Dollard mayor says more than 50 per cent of DDO's taxes will be going to the Montreal agglo.
Dollard-des-Ormeaux Mayor Alex Bottausci says de-merged cities like his are getting the “short end of the stick” from Montreal’s Agglomeration Council.
Bottausci was fuming after Dollard was hit with a $7.3 million increase in agglo transfer payments for police, firefighting and other shared municipal services across the island.
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Montreal’s demerged suburbs are facing an 8.1 per cent increase on average in their 2023 agglo transfer payments, while the city of Montreal’s payment is pegged at 2.7 per cent.
“We expected an increase in the shared services bill from the Montreal Agglomeration for our residents. However, this is an average increase of $400 per household compared to the city of Montreal’s increase at $69 per household,” Bottausci said.
The mayor is not yet sure how much the average Dollard homeowner will be paying in municipal taxes in 2023, but he did confirm it will be more than last year.
“We don’t know just yet because with this announcement (from Montreal) we’re going back to the drawing board. For the first time in the history of Dollard, and I think for some other cities as well, we’re paying the largest dollar amount ever to Montreal at $7.3 million.”
He pointed out that more than 50 per cent of Dollard’s taxes will now be going to the Montreal agglo.
“The rest of the taxes, now less than 50 per cent of our budget, will be going to Dollard services such as our parks, our rinks, our Civic Centre, our snow removal and so on,” he said. “So we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board because in order to deliver something that is palatable, that taxpayers can swallow, we may have to make some cuts on our side.”
Bottausci urged Montreal to rein in its own spending.
“It’s been amazing to hear Montreal make all these great announcements of adding hundreds more buses, 250 more police officers and free public transportation for seniors, but I’m asking myself, ‘How much of this coming to Dollard?”
“I have no concrete plan from the Montreal agglomeration sitting on my desk today in terms of any of the files I’ve just mentioned.”
Bottausci said the financial formula for determining agglo cost sharing is creating an “inequitable situation.”
“The formula itself is producing an unfairly weighted system that favours the agglomerated cities. And because it’s unfairly weighted for Montreal, it’s forcing us demerged cities to change the fabric of our community.
“With tax increases that are going on, do we have to start building 30- or 40-floor office buildings in DDO? Let that sink in for a few seconds. I’m not proposing this. Not at all, but what I’m fundamentally getting at is I need to change the fabric of why people comes to live in Dollard, in the West Island, because we’re suburbanites.”
Bottauci said Dollard city officials will try to mitigate the tax hit as best they can.
“My attention now turns to our residents, and how this affects families in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. Our objective is to provide relief for our residents in the next budget,” the mayor said.
jmeagher@postmedia.com
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