A TRULY FULL AGENDA!

Business Coalition for Montreal's Economic Development

With the underfunding that public transport is having to face in Quebec, the idea of a new tax on parking has long been conveyed as an efficient solution to this underfunding problem. For UDI Quebec, it’s totally the opposite! Since 2000 and even long before then, the UDI Quebec has been trying to convince municipal and governmental authorities, successfully up to now, that a tax on parking spaces that are not on the street and non-residential would be an inefficient measure to reduce car traveling and unfair for property owners and their tenants. The UDI Quebec has set up a Coalition for Montreal’s Economic Development regrouping the main business associations of Quebec affected by this major issue for real estate and Quebec’s economy as a whole.

Municipal Taxation Committee

Mission

Raise the awareness of government bodies (municipal, provincial and federal) in regards to the great concern of real estate owners and developers in regards to the increase of values contained in the assessment roll pertaining to Quebec municipalities. The exponential values on the tax accounts as well as the dramatic values on commercial real estate:

Main objective

To ensure a follow-up on the non residential taxation of the Ville du Québec in an ultimate objective of reducing, or at least containing, the non residential tax burden.

Specific objectives

Within the context of a new triennial real estate assessment roll and the anticipated increase of non residential real property values, make the necessary representations, within the scope of the Ville de Montréal’s budgetary process in order to reduce, or at least contain, the global tax burden of the non residential taxpaying population.

Real Estate Brokerage Act Committee

ACAIQ - Precision on the new Real estate brokerage act Bill 73

Mission

To recommend the ACAIQ a training more adapted to the commercial sector and to identify the assessment targets. The second step consists in working with the ACAIQ so it forwards to the Ministère des Finances the fruit of its reflective thinking in regards to the content of the training program for future agents.

Urban Planning Committee

Mission

To work with the Ville de Montréal in order to smooth out the difficulties promoters encounter to complete their real estate projects. To exert a positive influence on the Ville de Montréal in order to improve the prevailing development conditions.

Specific objectives:

• To monitor and get involved in the drafting of new urban planning by-laws and other urban planning tools;
• Continue the awareness process with the Ville de Montréal in order to significantly reduce the real estate projects approval times;
• Make sure the urban planning is attuned to the economic development strategies;
• To consolidate the existing poles of activity;
• To maintain a good balance between the various urban functions;
• To ensure the reduction of development costs (reducing the financial and procedural constraints);
• To promote the real estate aesthetics as the outcome of the development process as opposed to an objective at all costs;
• To establish site development criteria (density, height, etc.) that are adapted to the various types of real estate development and more attuned to the market conditions;
• Administrative and regulatory monitoring structure that is flexible, open, clear, concise and objective.

Environment Committee (Contaminated soil and wetlands)

Mission

To work with elected officials on the rehabilitation potential, and favorable regulatory and legal provisions. To create a self-sufficient assistance program, funded by the three levels of government, as well as subsidy programs for the development of sustainable solutions that promote sustainable development.

Public-Private Partnership Committee of Quebec

Institut pour le Partenariat Public-Privé
MERX Canadian Public Tenders

Mission

To monitor the status of Quebec public-private partnerships (PPP). To inform our members about any issue pertaining to PPPs, such as the priority of performance of projects, the concept public management in order to promote Public-private partnerships.

Quebec Construction Commission Committee (CCQ)

Mission

To exchange views with the Commission de la construction du Québec and present our positions in regards to certain problems with the Labour Relations Act, vocational training and manpower management within the construction industry. We believe that the Act should be modernized in regards to the industry’s evolution, and that it would be important for the real estate industry to have the opportunity to mandate a representative appointed to the Board of Directors of the Commission de la construction du Québec so its concerns and propositions are put forward.

Position of the Quebec area in the market research carried out by national real estate brokerage firms

Quebec is the seventh most important urban population cluster in Canada, right after Edmonton and before Winnipeg. If its tourist points of attraction are well known, its economic vigor and real estate market would gain to be better known. However, we unfortunately observe that the metropolitan area of Quebec is almost totally missing from market surveys carried out by national real estate brokerage firms. The UDI Québec is seriously seeking to correct this situation and to convince the national brokerage firms to position the Quebec area within their respective surveys.

Project Approval Procedures in Quebec

Ever since the creation of the new Ville de Québec in 2002, the real estate project approbation has been greatly slowed down and made to be complex in Québec. The IDU Québec is trying to raise this problem with the municipal administration in order to reduce the approval times by half and hopes that a series of realistic measures, such as determining project holders, using the board’s discretionary authority and increasing the human resources assigned to the analysis of files, will be set up.