Plateau property tax hike decried as bad for local business

Plateau-Mont-Royal residents and business ownerssay their neighbourhood is bound to suffer from heftyproperty tax increases announced Wednesday in the City of Montreal's new budget.

Residential property taxes are set to rise by 3.7 per cent in the borough, compared to an average increase of 1.9 per centacross Montreal's 19 boroughs.

Meanwhile, business owners in Plateau-Mont-Royal face a property tax increase of 2.9 per cent compared to a city average of just 0.9 per cent.

• INTERACTIVE MAP:Residential property tax increases by borough

Mark Hird's clothing store, Friperie Peek-a-Boo, on Rachel Street Easthas been catering to Plateau parents for 18 years.

He said tax increases combined with seemingly incessant road work on the borough's main streets and other irritants are leading to more and more shutteredbusinesses around the neighbourhood.

"Business is going down, costs are going up. There's only so much one business can take before they have to decide whether to close or move,"Hird said.

Local businesses are a big reason why shoppers come to the Plateau, he said.

"There's an interesting mix [of businesses], but that mix is no longer going to exist if taxes are going up and everything else. It's just going to be more closed doors,"he said.

Plateau homeowner Gwenaelle Tual said the $300 to$500taxincrease she faces means less money going into the local economy.

"It's money that we would otherwise be spending in the neighbourhood that we'll now have to spend on taxes,"she said.

Exploding property values

PlateauMont-Royal Mayor Luc Ferrandez said "95 per cent" of the increase is coming from the city, not the borough.

He said the borough administration has done everything it can to reduce costs on its end, but further cuts would affect front-line services.

Ferrandez said Plateau-Mont-Royal's expenses are increasing at a rate that's lowerthan Ville-Marie's, but exploding property values are driving property taxes up.

"We've asked them to take that into account," he said.