Budget highlights

Enhancements and additions to services to the public

For winter operations

• $590,800 to optimize snow clearing operations
• $22,600 to optimize the clearing of bike paths
• $191,800 to optimize snow clearing around fire hydrants
• $147,800 to optimize the management of temporary no parking signs (positions dedicated to coordinating and installing signs)

For families, seniors and people with disabilities

An additional $190,000 to invest more in, for instance:

• developing partnerships to provide inclusive and/or intergenerational activities;
• developing a training strategy and awareness tools for municipal employees concerning, among other things, integration and universal accessibility measures;
• developing a strategy for disseminating varied and inclusive communication tools in clear and simple language in order to promote services, programs, actions and activities; and
• supporting and expanding deployment of the Entoure-Toit kit, which helps maintain and provide a sense of safety for seniors and people with disabilities in their homes.

For the urban outdoors

An additional $916,000 on top of the existing $550,000 budget to:

• renew partnership agreements with four partners for six outdoor sites;
• expand on existing agreements to include maintenance for current and future sites; and
• develop new outdoor sites.

For culture

An additional $800,000 on top of the existing $1,000,000 budget, allocated as follows:

• $225,000 to develop and/or support the offer of cultural activities and mediation to ensure inclusivity for marginalized and vulnerable persons;
• $100,000 to develop a facilitation and mediation intervention strategy in libraries involving organizations to improve literacy and digital literacy among residents;
• $100,000 to enhance the promotion and dissemination of cultural activities;
• $75,000 to monitor the cultural policy, for instance through performance indicators;
• $50,000 to enhance the regional agreement with the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec;
• $50,000 to enhance the agreement with Culture Outaouais (additional mandates);
• $50,000 to support local artists in Gatineau's programming and the renown of those artists within and beyond Gatineau;
• $50,000 to support the development of the next generation of artists, including culturally diverse artists, as well new cultural initiatives;
• $50,000 to develop a vision and intervention framework for public art to ensure a coordinated approach throughout the territory; and
• $50,000 for projects promoting identity (heritage), particularly to highlight the heritage of Gatineau's cultural communities.

Actions for the climate

Climate Plan

A $3,800,500 investment to help:

• implement capture and/or reuse measures identified in studies on the Cook site;
• develop a participatory program to finance projects proposed and selected by residents (enhancing the écogestes / eco-friendly program); and
• pursue:
  • conversion from natural gas to electricity at the municipal workshop in the Gatineau sector to reduce its heat island effect;
  • decarbonization of the municipal fleet and development of public access to e-vehicle charging stations; and
  • electrification projects and energy efficiency measures for the municipal fleet.

2024-2029 water management plan

A $1,100,000 investment to help:

• assess water quality in lakes and waterways;
• develop a process for managing waterways to promote their resilience;
• improve the ruisseau de la Brasserie site; and
• reduce the incidence of discoloured water in Gatineau homes.

2024-2028 biodiversity action plan

A $1,062,500 investment to help:

• prepare an overview of the situation in existing natural sites;
• create a conservation plan for parc du Lac-Beauchamp;
• identify a green and blue corridor;
• act proactively to reverse the decline of pollinators throughout the territory; and
• reduce the use of pesticides.

2023-2030 urban forest plan

An additional $270,000 to help:

• implement a strategy of continuous improvement in tree maintenance and planting;
• prepare an ambitious tree planting program adapted to communities with a goal of a minimum 30% canopy cover; and
• enhance tree donation programs and promote public participation in communities with a low canopy cover.

In addition to the service enhancements, the memorandum of understanding with the Société pour la prévention de la cruauté envers les animaux de l'Outaouais will be expanded to offer long-term quality service to residents in order to enable the organization to ensure the well-being of animals and have access to stable and predictable revenue.

Significant investments in infrastructure

2024-2026 investment plan – maintenance

Total investment: $705 M, including $237 M in 2024

The plan will be funded from different sources, including the dedicated infrastructure fund, which will continue to be allocated the equivalent of 1% of tax revenues, borrowing by-laws, grants, the life cycle reserve and an increase in taxes on serviced vacant lots. In addition, a new tax on parking lots will help increase infrastructure investments.

