Montreal tables $7.28 billion budget for 2025, property taxes increasing by 2.2 per cent

The City of Montreal tabled its $7.28 billion operating budget for 2025 on Wednesday, including a 2.2 per cent average increase for residential property taxes.

The budget is $282.4 million more than in 2024, but the property tax increase is well below 2024 at 4.9 per cent.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante’s Projet Montreal administration also released its $24.8 billion 10-year capital expenditure program.

This is Plante’s eighth budget and the last one she will present as mayor after announcing that she would not be seeking re-election next year.

“It is a budget that responds to the urgent priorities that the city must face and that continues to position Montreal as a metropolis of the future, anchored in its time," she said. "I am proud to leave the house in order and to offer the next administration solid programs to continue building an affordable, safe, dynamic metropolis that is adapted to climate challenges."

Here are the increases in residential property taxes by borough:

• Ahuntsic-Cartierville: 2.0 per cent
• Anjou: 2.7 per cent
• Cote-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grace : 2.9 per cent
• Lachine: 2.8 per cent
• LaSalle: 1.9 per cent
• Plateau—Mont-Royal: 1.7 per cent
• Sud-Ouest: 2.1 per cent
• Ile-Bizard—Sainte-Genevieve: 3.4 per cent
• Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve: 3.1 per cent
• Montreal North: 2.7 per cent
• Outremont: 1.9 per cent
• Pierrefonds-Roxboro: 4.1 per cent
• Riviere-des-Prairies—Pointe-aux-Trembles: 2.8 per cent
• Rosemont-La Petite Patrie: 2.0 per cent
• Saint-Laurent: 1.7 per cent
• Saint-Leonard: 2.0 per cent
• Verdun: 2.3 per cent
• Ville-Marie  0.2 per cent
• Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-Extension: 2.4 per cent

Plante promises to limit the tax rate hike to the inflation rate, but the opposition Ensemble Montreal says the city missed the mark.

"Contrary to what is promised to them, they're getting an increase of 2.2 per cent, which is not what was promised, which is not what inflation is," said Saint-Laurent borough mayor Alain DeSousa.

Property taxes increased by an average of 1.9 per cent in the non-residential sector, but several boroughs will see much higher hikes. For example, Lachine's rate will rise 9.6 per cent, LaSalle will go up 5.8 per cent and Saint-Laurent will rise 7.7 per cent.

"When we see the hikes in Saint-Laurent, non-residential, it's going to hit hard," said DeSousa. "Clearly we're not happy about that. I don't think the business community will be thrilled to see that."

The city says it also plans to increase its housing department budget by $100 million over the next three years and build thousands of off-market housing units.

The city also plans to add more building inspectors, increase aid to tenants rights organizations and continue to buy up rooming houses that offer low-cost housing.

Montreal's budget includes an additional $3 million for fighting homelessness, bringing the total budget to nearly $10 million.

Plante says the city is also waiving a fee that non-profits and community organizations pay in lieu of property taxes, which she says amounts to $10.5 million in savings per year for 700 organizations.

The city notes that it is limiting new hires in 2025, and as such, the proportion of the 2025 budget to salaries will drop to 38 per cent from 45 in 2016.

With reporting from CTV News journalist Matt Grillo.

With files from The Canadian Press.