Gatineau council approves ‘electric shock’ budget [Video]

The City of Gatineau has passed its budget.

Fifteen of 20 council members, including the 10 representatives of Mayor Maude Marquis-Bissonnette’s Action Gatineau party, voted in favour of the $887-million budget Tuesday evening.

The budget includes the city’s largest increase in spending in the last decade, paid for by increases of 3.18 per cent in residential property tax and 4.18 per cent for the non-residential sector.

Various city rates, including for household waste, will also increase.

The budget calls for investments in homelessness, the city’s climate plan and the revival of the city centre.

Responding to urgent needs

Those investments respond to urgent needs, Marquis-Bissonnette said, especially related to the environment.

“We don’t know when the next natural disaster will come, but we know that it will come,” she said in French.

The mayor said she believes the 2025 …