Municipal taxation: Diversifying city funding

Last updated December 22, 2022
Reading time: 2 min

How can Montréal vary its sources of revenue and make its ambitions tangible in a way that is aligned with the population’s ability to pay? This dialogue around taxation in Montreal aims to find solutions for funding city activities other than property taxes.

At a time when towns and cities’ expenditures are soaring, Montréal is taking action to make sure there is stable, sufficient and recurrent funding for municipal services without passing the bill to future generations. 

In order to create a new tax and budget framework, the city wants to engage in a dialogue around a number of initiatives.

Forum on Montréal municipal taxation

Date: November 7, 2022

Video Capture

Here are some video extracts from the forum, where the following topics were explored:

  • The city’s ambitions and budget challenges
  • Roles and responsibilities of the city and other levels of government
  • The financial framework
  • Ways to diversify funding sources

Presentations concerning budget challenges

Report

Reference document

This event brought together some 100 members of Montréal civil society and agglomeration partners from the municipal, economic, community, environmental, cultural, university, transportation and housing sectors.

The objective was to set guidelines for the next stages of the project. The forum provided a coordinated and updated overview of the city’s roles and responsibilities, its budgetary limits and the importance of tax and territorial equity. 

At the forum, the city has presented the financial issues and challenges it must solve in order to ensure Montréal’s solidarity, safety and resilience for future generations. The city must find solutions while considering the following points:

  • Montréal is dealing with infrastructure maintenance deficits and territorial inequities that it inherited from the past.
  • Montréal plays a leading role in Québec in a number of areas. The city has expenditures that surpass merely providing services to residents. 
  • The 20th century financial and fiscal framework is no longer adapted to present-day reality. The city wants to work with the population to find solutions that can help it diversify its funding sources. 

Municipal Taxation Summit

Date: 2023

The summit will bring together all partners from civil society and the municipal sector. Its objective is to identify tangible economic solutions and new, recurring sources of revenue for the city. 

The summit will help the city create a road map to renegotiate the 2024 fiscal pact with the provincial government. 

Presenting solutions

Selected solutions will be presented when the 2020-2024 financial partnership agreement between the provincial government and Québec’s municipalities is renewed. This agreement expires on December 31, 2024.