This bill changes a range of rules governing municipalities. It expands a municipality’s authority to acquire or construct an immovable for leasing to a public body, a non-profit organization, a childcare centre or a daycare centre. It also permits the free or conditional disposal of an immovable to those entities, and the free or conditional disposal of a low-value parcel of land to the owner of a contiguous immovable. Assistance provided for the latter disposal is excluded from the application of the Municipal Aid Prohibition Act.

Municipalities must publish, at least twice a year, a list of immovables leased or disposed of under these powers and of other property worth more than $50,000 disposed of other than by auction or public call for tenders. The bill also establishes a procedure under which a municipality may apply to the Superior Court to be declared the owner of an immovable where municipal taxes have been unpaid for at least three years, the owner is unknown or cannot be found, and the immovable is to be used for municipal purposes or disposed of to the owner of a contiguous immovable. Additional conditions apply where the immovable is worth more than $15,000. The procedure includes public notice at least 60 days before the application, 30 days’ notice to certain rights holders, extinguishment of real rights subject to specified exceptions, and compensation rules.

The bill specifies the matters that may be addressed in a construction by-law, including building energy-efficiency standards. It harmonizes certain rules concerning municipal general managers, special council meetings and council powers. It changes rules on municipal borrowing, general collection rolls and financial reserves, and removes ministerial approval requirements for certain borrowings corresponding to government grants. It exempts certain transfers between undivided co-owners from duties on transfers of immovables, provides that a non-profit organization is not an industrial or commercial establishment for the purposes of the Municipal Aid Prohibition Act, and removes the exemption applicable to certain presbyteries.

The bill amends the Act respecting land use planning and development; the charters of Ville de Gatineau, Ville de Lévis, Ville de Longueuil, Ville de Montréal and Ville de Québec; the Cities and Towns Act; the Municipal Code of Québec; the Act respecting the Commission municipale; the Acts respecting the Communautés métropolitaines de Montréal and de Québec; the Act respecting duties on transfers of immovables; the Act respecting municipal taxation; the Act respecting public transit authorities; and the Act to amend the Charter of Ville de Laval. It also amends three decrees concerning Saguenay, Shawinigan and La Tuque and repeals the Regulation respecting the maximum non-taxable value of certain presbyteries. The provisions come into force on the date of assent, except sections 64 to 69 and 73, which come into force on January 1, 2027.