Overtaxation by Montréal Agglomeration - Beaconsfield increases claim from 6 to 10 million dollars

BEACONSFIELD, QC, Sept. 21, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - As predicted by Mayor Georges Bourelle, the municipal administration and its financial experts, the effect of the increased property values generated by the new three-year assessment role (2023-2025) will double the unjust overtaxation imposed by the Montréal Agglomeration on Beaconsfield taxpayers to four million dollars per year.

The previous role (2020-2022) had caused a tax surcharge of two million dollars annually for Beaconsfield. The new role will add another two million dollars per year.

"Our lawsuit against the City of Montréal and the Québec Government had already reached six million dollars. With the new role, it will increase by more than four million dollars per year for each of the next three years. The amount of taxes paid in excess to Montréal will represent ten million dollars in 2023, 14 million dollars in 2024, and 18 million dollars in 2025 because of this new role. We are overtaxed by Montréal without receiving any additional services," decries Mayor Georges Bourelle.

This injustice started in 2019 with the adoption of a Ministerial Order that deviated from the rules instituted in 2008 regarding the cost-sharing for regional services, such as police, fire safety, public transit, drinking water and wastewater management. The omission of a neutrality coefficient in the calculation algorithm falsifies the historic equity which had previously established the proportionate shares of the 16 municipalities on the island of Montréal. The Agglomeration budget is solely controlled by the metropolis which grants itself an alleviation of its contribution at the expense of the related municipalities on the island.

To protect its taxpayers, the Beaconsfield administration had filed a lawsuit in 2019. "Pending a court ruling, we will adjust our claims every year to correct this perfect injustice," states Mayor Bourelle, former big business executive and co-chair of the Finance and Administration Commission of the Montréal Agglomeration.

The new three-year role has the same penalizing impact for Beaconsfield as its predecessor. The exuberant real estate market of recent years has led to a rise in property values, averaging 32.4% across the island of Montréal and 39.3% in Beaconsfield.

The mayor of Beaconsfield points out that his administration has undertaken all the appropriate and necessary actions to settle this over-invoicing with the Québec Government as well as the City of Montréal before initiating legal procedures to secure the rights of its taxpayers and protect the citizens of Beaconsfield.

"It is an intolerable nonsense and injustice. We pay more taxes with no added services because of an erroneous calculation algorithm. The validity of our legal action is now more apparent than ever. If we had not acted in 2020, we would have lost our recourse rights, as is the case for the other municipalities on the island. The new role proves that this over-invoicing will be repeated every year and increased every three years, thus adding on to it. It simply does not make any sense", deplores Mayor Bourelle.

SOURCE Ville de Beaconsfield

Mayor's Office, [email protected], beaconsfield.ca