Saint-Lambert’s 2024 budget: Rigorous management is starting to pay off

At the special meeting held on December 4, City Council tabled the 2024 budget for the Ville de Saint-Lambert.

Thanks to an improved financial situation, the tax increase will remain below the rate of inflation, at 4.95%, even with enhanced services to citizens.

“The city’s financial situation is more encouraging. Our stringent management over the past two years, combined with a favourable budgetary situation and a less-than-expected increase in the share paid to the Agglomeration gives us some room to manoeuvre to take care of our city. In this budget, we are investing in our infrastructure and our services to citizens, while enhancing a number of ongoing activities that are important to the community,” said Mayor Pascale Mongrain.

The budget is therefore set at $70,237,012, which represents an increase of 7.34% compared to 2023. It includes all general property taxes that cover services offered by Saint-Lambert, the Longueuil Agglomeration, and the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM).

For residences, this translates into a tax rate of $0.9372 per $100 of assessment, compared to $0.8930 in 2023. The average tax bill for a single-family residence evaluated at $823,292 will therefore increase by $364 for 2024.

Highlights

To ensure quality services, the City is investing additional resources in several priority areas, including:

• · Public Works: increasing the number of weeks for temporary blue-collar employees tasked with infrastructure maintenance and repair and ensuring the health of the urban canopy;
• Urban planning: converting the position of Head of Permits and Inspection into a permanent position and adding interns throughout the year to improve the quality and service response time for residents;
• Engineering: adding a project manager position to enable us to carry out more infrastructure repairs and apply for additional subsidies;
• Public transit: extending free public transit to all seniors by offering them monthly “Accès 65 Hors Pointe” passes.

Tax equity in the Agglomeration

The issue of tax equity within the Agglomeration remains unresolved. City Council will continue to work on this front, focusing in particular on mixed expenditures and the constitutional aspects of the formula establishing contributory shares.

Conclusion

“Despite this good news, our financial situation still poses major challenges. We need to continue our efforts, call into question every expenditure, and explore new opportunities to consolidate the improvement in our finances,” Mrs. Mongrain concluded.

The detailed budget is available on the Budget page.