While the Municipal Council of the City of Montréal is preparing to officially adopt its 2022 budget of 6.46 billion dollars on Friday, the Mayors of City of Beaconsfield and the City of Dollard des Ormeaux acting on behalf of demerged West Island municipalities as members of the Agglomeration Commission on Finance and Administration increased their claim to recuperate millions of dollars of taxes paid in excess for regional Agglomeration services.
The report submitted by the representatives of the Montreal agglomeration's demerged
municipalities suggests various avenues of reflection, in addition to those adopted by the majority of the elected officials of the Finance Committee, in the Public review of the 2022 budget and the 2022-2031 ten-year capital works program.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT:
• The representatives of the Montreal agglomeration's demerged municipalities
recommend their colleagues on the agglomeration council not support the 2022 budget
without an agreement between the Ville de Montréal and the demerged municipalities
on the agglomeration quotes-parts. The current formula is essentially based on property
values when it should be established on other indicators, considering the actual usage of
services and population.
• The demerged municipalities note of worrisome growth in the number of employees in
the Montreal public service and recommend a plan to limit hiring. Moreover, the
propensity to capitalize functions within the public service is a method that the demerged
municipalities wish to reduce as much as possible.
• The representatives of the demerged municipalities also want an adjustment in
budgeting the revenue from penalties and fines. Since 2015, revenues have been
overestimated. The City of Montreal has to establish its projections on historical revenues.
At the moment, it appears that this component only serves to ensure the creation of an
artificially balanced budget.
• Finally, the report contains a series of recommendations for water, police and public
security services, to name a few.
To consult the full version of the summary report on the ASM website, go to the following
address (in French only) : https://www.amb-asm.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Rapport-
This injustice started in 2019 with the adoption of a Ministerial Order that differed from the rules established in the 2008 agreement on the reconstitution of the municipalities following the demergers in 2006.
The new calculation algorithm became incomplete by the omission of the neutrality factor, thereby distorting the historic equity that had previously established the proportionate shares of the 16 municipalities on the island of Montréal for regional services, such as police and fire services, public transit, drinking water, and wastewater management.
In 2020 and 2021, the Minister for Municipal Affairs and Housing, Andrée Laforest, tried unsuccessfully to find consensual solutions with Montréal who rejected them all.
The mayor of Beaconsfield stated, in a release,that his administration has taken all useful and necessary actions with the Québec government as well as with the City of Montréal to address this over-taxation prior to resorting to legal procedures in order to secure and protect the rights of the citizens of Beaconsfield.
The injustice is expected to get worse against the emerged municipalities with high residential density on the island of Montréal will be exacerbated by increasing property values which will be reflected in the next three-year (2023-2024-2025) property evaluation roll.
Experts project an average increase of 30% in residential property values, but little change for commercial and industrial properties. This penalizes in particular the municipalities of Beaconsfield, Westmount, Mount-Royal, Hampstead, Kirkland, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, and Montreal-West.
About the Association of Suburban Municipalities
The Association of Suburban Municipalities is an association of fifteen demerged municipalities of the Montreal agglomeration, each autonomous in its municipal management and voice. Together they count 250,000 citizens. These municipalities are Baie-d'Urfé, Beaconsfield, Côte-Saint-Luc,Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Dorval, L'Île-Dorval, Hampstead, Kirkland, Montreal-East, Montreal-West, Mount-Royal, Pointe-Claire, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Senneville and Westmount.
SOURCE: City of Beaconsfield
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