Toronto Revenue Tools Survey

As you may know, most city committee meetings take pause in August when many city staff members and councillors take a breath before the work of running the city goes back into full swing in September. The big agenda topic for the first meeting will be the Financial Framework of the city. For more information, please see the City Manager and Interim CFO’s Presentation to Executive Committee, Updated Long-Term Financial Plan and the Ernst & Young Report. Click Here to see the Sep 6 Council meeting agenda when it is published this Friday.

While Toronto contributes 21% of Canada’s GDP and 53% of Ontario’s GDP, the City has many financial pressures including the following:

• TTC operations impacted by COVID and inflation

• Maintaining the DVP and the Gardiner Expressway (no other city in Ontario is paying to maintain their highway)

• The rise in homelessness has a greater impact on Canada’s biggest city; Toronto funds more shelter beds per capita than any other city in Canada

• The rise in refugees and refugee claimants–many of whom come to Toronto

• The rise of interest rates and inflation on the cost of operating the city along with labour shortages and supply chain challenges

• Downloaded cost of social housing.

We will be discussing potential revenue tools including:

• Multi-year approach for property tax rates

• Graduated Municipal Land Transfer Tax rate for high-value residential properties

• Removal of $5/hour on-street parking rate cap to enable comprehensive rate review

• Increase the Vacant Home Tax rate (1% to 3%)

• Foreign Buyer Land Transfer Tax

• Commercial Parking Levy

• Dedicated 911 Next Generation Levy

• Emissions Performance Charge for Buildings

• Restructure or dissolve the Imagination, Manufacturing, Innovation and Technology (IMIT) Financial Incentive Program

• Remove non-residential non-ground floor area development charge exemptions

• Review City’s surplus and underutilized real estate assets for disposition or change in use achieving greatest value.

Here are three interesting news articles by the Toronto Star to consider:

• If you're mad about the state of Toronto, tell Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford to pay for a better future

• Sharing the HST would help municipalities across the country

• New taxes will help Toronto’s bottom line. But a true solution hinges on Ottawa and Queen’s Park

We Want To Hear From You

If you have any ideas on how the city can improve our financial situation or thoughts about the proposed revenue tools, please Click Here to fill out our community survey.