Article content

Five billion dollars. That’s the approximate size of Montreal’s city budget and its net debt.

When it comes to money, the Denis Coderre administration promised to control city expenses, invest in infrastructure and limit property tax increases to the rate of inflation.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Election issues: City finances — the budget, taxes and debt after four years of Coderre Back to video

“I think we did a very good job,” said Pierre Desrochers, the chair of city council’s executive committee and the architect of budgetary policy under Coderre.

City spending — and the city’s debt — has risen over the four years since Coderre took office.

This year, the city plans to spend $5.2 billion, a six per cent increase from Coderre’s first budget, passed at the end of January 2014, which called for $4.9 billion in spending.

The city’s net debt has grown from $4.49 billion when Coderre came into office, to $4.97 billion at the end of 2016, an increase of 8.5 per cent.

The debt has increased, in large part, because the city has borrowed to fund infrastructure repairs and replacement.