Budget

Budget 2021
At the meeting of December 14, 2020, City Council adopted the 2021 budget. You can consult the presentation by clicking here. (in French)

The new budget reflects City Council’s commitment to ensuring sound management of our municipal finances and to delivering high-quality services at the lowest possible cost. It was also drawn up in accordance with the following priorities.

• controlling the wage bill;
• not increasing administrative divisions’ budgets for variable recurring expenses;
• not increasing the tax bill for local expenses.

This budget, which is set at $58,875,213, includes all general property taxes that cover services offered by Saint-Lambert, the Agglomeration of Longueuil, and the Communauté metropolitan de Montréal (CMM).

The City of Saint-Lambert, as the other related municipalities, collects the taxes required for the Longueuil Agglomeration’s operations, in the form of a contributory “share,” which is paid directly to the Longueuil Agglomeration. For more information, you can consult the budget of the Longueuil agglomeration. (in French)

Thanks to rigorous management of local spending, the increase in the overall tax bill will be limited to only 1.35%. The tax rate for local services is frozen for 2021. The increase is entirely attributable to the 4.75% increase in the share of costs for Agglomeration services. 

The current formula for calculating the share of our taxes that goes to the Longueuil Agglomeration has the effect of placing a heavier tax burden on cities with a high proportion of their tax base coming from the residential sector, as is the case for Saint-Lambert. Using this calculation, Saint-Lambert pays approximately 1.5 times more for its Agglomeration services compared to other cities. The owner of a typical home in our city pays $3,062, while residents in other Agglomeration cities pay an average of $2,041 for the same services.¹ 

¹These figures are based on the value of an average home in Saint-Lambert in 2020. 

New features 

The 2020 budget maintains the focus on offering quality services. Some measures will therefore be renewed once again in 2021:

• Free access to sports facilities offered to organizations whose services are intended for young people in order to promote physical exercise as a healthy lifestyle;
• Free public transport maintained for low-income seniors, by offering monthly Accès 65 HORS POINTE transit passes.
• Maintaining investments for tree planting.

City Council has also decided to introduce the following new measures: 

• Addition of an urban planning consultant and a municipal engineering technician for water management;
• Updating of the snow removal policy and procedures to allow overnight street parking in winter starting in the fall of 2021.

Investments

Controlling the debt is the main challenge faced by City Council in terms of the budget, particularly as major investments are essential if we are to continue remedying the cumulative maintenance deficit in our municipal infrastructures in order to ensure quality service for citizens. 

Revenues

The main variations in revenues are explained as follows:

• Transfer duties: We have increased this revenue based on the forecast revenue for 2020 as well as the average revenue from transfer duties of the last few years.
• Grants/Subsidies: From now on, capital repayments must be presented as a reduction in the debt service, and repayment of interest must be presented as a grant/subsidy.
• Other revenues: A decrease of approximately $50,000 is attributable to the contribution from the free surplus. 

Expenditures

The main variations in expenditures are explained as follows:

• Road network: There has been an increase in salaries, which was offset by a decrease in other departments, and an increase in the budget for snow removal.
• Environmental health: There has been a significant decrease in the cost of removing waste materials and the addition of transportation costs for recyclable materials to the new site
• Employer contributions: There has been an adjustment to the amount to be provided for in the future based on actuarial valuation, which takes into account the decrease in interest rates.
• Debt service: The debt service has increased following a new issue at a favourable rate of 1.7%. The loan is mainly to finance work on Riverside. The working capital loan has been completely repaid.