Agglo budget deemed a step in the right direction by local mayors
Kirkland Mayor Michel Gibson says he can live with the city of Montreal’s 2019 budget. “It was a fair budget. There is still some room in future budgets, but it’s reasonable.” Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante tabled the city’s $5.7-billion budget last Thursday. The city of Montreal’s budget has a financial impact on the island’s suburbs, which share policing, firefighting, transit and other regional services with Montreal. Montreal’s 15 demerged suburbs will pay an average of two per cent more in 2019. Last year, the island’s demerged suburbs were hit with a hefty 5.3 per cent increase, which left Gibson and some other mayors unhappy with the fiscal arrangement with the Montreal Agglomeration Council. This year’s budget, which will see Kirkland’s share of agglo taxes decrease by 0.2 per cent. “For now, from what I’ve read, an effort was made (by Plante) this year,” Gibson said. “It’s a good sign, but there is still room for improvement. “We still have to understand that for the services we’re provided by the police and also the transport, we’re not there yet. Especially for things like bus service and the cost of service we’re paying for the police and the STM.” Other West Island cities will also see decreases, including Ste-Annede-Bellevue (13.3 per cent) and Senneville (0.1 per cent). Dorval’s agglo taxes will increase by 0.4 per cent, but Mayor Edgar Rouleau said Plante deserves credit for this year’s budget. “It’s better than last year,” he said. “It’s not a bad budget, but we’re not getting what we were supposed to be getting: a reduction.” Rouleau said he wants to re-evaluate the mixed expenses from Montreal that are shared by the agglomeration. “We pay about $72 million in taxes for a city of 20,000 people in Dorval. It’s just that we don’t get $72 million back in services. That’s the key.” For the amount Dorval pays Montreal for policing, Rouleau said: “I could have police on every corner in Dorval.” Other West Island cities facing increases are Dorval Island (10 per cent), Baie-D’Urfé (5.1 per cent), Pointe-Claire (3.3 per cent), Dollard-des-Ormeaux (2.4 per cent) and Beaconsfield (1.3 per cent). “We’re OK with the budget,” said Beaconsfield Mayor Georges Bourelle, “but we’ll have to see what happens with the 2020 and 2021 budgets.” Bourelle added this year’s budget is a step in the right direction. “I think this year’s budget, obviously, is much better than last year’s, when we got hit with a tax increase way over inflation. The City of Montreal did a lot of work this year to try and bring this budget in line with inflation. Also, the agglomeration budget with the average two per cent raise is reasonable, particularly when there was a huge deficit to wipe out in the agglomeration budget. “At two per cent, we can say we’re satisfied they did as much as they could at this point to bring it in line,” he added.