Mayor Plante stated in a press conference today, “Montreal to freeze taxes, the people of Montreal have been touched hard by the COVID-19 crisis and deserve a break. I’m very excited to announce that the property tax for residents and merchants falling under the centre city will be frozen for 2021,” The Montreal Mayor also wrote on her Facebook page afterwards. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been mobilized to help Montrealers through this unprecedented crisis, while ensuring sound management of the city’s finances. This freeze of taxes is in addition to the other measures already put in place by our administration to make the metropolis come out of this even stronger and more resilient.”
The news will be welcome by many as they face even more challenges with the city now under COVID-19 Red Alert. We wanted to give a little bit of relief to Montrealers’ unfortunately, it is not over, so we are trying to give them a break with this tax freeze. Plante said at the conference. When asked about the demerged municipalities and if they will also be freezing the agglomeration taxes, Executive Committee Chairman Benoit Dorais answered, “We cannot freeze the taxes for the demerged municipalities’ but we are working hard with our finance department that the ‘cote par’ (rating) will be the lowest possible.”
Montreal is expected to have a deficit of between $109 million and $129 million and will be presenting their full financial update at a city council meeting on October 19th.
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