Montreal-area drivers get a shock as car registration bills shoot up by $150

Brian Blumer was shocked when he opened his Quebec vehicle registration bill this year and saw it was a whopping $392. 

"I thought it was only me — I did an infraction of some sort, and I really didn't know what it was," he said. "Then I was like, 'Wow! That's a lot of money!'"

Blumer lives in the on-island Montreal suburb of Côte Saint-Luc, Que. That means he's now paying the new tax that the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM), which represents more than 80 Montreal-area municipalities, approved last year.

The tax went from $59 to $150. Add an existing $30 contribution on top of that, and those affected are seeing a $180  public transit fee on their bills.

"I just don't understand," said Blumer. "Why so much?"

He questions the need to raise the price all at once rather than gradually, over time.

Back in May, when mayors approved the hike, Laval Mayor Stéphane Boyer said it was a difficult choice that nobody wants to make, but it is "necessary if we want to maintain public transport."

Not all mayors agreed with the tax hike. A handful voted against the plan, including the mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Guy Pilon. He said his citizens don't have the same access to public transit as those in the city. 

"We need cars to do whatever we have to do. For me, it's not fair, in a way, because in Montreal it's relatively easier to not have any car," he said.

Montreal-area municipalities have been battling with the provincial government over public transit funding for years.

When they made the decision, municipal officials said transit agencies still haven't rebounded from a major drop in ridership during the pandemic. They said that, combined with inflation and a siphoning of revenue to the new Réseau express métropolitain (REM) light-rail network, has created a "perfect storm" of lost revenue for transit agencies.

The municipalities were asking the province for an extra $421 million to absorb the deficit for the region's public transit authority, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM). But Quebec was only offering about half that.

So the CMM decided to pass the cost onto drivers. The public transit advocacy group, Transit Alliance, supported the tax hike.

"Even if you're not riding, you should be happy that the people that are riding it are not in a car next to you, and not making more congestion," said group spokesperson Francis Garnier.

The tax isn't set in stone. CMM has left itself some wiggle room, saying it'll consider dropping or reducing the tax hike if the province comes up with more transit money. But it could go up as well. The $150 tax is the new floor for the tax, meaning it may rise with other costs.

"There are people who depend on public transportation to get to the hospital, to go to work every day," Boyer said at the time.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante also said it was a difficult choice to ask drivers to pay more, but the CMM was backed into a corner without provincial support.

"We're acting pragmatically. We need to think outside the box," Plante said.

Taxing car registrations to fund public transit was announced in 2019 by the CMM, coming into effect in 2021 with only Boucherville Mayor Jean Martel voting against the fee increase. At that time, it was decided that suburban motorists will have to pay $50 more per year for their car's registration. 

In 2019, former Laval mayor Marc Demers said it amounts to about $1 a week. Now, however, drivers are paying about $3.46 per week.