Municipal taxes, suburban anger: Municipalities face 10-13% hike in their share of tab for island-wide services
By David Johnston, The GazetteFebruary 4, 2010
The 2010 municipal budget season is over and here are the final standings:
Highest tax increase on the island of Montreal: Baie d'Urfé, 8.5 per cent.
Lowest tax increase on the island of Montreal: Dorval, 3.79 per cent.
Municipality in Greater Montreal with the highest assessed value for its average single-family home: Westmount, $1.02 million.
This week saw the final few of the 82 municipalities in the Montreal region pass their budgets for 2010.
The 15 suburbs on the island of Montreal - most of them in the West Island - were among the last of the 82 to table budgets. They had to wait until the city of Montreal got around to producing its budget on Jan. 13, because that budget assigned the suburbs their shares of the bill for island-wide services like policing and transit.
The increase in those shares turned out to range between 10 and 13 per cent; those hikes that provoked anger and raised questions about tax equity in the Montreal region.
Today, The Gazette is publishing tax data for 25 selected municipalities, on and off the island of Montreal. The municipalities are ranked in descending order of real-estate wealth, as reflected in valuation rolls, with Westmount topping the list.
Main highlights of the 2010 budget season and a summary of fiscal trends
can be found here.djohnston@thegazette.canwest.com