s hike encompasses increases in the general tax, the borough tax and the water tax. The increase in the water tax, which had been frozen since 2013, is responsible for 1.1 per cent of the overall 3.3 per cent tax increase.

The surprise increase angered Montreal taxpayers and business

No one knows what would have happened (if Coderre had won). What we do know is that the Plante administration raised taxes ...

owners, as well as suburban municipalities, which also face steep increases in the amounts they must pay the city for shared services such as police and water.

The opposition party at city hall — Ensemble Montréal, the new name for Coderre’s party — has denounced the budget as a betrayal of Plante’s electoral promise.

But the document indicates Coderre, at least in November, was presented with a proposal to break his own promise.

It suggests the city was considering hiking the general tax on residential and non-residential properties by 2.1 per cent, as well as increasing the water tax to bring in an additional $27 million.

A Plante administration source says the document is the final one from “the budget committee of the former administration. It was given to us during the transition.”

The document was prepared as the city studied how to deal with a projected budget shortfall. Plante has said Coderre left her with a $358-million gap.

Ensemble Montréal leader Lionel Perez, who was on Coderre’s executive committee, said the document in question was a working proposal prepared by the city’s finance department.

Department officials present proposals, but it’s ultimately up to elected officials to decide how to proceed, Perez told the Gazette.

“No one knows what would have happened (if Coderre had won),” he said. “What we do know is that the Plante administration raised taxes and they’re still denying they raised taxes above the rate of inflation.”