Calculation error of 2 million dollars annually - Beaconsfield goes to court to recuperate taxes paid in excess to the City of Montreal
BEACONSFIELD, QC, Nov. 15, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - The Mayor of Beaconsfield, Georges Bourelle, announces that the municipality is starting legal proceedings to reclaim approximately 2 million dollars per year from the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal, paid in excess for services rendered by the Montreal Agglomeration since 2020.
This overpayment was caused by a change made to the algorithm used to establish the proportionate shares of the 16 related municipalities on the island of Montreal for regional services, such as police, public transit, water, etc., which has penalized municipalities with higher residential density.
"After a full year of discussions with the Government of Quebec and the City of Montreal to find a fair solution for our citizens, we are confronted with a dismissal that forces us to uphold our rights in court," explains Mayor Bourelle.
He regrets this approach especially in view of the fact that the proof is clear and clean. "Due to the erroneous elimination of the neutrality coefficient in the formula for determining the proportionate shares, we have paid an additional two million dollars in taxes to Montreal for absolutely nothing. We have provided clear evidence, but no corrections have been made", states Mayor Bourelle.
Despite the request of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Andrée Laforest, the serious discussions lead by the Beaconsfield administration have not succeeded in influencing neither the Government nor the Montreal administration to correct this financial penalty inflicted on Beaconsfield taxpayers.
"As responsible public managers, if you make an honest mistake, you have to correct it in the same vein. This is what the Government and the Montreal administration should have done," believes Mayor Bourelle.
Both 2020 payments of Beaconsfield's proportionate share to the Montreal Agglomeration have been made under protest with the view of recuperating the 2 million dollars paid in excess. Lawyer Marc-André LeChasseur, expert in municipal law at Bélanger Sauvé law firm and professor at McGill University, was mandated by City Council to represent the municipality in this case in February of this year.
SOURCE City of Beaconsfield
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