Mark your calendar: the Montreal budget 2027 will be tabled on Tuesday, Nov. 24, and Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada is already warning that it will involve “difficult choices.” It will be her administration’s second budget, arriving just as she marks one year in office, and it will set the tone for everything from snow removal and potholes to homelessness services in 2027. Here is what we know, the key dates and what to watch.
Montreal budget 2027: the key dates
According to the city council’s official calendar, two special council meetings are devoted to the 2027 budget and the PDI, the city’s 10-year capital spending plan:
- Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1 p.m.: special meeting at City Hall for the tabling of the 2027 budget and PDI.
- Wednesday, Dec. 16: special meeting for the adoption of the budget and PDI.
- Before that: regular council meetings on Monday, Nov. 16 at 1 p.m. and Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 9 a.m.
Council meetings are webcast live on the city’s YouTube channel, and residents can ask elected officials questions during the public question period at each meeting. Official documents are posted starting the Friday before each meeting.
“Difficult choices”: what the mayor has said
Speaking to the executive committee on Nov. 4, Martinez Ferrada said the next budget will include “difficult choices,” CBC reported. She said the priorities will be preserving essential services, investing in infrastructure and “giving ourselves the means to continue the work we have started.” A week earlier, she acknowledged that her first year had shown her the city faces “major challenges.”
For context, her first budget, tabled in January 2026, totalled $7.7 billion and included increases to fight homelessness, build housing and improve borough-level services, according to CBC.
One year in: the mayor’s scorecard
Martinez Ferrada and Ensemble Montréal took over City Hall after the 2025 municipal election, succeeding Valérie Plante’s Projet Montréal. In an interview with CityNews, the mayor gave her administration a seven out of 10. “I don’t pretend to have accomplished everything,” she said. Political analyst Daniel Tran called it “a fair assessment,” pointing to homelessness, housing and infrastructure as the big files. He noted that the city has tripled its homelessness budget, that the administration secured $18 million in Quebec funding for emergency spaces, and that it repealed the 20-20-20 housing bylaw.
What to watch on Nov. 24
Your tax bill
The budget will set the rates behind your 2027 property tax bill and water fees. The mayor hasn’t given numbers yet, so wait for the documents before drawing conclusions.
Streets, potholes and snow
Infrastructure is one of the three stated priorities. Watch how much goes to road repairs and to the snow-removal plan the city unveiled in October, which we covered in Is Montreal Finally Ready for Winter? If a pothole has already claimed a tire, our guide on how to report one and file a claim still applies.
Homelessness
This is where city, provincial and federal money meet. On Nov. 6, Martinez Ferrada stood with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Winnipeg to back Ottawa’s goal of ending homelessness within 10 years, calling it a “shared responsibility,” The Canadian Press reported. The federal budget tabled Nov. 5 set aside $11.2 billion over five years toward that goal, according to CTV News. The city budget will show how Montreal plans to use its share, and how much it funds on its own. Our winter explainer on homelessness in Montreal has the background.
Services and the workforce
“Preserving essential services” will be read closely by unions and residents alike after this fall’s labour tensions. Revisit our coverage of the municipal strike for context.
Quebec City’s role
Much of what the city can do depends on the province. After the Parti Québécois won the Oct. 5 election, the mayor said the new government was a chance to strengthen the Montreal-Quebec partnership, and she has appeared alongside Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. Tran notes that the premier wants a summit on homelessness, and that community groups are hoping for recurring, long-term funding rather than one-off emergency money. Any new provincial commitments, or the lack of them, will shape how far Montreal’s own dollars have to stretch in 2027.
How to follow along
- Watch the Nov. 24 meeting live on the city’s YouTube channel.
- Read the budget documents when they are posted online.
- Sign up for the citizen question period if you want to ask your councillor or the mayor a question directly.
- Check your borough’s own budget, adopted separately by each borough council.
We’ll have a full breakdown when the numbers are public. In the meantime, keep up with City Hall in our News section.
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Photo: Pierre5018 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Sources: Ville de Montréal, CBC via Yahoo News, CityNews
