Subjects: ECO, AVO, CMG
Still overpaying by $150M in 2020
"Montreal balances its budget by overtaxing citizens of suburban municipalities!"
- Mayor Georges Bourelle
BEACONSFIELD, QC, Nov. 29, 2019 /CNW/ - Beaconsfield Mayor Georges Bourelle deplores the fact that once again, Montreal overtaxes the 250,000 citizens of the 15 suburban municipalities by 150 million dollars per year to balance its budget.
"For Beaconsfield, this represents a surcharge of 12 million dollars per year ? an equivalent of $600 per person. For a property inhabited by a couple, $1,200 goes to Montreal without any services added in our City. For a couple living with two children, Montreal takes $2,400 out of our pockets to balance its expenses. This is completely unacceptable!" denounces the Mayor of Beaconsfield.
As vice-president of the Montreal Agglomeration's Finance and Administration Commission, Mr. Bourelle knows what he is talking about.
"Since I was elected Mayor, we have been trying all sorts of means to make the Montreal administration aware that this situation is unfair and, even worse, escalates every year to the detriment of our residents. Montreal is turning a deaf ear for the simple reason that it is benefiting from it", he says.
According to Mr. Bourelle, Montreal must stop this serious injustice which it conceals with complicated mathematical formulae that violate every rule of justice and of social and financial equity in terms of public funds management.
"The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Andrée Laforest, has also urged Montreal and the municipalities to find a new, equitable formula in order to restore the fairness that every tax payer on the island of Montreal should rightfully expect", reminds Mr. Bourelle.
The Minister has set the deadline for August 2020. "Montreal must stop systematically obstructing the restoration of equitable and fair sharing of Agglomeration service costs for the people in the suburban cities of which Beaconsfield is a part," concludes Mr. Bourelle.
The administrative system in place at the Agglomeration allows the City of Montreal to impose all its financial decisions and political choices on the 15 suburban cities, without them having any say.
SOURCE City of Beaconsfield
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