Montreal-area drivers to see vehicle tax more than double next year to $150

Car owners in greater Montreal will soonsee the tax they pay on car registration each year more than double after the Communaut mtropolitaine de Montral (CMM) which represents more than 80 Montreal-area municipalities voted Thursday to increase the tax from $59 to $150.

"I think that today we're faced with a choice which is very difficult, which no one wants to make, but which is necessary if we want to maintain public transport," Laval Mayor Stphane Boyer told reporters after the vote Thursday.

Montreal-area municipalities have been battling with the provincial government over public transit funding for years.

They say transit agencies still haven't rebounded from a major drop in ridership during the pandemic.The municipalities say thatcombined with inflation and a siphoning of revenue to the new Rseau express mtropolitain (REM) light-rail network has created a "perfect storm" of lost revenue for transit agencies.

The municipalities asked the province for an extra $421 million to absorb the deficit for the region's public transit authority, the Autorit rgionale de transport mtropolitain (ARTM).

The province is only offering $200 million.Transport Minister Genevive Guilbault has insisted transit agencies need to be more financially responsible and find ways to reduce expenses.

"We don't really have the choice to find new sources of financing, and our options are quite limited," Boyer said.

Tax increase could still be avoided

While the tax increase is set to take effect next year, the CMM has left itself some wiggle room. The municipalities say they'll consider dropping or reducing the tax hike if the province comes up with more money in the meantime.

But the CMM insists the increaseisn't a bluff.

"It's not a strategy. We're not here to be in a political war," Boyer said.

"There are people who depend on public transportation to get to the hospital, to go to work every day," Boyer said.

Montreal Mayor Valrie Plante said it was a difficult choice to askdrivers to pay more.

"There's no one here that gets up in the morning saying, 'How do we ask taxpayers for more money?'" Plante said, insisting the province had backed the CMM into a corner.

"We're acting pragmatically.We need to think outside the box," Plante said.

Some municipalities call tax increase 'nonsense'

Not all municipalities supported the idea.

Some, mostly south and west of Montrealwith few public transit options, felt it wasn't fair to make theirdrivers pay more.

"There are some municipalities that currently have no buses on their territory, so this is why we voted against," Mercier, Que., Mayor Lise Michaud said.

"We don't have any public transit and now we'll have a tax increase for the cars? For us it's nonsense,"Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon said.

Boyer said municipalities that have little or no public transit service still benefit from a well-funded public system.

"It's a collective need and we must maintain it," Boyer said.

"If the hundreds of thousands of people who board the Metro every day all had a car, we would see hellish congestion," he said.

L'alliance TRANSIT, a coalition of environmental and public transit advocacy groups, supportedthe CMM's tax increase.

"The municipal community is doing its part. Minister Guilbault must now do hers," Samuel Pag-Plouffe, co-ordinator of the group, said in statement Thursday.

Pag-Plouffe called on Guilbault to come up with a five-year plan with municipalities that would offer stable public transit funding with increases.

Guilbault has said she intends to resolve the issue of transit agency deficits before the summer.