Speakers
Description
Over the years, the Government of Québec has granted Québec municipalities extensive monetary levy powers. Aiming to enhance their autonomy and recognize their role as proximity governments, the provincial government provided municipalities with general taxation and regulatory charges powers in 2018 (Tremblay-Racicot et al., 2023). In 2023, additional powers were introduced, enabling municipalities to vary property tax rates based on different sectors or any characteristic of the property assessment roll, excluding the property’s value.
Although these new powers do not render municipalities fully financially autonomous, they allow diversification of revenue sources and reduce dependence on property taxes (Federation of Canadian Municipalities, 2024). They also offer opportunities to achieve various public policy objectives, such as mitigating or adapting to climate change, combating land speculation, or promoting a circular economy, through ecofiscal measures or by making property taxes more progressive. For instance, municipalities can impose regulatory charges targeting major traffic generators to encourage transportation management plans, tax vacant land or buildings, address underdensity through floor area ratio taxes, or impose higher tax rates on luxury properties ("monster houses") and lower rates on denser housing or areas with vulnerable populations.
In a pre-electoral context, many municipal officials and managers are questioning how to prudently use these new legislative powers, particularly as cities have historically tended to keep tax rates low while relying on new property assessments to grow their tax base. To address this, the City of Mascouche, located in Quebec, sought the services of our research team to assist in identifying and planning fiscal measures to prioritize over the next five years. This collaboration resulted in the December 2024 submission of a 2025–2030 Strategic Revenue Plan, offering recommendations to guide the City in prioritizing and phasing the deployment of fiscal tools (Tremblay-Racicot et al., 2024).
This paper aims to showcase the novel methodology developed to identify priority measures among over 25 documented fiscal tools. These tools were selected based on a diagnostic assessment of the City’s financial profile and four prioritization criteria: (1) fiscal potential; (2) sound administrative management, including legal risks; (3) social acceptability and equity; and (4) environmental efficiency. The application of these criteria will be detailed, as well as the final choices made by the municipal administration and elected officials.
While these decisions reflect difficult trade-offs between fiscal potential and environmental efficiency, administrative simplicity and legal risk emerged as dominant factors guiding the choices. The co-development process and exploration of new possibilities also led to the prioritization of innovative, progressive fiscal measures that are environmentally sustainable. Combined with measures adopted in other Quebec municipalities, these advancements suggest a paradigm shift in the financial planning approaches of Quebec municipalities.
References
Federation of Canadian Municipalities (2024) Making Canada’s Growth a Success: The case for a municipal growth framework. [Online] available at Making Canada's Growth a Success | Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Tremblay-Racicot, F. (dir.), Couture, J. et Béliveau, L. (collab.), (2024). Plan stratégique de revenu 2025-2030. Ville de Mascouche Proposition finale. Québec, Centre de recherche sur la gouvernance, École nationale d’administration publique, 31 p.
Tremblay-Racicot, F. , Prémont, M.-C. et K. Leclair (2023) “Overview of ecofiscal powers for municipalities: implementation of new measures in Québec”. Canadian Journal of Public Administration 66 (2): pp. 1-20.
| Keywords | Eco taxation; Regulatory charges; General taxation powers; Fiscal planning |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
