Forget the chainsaw, the ax or even the pruners.
Published at 5:00 a.m.
Valérie Plante’s administration presented its eighth and final budget before the next municipal elections in a year. Montreal’s spending will increase by 4% next year, to $7.3 billion, an even bigger increase than this year (+3.5%).
We are far from austerity, let’s say.
The City did not use the chainsaw in its finances, but it still used other, more surgical instruments to cut a portion of its budget. Think of a scalpel.
The start of something resembling a cost-cutting exercise.
Finally !
The Plante administration spends a lot, it’s true. But two years ago she also launched a major review of all the City’s budget items. The objective: to identify savings to be made within the immense municipal apparatus.
This examination made it possible to save a first tranche of 2 million in last year’s budget. Small change, on a Montreal scale.
But in 2025, savings will reach 29.3 million, we learned on Wednesday.
It remains quite marginal – barely 0.4% of the City’s total expenditure – but it is only a first step, promised Valérie Plante and her number 2, Luc Rabouin.
This rationalization plan will continue continuously and should generate recurring savings of $200 million within three to five years, “maximum”.
(I mark November 2029 on my calendar.)
How did Montreal manage to find almost 30 million in savings in its 2025 budget?
First: by putting a brake on hiring. No new positions will be created next year in the central city, it has been confirmed. If new resources must be added, an equivalent number of positions will be eliminated in order to remain in balance.
It was about time: more than 3,500 new workers have been added to the municipal apparatus since the start of the Plante administration in 2017. This pace had become unsustainable.
Forty-six positions will still be created next year in the boroughs, which will bring the total number of municipal employees to 25,198. Their overall compensation, including contributions to their retirement plan and other social benefits, will amount to 2.79 billion, 60 million more than this year.
(Average per employee: $110,700.)
To achieve its savings target of 200 million within three to five years, the City also plans to invest in new technological tools which could ultimately replace certain employees.
Montreal also reviewed its contracts with its external suppliers, including snow removal. Some prices had doubled in recent years, so bringing operations in-house saved millions.
Among other “optimizations”, the City has reviewed its procurement policies to carry out more group purchases. This strategy has already saved 5 million.
Outgoing mayor Valérie Plante and her team were visibly very proud of the budget they presented on Wednesday. They managed to contain the increase in residential taxes to 2.2%, around the rate of inflation, after two years of increases totaling almost 10%.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante (center), with executive committee president Luc Rabouin and general manager Benoit Dagenais, as they leave the budget presentation.
The latest Plante budget includes increased investments in housing, with almost 50 million additional. There are also many for public transport, mobility and greening projects, and the repair of underground infrastructure.
On the other hand, the City has acquired some additional sources of revenue, such as the tax on vacant land. It will be doubled and should bring in 24 million.
Valérie Plante believes she has “left the house in order” for the person who will succeed her as town hall. His opponents vigorously dispute this assertion. Montrealers have 11 months left to figure things out.
