Plante stands firm on tax increases
Mayor says rate hike the responsible decision despite campaign pledge
Passing an unpopular tax hike is the last thing any new city administration wants to do, Mayor Valérie Plante acknowledged Wednesday.
But Plante stood firm on the need for taxes to go up by an average of 3.3 per cent as the city adopted a $5.4-billion budget for 2018 at the close of a stormy debate in council.
The increase — which includes a 1.1 per cent rise in the water tax — is necessary so the city can upgrade the city’s leaky water system, she said.
“For every dollar we invest today, we are saving our children and grandchildren $10,” Plante said before councillors approved the budget in a 40-24 vote.
“We don’t like it,” Plante said of the controversial hike, which flies in the face of her campaign pledge not to increase the burden on Montreal taxpayers by more than the rate of inflation, currently 2.1 per cent.
But it’s the responsible decision, Plante repeated.
“The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be,” she said.
The increase has been slammed by business groups and mayors of independent municipalities on the island facing a 5.3 per cent average increase in contributions to the Montreal Agglomeration Council, which oversees shared services such as policing, firefighting and public transit.
Even more infuriating, suburban mayors say, was the lack of advance warning for the increase, leaving them scrambling to adjust their 2018 budgets.
On Wednesday, Plante reiterated the need for massive investment in the city’s aging water system, where the average age of water pipes is 61 years, compared with an average of 41 years in other Canadian cities.
The city says replacing leaky water mains will reduce the need for emergency repairs, which can cost 10 times as much as planned repairs and be far more disruptive.
But Opposition councillors pummelled the new administration, warning that tenants of buildings with six units and more will face higher rents as landlords pass on increases.
“This budget does not walk the talk,” railed Alan DeSousa, St-Laurent borough Mayor and finance critic of Ensemble Montréal, the Opposition party formerly led by previous mayor Denis Coderre.
The Opposition also ripped into the Plante administration for what it called a lack of accountability.
Ensemble Montréal’s Lionel Perez objected that the administration was asking council to pass the budget before it had adopted a capital-works program specifying what major upgrades the city plans to carry out.
The capital-works program was supposed to have been released before the budget so councillors would know what they’re actually voting on, Perez said, noting the city had a legal obligation to submit it by the end of December.
“We don’t have all the information to make an informed decision,” he said. “The administration is asking us to write a blank cheque. I find it completely abhorrent,” DeSousa added.
Before the council meeting, a few dozen people waved signs protesting against the tax hike outside city hall in a demonstration organized by real estate mogul and bar-owner Peter Sergakis.
Participants pumped their signs as music and slogans blared from a speaker set up in the street. But protesters approached by a reporter refused to comment on the issue or give their names.
“I don’t want to give any information,” said one woman, using her poster to hide her face.
Later, during city council’s question period for citizens, Sergakis, president of the Association des propriétaires de bâtiments commerciaux du Québec, reproached Plante for failing to hold the line on taxes.
In a rambling question that had council speaker Cathy Wong reminding him to get to the point, Sergakis accused Plante of singing “a totally different tune” from what she said during the election campaign.
In a press release Tuesday, Sergakis and Rhonda Massad, who described herself as a militant journalist and community activist, warned that some taxpayers could face increases as high as six times the inflation rate.
Massad organized a demonstration against the tax increases at Pointe-Claire city hall on Sunday.
For the average Montreal home, valued at just over $427,000, the 3.3 per cent hike represents an extra $118 in taxes per year, for a total of $3,729.
Plante, who took over as mayor in November, said she was saddled with a $358-million shortfall by the previous Coderre administration.
The administration plans to spend up to $500 million on water upgrades in 2018 — some $200 million more than the Coderre administration budgeted last year.
For every dollar we invest today, we are saving our children and grandchildren $10. We don’t like it. The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be.