By now many have received their property tax bills. This article hopes to demonstrate that your City Council did our utmost to keep budget increases low for Pointe-Claire citizens.
Holding to tight budget discipline: 4.8% instead of 6.4%
The hike in Pointe-Claire operating expenses for 2024 was held to $8.3 million, an increase of 4.8% over 2023. Revenues from property taxes which represent 161.5 million of our total 181.5 million dollar budget will go up by 4.2%. We managed this despite the fact that Pointe-Claire must remit five million dollars more than last year to the Montreal Agglomeration (“Agglo”): $85.8 million up from $80.7 million in 2023 , a 6.4% increase.
Did you know that Pointe-Claire has no direct control over the budget planning process performed by the city of Montreal’s Executive Committee?
The City of Montreal alone determines the Agglo expenses and decide which expenses are incurred by Montreal and which are shared by the demerged cities and towns. The city of Montreal also decides how to apply the complicated formula which calculates the ‘quote-part’ or share of the Agglo expense burden to each of the demerged municipalities. Pointe-Claire’s quote-part works out to about 2.7% of the Agglo budget.
Where does our remittance money go?
As a reminder, the 85.8 million dollars we will remit to the Agglo is to pay our share for police, fire, public transit, and infrastructure for drinking water, and sewage treatment, as well as other Agglo wide services for culture, heritage, and the environment. In addition, the city passes on to our citizens the fee the Agglo charges Pointe-Claire for the drinking water we consume. It also finances our capital investment program for infrastructure improvements. In 2024 this will come to $35.4 million financed through long term loans, and past budget surpluses attributed to unbudgeted “welcome taxes” and the parks and green-spaces fund contributions charged for real estate transactions.
What about all those condos?
It is important to understand that real estate development pays for almost a fifth of our capital investment in roads, buildings, parks, and heavy equipment. So new condos and apartments allow our city to keep its long-term debt down while maintaining the quality of community life our citizens enjoy. It should also be pointed out that 2025 and 2026 will see significant increases in capital spending - $52.7 and $63.3 million respectively - to avoid sacrifices to our collective quality of life (e.g. roads, water, snow clearing). Of course if revenues from real estate development subside, there will be important decisions to be made: will taxes go up? Or will capital investment go down, reducing the amount spent on our all-important services.
But those decisions are for next year and the years to come. This year, we believe we’re bringing you good news. Our total long term debt is forecast to drop from $85.4 million in 2023 to $71.9 million in 2024.
Who determined my property tax assessment?
Quebec law allows us six categories for tax assessment:
1. Residential of one to six units;
2. Residential of more than six units;
3. Commercial value up to one million $ ;
4. Commercial value more than one million $;
5. Industrial
6. Vacant land
The six tax rates are spread across these different categories to minimize increases on our residents and small merchants who are the least able to afford them. So while our overall budget went up 4.8%, a resident owning a home valued at $674,216, the average assessed value in Pointe-Claire, would see their taxes go up by only $158.
In sum, we feel that Pointe-Claire residents have been presented a fiscally prudent budget. Our tax contributions pay for 1/3 of the city’s total expenses with the remaining 2/3 coming from commercial and industrial rate-payers. And we kept the rise in expenses to a minimum for each category.