Montreal Budget for 2022: Plante Keeps Residential Tax Increase at 2%

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Mayor Valérie Plante has kept her electoral promise to cap the average residential tax increase to two percent in Montreal’s operating budget by 2022.

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Non-residential properties will see taxes increase by just 1.5 percent.

Presenting the city’s $ 6.46 billion spending plan through Zoom on Wednesday, amid a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases, Plante said his administration is prioritizing measures to help the most vulnerable in society, including $ 10 million to combat poverty and exclusion, of which $ 5.9 million will go to homeless programs – double last year’s funding.

“The health situation has imposed a context of uncertainty … and we will continue to support the population, businesses, merchants and vulnerable people,” said the mayor.

The administration also released a 10-year capital works program of $ 19.54 billion for 2022-2031.

Public security

Public safety is taking the lion’s share of the pie, accounting for 17.7 percent of spending.

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To address the recent spike in firearm crime, the city is increasing police funding by $ 45 million, for a total of $ 724.1 million. It will gradually equip the police with body cameras beginning in 2022, at a cost of $ 17 million over the next 10 years. Funding for 911 service and fighting domestic violence will also increase over the next decade.

Debt and other major expenses

Debt service is the next largest expense, at 17 percent.

Other important expenses include administration (10.8%), leisure and culture (10.1%), public transport (10%), roads (5.6%), water (4.1%), garbage and recycling (3 ,4%). snow removal (2.9%) and social housing (2.8%).

Social housing

After pledging 60,000 new affordable social housing units in the last election campaign, the Plante administration has allocated $ 111 million in the 2022 budget to complete its 2017 election pledge of 12,000 affordable social housing units. It will spend $ 3.4 million for homeownership programs.

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The 10-year capital works plan includes $ 116.1 million to acquire land for promised social housing.

Climate change, downtown, business

Montreal will spend $ 4.1 million on measures to combat climate change. It will also begin charging industries for water use starting in 2023. Blank invoices will be sent in 2022 to help commercial property owners and renters understand the new measure.

The city will launch an inventory of parking lots outside the city center with a view to expanding parking taxes in 2023.

The budget dedicates $ 50 million to revitalize the downtown economy, ravaged by the pandemic.

The redesign of Ste-Catherine St. W. and McGill College Ave. will continue, with capital expenditures of $ 414.5 million over the next decade.

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Businesses will get a break again by paying a lower tax rate on the first $ 900,000 of property value, compared to $ 750,000 last year, a measure that will affect 70 percent of commercial properties.

Real estate

Montreal boasts a welcome tax increase of $ 65.8 million, driven by the hot housing market during the pandemic.

With residential taxes increasing by two percent, the typical tax bill for a home assessed at $ 535,815 would increase by $ 83 to $ 4,261 in 2022.

But the change in individual tax bills will vary, depending on the type of home and the evolution of property values ​​in different neighborhoods.

Single-family homes will rise an average of 1.9 percent, condos 0.2 percent, buildings with two to five units by two percent, and buildings with six or more units by four percent.

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The districts that will experience the largest increase in residential taxes are Île-Bizard – Ste-Geneviève (5.1 percent); Verdun and Plateau-Mont-Royal (three percent); Southwest (2.9 percent); Côte-des-Neiges: Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Outremont (2.7%) and Ville-Marie (2.6%).

The increases will be lower in Rivière-des-Prairies – Pointe-aux-Trembles (0.1 percent); Montreal-North (0.6%); Anjou (one percent); Ahuntsic-Cartierville (1.1%); Mercier – Hochelaga – Maisonneuve (1.3 percent); Lachine (1.4%); Villeray – St-Michel – Parc-Extension (1.5 percent); St-Laurent (1.6%) and St-Léonard (1.8%).

Therefore, taxes on single-family homes in Île-Bizard – Ste-Geneviève will increase by 5.1 percent on average, while in northern Montreal, they will increase by only 0.1 percent.

Taxes on condos will rise the most in Île-Bizard – Ste-Geneviève (4.6 percent), while they will decrease by two percent in northern Montreal.

Taxes on apartment buildings with six or more units will increase by 6.7% in Ville-Marie, 5.7% in Île-Bizard-Ste-Geneviève, 5.2% in Outremont and 4.9% in Verdun.

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