Canada/City of Montreal cancels automatic indexation of elected officials' salaries for 2024

The City of Montreal abandons automatic indexation of the salaries of its 103 elected officials. The announcement follows the publication of the 2024 budget, tabled on November 15, which includes a 4.9% increase in residential property taxes, the highest increase in 14 years.

We wish to remain consistent with the current economic context and the efforts required of both the public service and the population to tighten the city's finances," said Valérie Plante's administration.

For each new fiscal year, a mechanism automatically adjusts the total remuneration of elected officials according to the increase in theconsumer price index (CPI) for Quebec, established by Statistics Canada for the previous year.

This mechanism prevents municipal councillors from voting salary increases for themselves, which could lead to conflicts.

Between 2014 and 2022, elected officials' salaries rose by 13.3% in line with the consumer price index, the administration detailed.administration, pointing out that over the same period, other city employees received increases of over 18%.

Fear of a negative reaction from public opinion, in a difficult economic context, seems to have prompted the administration to abandon the automatic indexation of elected officials' salaries for 2024.

On Tout un matin, the president of the executive committee of the City of Montreal, Luc Rabouin, justified the overall increase in the budget, which totals nearly 7 billion, by inflation. All our costs are going up, from snow removal to garbage collection," explained Rabouin, who says he wants to preserve basic services.

The creation of 400 new positions is not superfluous, he added. The city plans to create 200 new positions in the boroughs, a hundred more police officers at the SPVM, 33 more people at the Fire Department, and to hire 20 additional school crossing guards.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/