Two of the Action Laval city council opposition party’s members reacted negatively to the city’s latest budget, claiming it’s a tactic typical of elections years, while also maintaining the Boyer administration is leading the city into a state of indebtedness with lasting impact.
City councillors Achille Cifelli (Val-des-Arbres) and David De Cotis (Saint-Bruno) called the city’s budget situation “critical” and “a direct consequence of the bad choices by the mayor since the beginning of his mandate” nearly four years ago.
They also drew attention to their claim that for years Action Laval has been calling for the creation of a bi-lateral finance commission to oversee the city’s finances.
Local budget cuts
“Hiding behind this electoral budget is a worrisome situation,” said Cifelli, maintaining that the Boyer administration is responsible for increasing the city’s debt by 66 per cent for megaprojects, while now “they are cutting into local services to balance their budget.”
He claims the Boyer team will be cutting widely into services, including library branches, arenas and outdoor skating rinks, as well as STL bus service.
Action Laval says the 2025 budget is “a façade that leaves the impression that the mayor is taking care of sound financial management, although numerous costs don’t make it into this budget.” They said the city failed to say that the credit note issued by S&P Global placed Laval on a watch list.
Rating the credit rating
The opposition party said the credit rating agency didn’t take into consideration $620 million the city will need to bring its water infrastructure up to grade, nor the funding necessary to restore the lustre to aging municipal buildings, as well as numerous collective agreements with municipal employees now being negotiated.
“The mayor is announcing 42,000 new housing units, but when you look at this budget there is no expense showing for new infrastructures,” De Cotis said.
As 2025 will be an election year, Action Laval says that, once elected, it will immediately institute measures to reduce the City of Laval’s debt by cancelling projects deemed to be unnecessary to the city’s mission towards its citizens. They also say that projects paid in cash will be prioritized.