This plan covers the continuation of several major projects currently underway and additional investments, including:

• $193 M over four years until 2025, to which will be added $37 M in 2026, for the road repairs program, including paving, building sidewalks and repairing bridges;
• $155 M from 2024 to 2026 for water supply and sewer repairs, including:
  • $31 M to continue the boulevard Saint-Joseph project; and
  • $5 M to complete the work on rue Notre-Dame.
• $18 M, including $15 M in 2024 for the construction of a new police point of service in Gatineau's west end (Aylmer);
• $14 M in 2024, $12 M in 2025 and $19 M in 2026 to replace vehicles and equipment for public works and police and fire services;
• $12 M in 2024, $7 M in 2025 and $8 M in 2026 for the 2023-2027 computerized systems master plan designed to better equip Gatineau for security issues and improve service to the public;
• $5 M in 2024, $6 M in 2025 and $9 M in 2026 for the financing plan for interventions associated with the water discolouration situation; and
• $8 M over 2024 and 2025 to extend boulevard d'Europe to serve school 038.

In addition, there will be ongoing investments to reduce the impact of major rainfalls, including:

• $21 M in 2024 and 2025 for the catch basin in the white area and urbanization of chemin de Chambord;
• $16 M from 2024 to 2026 for adjustments to the drainage in the Wychwood sector.

Summary of revenues and expenditures

Mayor's speech

Mr. Chair,

This evening, we are passing Gatineau's 2024 budget. This democratic process, which has been rigorously conducted and several months in the making, is finally drawing to a close. I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who contributed from near and far.

Among those, I include our municipal teams, who handle themselves with a great deal of resilience and professionalism. Thank you all. We accomplished a tremendous amount of work during last month's budget review. The Executive Committee had formulated more than 45 recommendations, to which were added requests for changes and amendments tabled by Council members. This speaks to our collective commitment. As a result, this is no longer the Mayor's budget, nor that of the Executive Committee, but rather that of the Municipal Council. It reflects our steadfast attention to residents. I felt tremendous sensitivity around the table in light of the current difficult economic context confronting all of us.

It is important to remember that the budget talks started back in June. Requests by elected officials were addressed upstream during sectoral caucuses with the administrative team. What's more, all Council members, including those serving on the new finance committee, were invited to take part in the Executive Committee's budget debates.

The working documents were shared ahead of time in preparation for the budget review week, which ran from October 30 to November 3. This public session, attended by media and broadcast live online, helped expand on the issues and solutions, offering everyone a clear view of our city's financial health. This provided yet another opportunity to appreciate the work done by the committees and commissions, for in-depth discussions and to take a stand on the choices we had to make as part of this gathering, which was announced nearly a year ago. That week is also important to provide clear orientations to our administration so it can provide information, data and figures that enable us to present a balanced budget. That is its whole purpose. Gatineau stands out for its transparency, a practice we must not only celebrate, but also preserve.

Further improvements are certainly called for in terms of strengthening the effectiveness and better capture the concerns of elected officials regarding the budget preparations, and that will be addressed in anticipation of the next exercise.

Finding balance amidst imbalance for residents

Gatineau residents, like those in other Quebec municipalities, face significant imbalances. Not only are we being hit by inflation and skyrocketing interest rates, but we are also seeing an unprecedented housing crisis, an alarming increase in homelessness, and an increase in the use of food banks in the region¹.

Amidst the imbalance, cities in Quebec, like Gatineau, are also required to inject funds into areas that do not fall under their jurisdiction. These include providing land where the Government of Quebec can build schools. I would point out that we are happy to see schools appear in our neighbourhoods, but we do not believe that we should be required to spend millions towards that.

There is also the imbalance we experience and suffer in the area of transportation. That imbalance stems from a pandemic for which we are still paying. The Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) is struggling to recover its riders, even though they are making progress, and facing a recurrent structural deficit. It should be remembered that 10% of Gatineau's budget, that is to say more than $80 M, is allocated to our public transit service.

When working on a municipal budget, it is necessary to take into consideration the burden carried by our residents, which include our corporate residents.

Gatineau was the first big city to present a new property tax assessment roll in a post-pandemic context where the real property market had undergone considerable change over the past three years. This new roll, despite generating no additional revenue for Gatineau, carries significant repercussions: because of the new roll alone, two-thirds of properties will see their taxes increase, as will 8 out of 10 businesses. This is unprecedented.

That alone is a significant tax shock. Clearly, it had to be taken into consideration in a macro context.

Over the past few weeks, I have taken every opportunity to make the Government of Quebec aware of the situation in Gatineau and to propose solutions that would help residents. All this is happening while we are in the midst of a review of Quebec's Act respecting municipal taxation, Bill 39. In the 2024 budget, we took into account the increases faced by Gatineau due to a higher Quebec sales tax, the TVQ. This is a considerable amount, going as it will, from $3 million to $14 million in 2024. To give you an order or magnitude, those $11 million represent the equivalent of 2% in taxes. That is a welcome windfall in the current context.

