2023-12-06 21:34:19
Quebec merchants received the 4.7% tax increase announced by the City on Wednesday as “a slap in the face”. While many are still recovering from the difficulties caused by the pandemic, this new increase does nothing to ease their concerns.
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“We knew it was going to hurt, because we know the economic context. It’s the accumulation of the two that is difficult to digest,” argues the general director of the SDC Quartier Saint-Jean-Baptiste, François Blay Martel.
Alongside the general directors of the commercial development companies of Saint-Roch, Maguire, Saint-Sauveur, Montcalm, and Old Quebec, he deplores the decision of the municipal administration to put even more pressure on commercial arteries.
In the hotel sector, “it’s even worse,” maintains Michelle Doré. Accommodation entrepreneurs pay their taxes according to their income and not according to the value of their building, which worsens their situation according to the one who owns several hotels in Old Quebec.
Photo Stevens Leblanc
“It’s a big slap in the face. I was expecting something around 4%, but this is very intense. Our operating costs are increasing and we are being subjected to one of the biggest increases in a long time.”
Broken promises
For the president and CEO of the Quebec Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Steeve Lavoie, Mayor Bruno Marchand is moving dangerously away from his 2021 election promises with this new budget year.
“Quebec is one of the cities where merchants are taxed the most in Canada. Mr. Marchand said he wanted local companies to be among the 50% least taxed in the country before the end of his mandate. We’re moving away from it.”
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Same story for the president and CEO of the Corporation of Quebec Industrial Parks, Pierre Dolbec, who is disappointed to see the members of his organization “paying for the gift that is given to residents”.
“It’s more the principle than the figure that bothers me. The mayor is not respecting his campaign commitment to find a balance between residential and commercial taxes,” he notes.
Photo d’archives, Stevens Leblanc
The bill to citizens
Even though residential owners will have fewer taxes to pay, SDC representatives all agree that it is they who will bear the brunt of the increase in property fees for merchants.
“The only way to absorb these additional expenses for businesses is to raise prices because everything costs more. Ultimately, it is the customers who will feel this increase on a daily basis, when their dinner at the restaurant or their baguette will cost them more,” continues François Blay Martel.
He and his counterparts hope that the City will take concrete actions in terms of economic development to help SMEs and allow them to breathe easier.
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