Montreal Gazette

Taxpayers watchdog posts petition against Montreal’s 3.3% hike

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The Quebec chapter of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has posted an online petition demanding Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante remove a 3.3-per-cent tax hike from the city’s 2018 budget.

“Instead of cutting the fat at the city of Montreal, Valérie Plante chose the easier course of taxing taxpayers even more,” reads the petition, posted at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. “(Taxpayers) will see their bill go up by an average of 3.3 per cent, which is 50 per cent higher than inflation.”

CTF Quebec spokespers­on Carl Vallée said the petition was, in part, a place where disappoint­ed Montrealer­s could make their disappoint­ment with the mayor known.

“I think a lot of us thought we had a politician who would do things differentl­y,” he said. “We believed it. But at the first opportunit­y, she’s basically done what any other politician before her has done. That’s something that simply feeds the public’s cynicism.”

The petition calls upon Plante to honour a campaign pledge she made not to increase taxes above the rate of inflation — about two per cent.

Plante has maintained that she did keep her word, and that the total bill includes a water tax that hadn’t been increased in four years.

Meanwhile, a rally is being organized in Pointe-Claire for this Sunday to protest against the fallout of the Plante budget on demerged Montreal suburbs, some of which have seen their contributi­ons to the central city for policing and transit services jump by as much as nine per cent.

The rally is scheduled for noon in front of Pointe-Claire city hall at 451 St. Jean Blvd.

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