Valérie Plante says she leaves “the house in order”

Photo: Julien Cadena Archives Le Devoir L’administration de Valérie Plante affirme déposer un budget «à la fois rigoureux et ambitieux» pour l’année 2025.

Marco Fortier

Posted yesterday at 11:08 AM Updated yesterday at 3:44 PM

• Montreal

A 4% increase in spending, a slimming down of the administrative machinery — including a staff freeze —, priority given to the maintenance of water and road infrastructure: Valérie Plante’s administration claims to be submitting a budget that is “both rigorous and ambitious” for 2025 — the mayor’s last before the election next November.

The city’s spending will total $7.28 billion, an increase of double the inflation recorded over the past year in the Montreal metropolitan area. The mayor and her team say they are managing tightly to limit tax increases to 2.2% for residential buildings and 1.9% for commercial buildings. The increases were significantly higher in the past two years.

At a press conference Wednesday, Valérie Plante said she is “the mayor who leaves the house in order” after two terms.

“That’s what I’m proud of: we were able to adapt, find solutions, and expand the house from the inside. I want to say: while respecting Montrealers' ability to pay and without touching basic services,” she said when tabling the last budget of her seven-year reign.

A significant portion of next year’s investments will go toward repairing water and sewer lines ($599 million) and maintaining road infrastructure ($550 million), which has been neglected for decades. The abundance of orange cones will be due in large part, once again, to these essential projects, says the mayor.

More than 53% of capital investments over the next decade will be dedicated to road infrastructure or underground pipes. Two-thirds of this 10-year, $24.8-billion capital program will go toward maintaining assets. The rest will be used to build projects such as new neighbourhoods, swimming pools, libraries, bike paths and many other infrastructures.

More modest, but still increasing, sums will be devoted to combating the housing and homelessness crises, which are hitting the metropolis hard. In a sign of the times, property taxes will drop by 1% for condominium owners in the downtown borough of Ville-Marie, where the increase in the number of homeless people is leading to feelings of insecurity.

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Slimming cure

To limit tax growth, the Plante administration plans to accelerate the review of all municipal programs, undertaken two years ago, in the hope of generating annual savings of $200 million. The savings are estimated at $29.3 million in 2025, thanks in part to tightening snow removal contracts, consolidating purchases and managing municipal buildings.

“We're putting everything on the table,” they say at city hall. Luc Rabouin, chair of the executive committee, says he hopes that recurring savings of $200 million will have been identified within three to five years.

The staff freeze is one of the important ingredients of the slimming cure imposed on the municipal administrative machine. Each new hiring will be compensated by the departure of employees. The payroll will still increase by 2.2% due to the compensation provided for in collective agreements, to reach nearly $2.8 billion.

The weight of the payroll in the city’s total expenses has decreased since Projet Montréal came to power in 2017, notes Luc Rabouin: employee compensation represents 38% of the municipal budget, compared to 45% seven years ago.

Major projects

The hiring of 53 police officers will be favored in order to reach the addition of 225 resources to the Montreal Police Department. Other positions will be created in the water, environment, housing and urban planning departments — to support major projects, such as the extension of the blue metro line, the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel construction site and the future Hippodrome, Bridge-Bonaventure and Les Faubourgs districts.

The Plante administration is also adding $100 million over three years to the Loger+ program, which aims to accelerate construction starts and increase the supply of non-market housing. This additional $33 million per year will, among other things, be used to purchase land and buildings to convert into social or affordable housing.

The capital program provides for investments of $567 million over 10 years to purchase land and buildings dedicated to housing. The city has invested $1 billion in housing since 2017 — more than any previous administration, noted Luc Rabouin.

Limited resources

Asked about the financial contribution of Quebec and Ottawa in the area of ​​homelessness and housing, Valérie Plante was scathing. A $100 million investment is slow to materialize because of disagreements between the two levels of government.

“We have to stop putting plasters on a hemorrhage. We want a national plan: $100 million, send it, we have to stop messing around!” declared the mayor of Montreal, who says she is busy managing these social crises, in addition to adapting to climate change, which is the responsibility of higher governments.

Municipalities, and not just Montreal, are doing their best with limited resources. The city depends on property taxes, which represent 63% of its revenues. “Municipal taxation is archaic and completely unsuited” to the needs of cities, declared Valérie Plante.

Increased funding for housing, homelessness and public transit largely explains the 4% increase in spending — higher than last year’s 3.5%, says Valérie Plante. A sum of $30 million is also planned for the development of the cycling network in 2025.

Choices criticized

The opposition believes that Mayor Plante is far from leaving the house in order with new tax increases that exceed inflation. “Since Projet Montréal came to power [in 2017], citizens’ bills have exploded by an average of 38%,” said Ensemble Montréal leader Aref Salem. “And Montrealers don’t feel that there are more services.” »

Mr. Salem also criticizes the Plante administration for not investing in the right places, in a context where the city is facing challenges in terms of security, housing, cleanliness and homelessness. “We have endless fat in the City of Montreal,” maintains Mr. Salem. “We have to control hiring and hire in the right place,” he said, pointing out that the City had 3,540 more employees than it did seven years ago.

With Jeanne Corriveau and Clémence Pavic