131.6. The city may establish a program for the purpose of granting, in the circumstances described in the second paragraph, a credit applicable in respect of the amount of the general property tax imposed, for any fiscal year from the fiscal year referred to in subparagraph 1 of that paragraph, on any unit of assessment situated in a sector and that belongs to the group described in section 244.31 of the Act respecting municipal taxation (chapter F-2.1).
The credit may be granted where the following conditions are met:(1) for a particular fiscal year, the business tax is not imposed in respect of the sector, either separately or as part of the whole territory of the city, or, if the business tax is imposed, the estimated revenues therefrom in respect of the sector are less than those of the preceding fiscal year;
(2) the business tax was imposed in respect of the sector, for the fiscal year preceding the fiscal year referred to in subparagraph 1, without being imposed in respect of the whole territory of the city; and
(3) the general property tax revenues estimated in respect of the sector for the fiscal year referred to in subparagraph 1 and derived from the application of all or part of any of the rates specific to the categories provided for in sections 244.33 and 244.34 of the Act respecting municipal taxation are greater than they would have been were it not for the loss of or decrease in business tax revenues.
The credit shall diminish the amount payable of the general property tax imposed on any unit of assessment referred to in the first paragraph in respect of which all or part of a rate referred to in subparagraph 3 of the second paragraph applies. The amount of the credit shall be established according to the rules set out in the program.
The cost of the aggregate of the credits granted in respect of the units of assessment situated in the sector shall be a burden on the aggregate of the units situated in the sector that belong to the group referred to in the first paragraph.
If the city imposes the surtax or the tax on non-residential immovables, it must, if it avails itself of the power under the first paragraph, prescribe the rules enabling the appropriate correspondences to be made so as to obtain the same results, as regards the application of the first four paragraphs, were the city to impose the general property tax with rates specific to the categories comprising the units of assessment subject to the surtax or the tax on non-residential immovables.
For the purposes of the first five paragraphs, the mention of any tax or surtax also refers to the sum in lieu of the tax or surtax that must be paid by the Government in accordance with the second paragraph of section 210 of the Act respecting municipal taxation, by the Government in accordance with section 254 and the first paragraph of section 255 of that Act, or by the Crown in right of Canada or one of its mandataries.
2001, c. 25, s. 338; 2001, c. 68, s. 156.