Amidst all of this imbalance, Council members have been juggling the daunting challenge of finding a position of balance:

• balance to meet residents' expectation for sports, recreational and cultural infrastructures;
• balance to maintain our existing infrastructure, namely our roads;
• balance to move forward with projects already underway while keeping costs under control;
• balance with a reasonable tax rate that takes into account Gatineau's ability to provide the services you are being asked to pay for: when we reach into your pockets, you want to know WHEN you will see the results in the field; and
• balance in terms of rate adjustments to better reflect the market and our eco-taxation objectives.

The ecosystem in which we are currently operating is akin to walking a tightrope.

Developing infrastructures and maintaining services in this inflationary context has required acrobatics, considerable efforts and tremendous agility during the preparation of this budget.

We were careful to limit the residential tax increase to 2.9% and the non-residential tax increase to 3.9%, in line with a responsible approach enabling us to preserve our operations without excess, and making the most of every dollar spent. These increases are consistent with Gatineau's ten-year financial plan. Compared to other cities, such as Laval, Montréal and Québec, our proposals remain competitive despite the challenges.

Today, we present a balanced budget with growth close to 8% over last year's, bringing it to a total of $803.5 million.

Gatineau continues to maintain a low rate of debt servicing, the lowest among Quebec's big cities.

Improving services to residents

This budget not only enables us to maintain all of our services in 2024, but also to improve them. Gatineau, Quebec's fourth largest city, is investing to strengthen its ability to meet residents' expectations. Allow me to provide a few tangible examples:

• an additional $3 million for public transit, to help our Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO);
• an additional $5 million for public works, to cover snow blowing and clearing streets and sidewalks, and bike paths. In the past few hours, we have implemented new snow clearing standards. We will be adding engineers, coordinators and other resources to deliver our services;
• an additional $7 million for sport, recreation and culture. That covers funding for our new cultural policy, funding for partnerships with outdoors organizations, and funding for our action plan for families, seniors and persons with disabilities, in particular;
• an additional $7 million for the environment. That covers our climate plan, among other things, water management, biodiversity and urban forests, and our new ecological transition unit;
• an additional $10 million for police and firefighting services, to make our neighbourhoods safer while our city grows;
• an additional $14 million, for a total of $101 million to be directly injected into infrastructures, including our commitment to a quick resolution of issues such as water discolouration in certain parts of the city;
• a few million more for road repairs: the $190 million that had been projected over 4 years will be maintained until the end of the mandate in 2025. However, we recognize that the needed road repairs far surpass the available budget. We have to contend with an explosive increase in prices: it costs three times more to pave now than it did in 2019. I would nonetheless like to reassure you that the large investment envelope still has $705 M for infrastructures, in particular road repairs, water supply and sewers.

Continuing the transformation to deliver more infrastructures

Not everything is a matter of money. It is also a matter of organizing the work so the money from your taxes reaches the field as quickly as possible in the form of tangible projects. In fact, recent changes in the Service des infrastructures and the creation of 17 new positions aim to strengthen our ability to deliver. This transformation also means that every major project will now be linked to a solid business plan. It is essential to know, see and recognize which potential partners we can work with, what the best financial structuring would be, and which grants can be secured for leverage or risk reduction. We need to know how much it could really cost and how we can best deliver.

A budget in tune with the ability to pay

I am satisfied with this third budget in our mandate. I am mindful that no budget is ever perfect. However, this Council has found a position of balance amidst imbalance: a balance between the requirements for growth and the city's financial capacity to benefit residents.

I would like to point out that over the past three budgets, including this one, the Municipal Council has invested more than $12 millionⁱ in improving services. That represents twice as much as was invested in the previous mandate, because you have to invest in a growing city to offer quality services. We offer you those services while making sure to retain and attract talents to the organization. Because Gatineau is what we are living. We remain true to our objectives in the Council program, and in line with our long-term financial plan, our master plan for our investments covering the 2023 to 2032 period.

We must continue to support our city's growth while at the same time preserving our financial health.

Thank you, and enjoy your evening.

France Bélisle
Mayor

¹ An unprecedented housing crisis, alongside a 0.8% vacancy rate and the highest prices in Quebec for a three-bedroom unit. The alarming increase in homelessness, up 268% in the past few years. A 24% increase in the use of food banks in the region, affecting one in five people who are working but need help with groceries.

ⁱ $12,349,000 included in the 2022 to 2024 budgets for investments in service improvements. By comparison, the Council had invested only $4.7 million between 2018 and 2021, representing an increase of more than 262%.