As provincial elections approached, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante asked for the next government’s cooperation to ensure greater “fiscal equity” between the province and the municipality. The Plante administration therefore hopes that its financial means can be “at the peak of its responsibility”.
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“We have ambitions, but we often lack the means,” the mayor recalled, calling for new, stable sources of income for the metropolis.
Currently, the city depends primarily on property taxes to fund its coffers, while these account for 63% of its revenue. In June, the Plante administration announced the launch of a project on taxation to get out of this “dependency” in the fall.
“For me, the issue of taxation is the sinews of war,” Ms. Plante explained.
She gave the example of the $700 million ozone plant project being built by the city to purify water discharged into the river. “We won’t wait for leadership before turning our good ideas into action, but it’s obvious I’d like to have the means to pursue my ambitions,” she reiterated.
Regarding public safety, the Plante administration wants the government to cover the costs paid by the city for services under Quebec’s responsibility.
Ms. Plante gave the example of the first responder service provided by the Fire Department (SIM), whose annual operating deficit is estimated at $12 million, and the cost of police investigation and metropolitan status intervention services, whose expenditure is approximately $51 million per year .
Requests
Ms Plante took the floor on Monday to put forward her demands for the elections and to demand that the next government come up with a “clear” plan on how to respond to the metropolis’ demands.
“The next provincial elections will be a pivotal moment in Quebec’s history to make the necessary social decisions,” Ms. Plante said.
She called on the next government to agree to her administration’s “future vision,” particularly on the issues of housing, climate and urban security.
To that end, Ms Plante called on the provincial parties to each come up with a plan on how they will support the metropolis’ vision “for the next 50 years” with “concrete and quantified” responses.
“I expect the next Quebec government to share Montrealers’ vision for the future,” Ms. Plante said.
Not specific
For their part, the official opposition regretted not having been invited to join the city’s united front.
“The requests we heard were ‘align with my vision.’ There were no clearly quantified requests,” sums up Abdelhaq Sari, City Councilor of Ensemble Montréal.
“That will not do. You have a vision, you believe in it, but you won’t ask everyone to follow you,” he added.
For him, the whole thing lacked concreteness. Rather, the Plante administration should have quantified and specified its demands so that it could ask the next government to fund them.
“We had to take more time after returning from vacation not to do it on a corner of the table,” he said.