CambridgeToday received the following letter to the editor from former mayor of Cambridge and current regional councillor Doug Craig about the municipal tax system.
In a recent press conference which featured two long term political combatants, Premier Doug Ford and Mayor Olivia Chow, we were reminded once again just how broken the municipal tax system is in Ontario.
During the press conference and while announcing that a new deal had been struck for Toronto, Premier Ford got the opportunity to deflect the public’s attention away from the Green Belt scandal and a possible flip flop on the breakup of the Region of Peel.
For Olivia Chow, she got relief from her budget deficit that had been years in the making because of artificially low tax increases orchestrated by past Toronto councils.
For the rest of the Ontario taxpayers, we got to finance this provincial bail out of Toronto (often referred to in many quarters as “Hog Town”), to the tune of billions of dollars that every resident in our region will pay through their provincial taxes.
Yet, disappointingly, there was no announcement from Premier Ford’s playbook of a “New Deal” for the rest of Ontario’s towns and cities.
Locally, municipalities are staggering from the fallout of the pandemic along with the burden of downloaded responsibilities from the provinces such as social housing, child care and public health payments that local taxpayers are obligated to pay on their residential tax bill.
Ratepayers are maxed out with mortgage renewals and grocery bills and local municipal councils are financially stressed because of the overwhelming challenges of provincial downloading, homelessness and addiction issues in our communities.
To confront all of these challenges, local councils still find themselves mired in a 19th century municipal structure and tax system that was originally adapted for an agricultural economy.
Today, that same framework is unable to respond to the demands of the changing economic landscapes nor the social demands of the 21st Century.
Yet, to understand the origins as to why this municipal tax system is broken, it’s necessary to peek into the BNA act of 1867 which is the reference point for today’s urban struggles. On examination of the Act, one would be hard pressed to find any reference to cities.
Yet in fact, it’s there under designated provincial powers in a section with, “ hospitals and asylums, sandwiched before saloons and taverns”.
It was a revealing statement at the time of how cities were regarded and so to a great extent, it remains today. Cities, as academics would suggest, are in reality only subsidiaries of the province because they are heavily regulated and controlled by this upper provincial regime.
In truth, this is somewhat correct and it has led to a complete blurring of lines at times between the fiscal responsibilities of municipalities and the province.
This is one reason why regional politicians continue to be blamed for major property tax increases because of such burdens as the current 190 million dollars of provincial responsibilities downloaded onto the regional tax bill. It should be noted, It’s not a burden which is shouldered in any other Canadian province except Ontario.
The unfortunate outcome of this paternalistic attitude of provincial and federal politicians towards municipal representatives has been common place for decades and this has made it difficult if not impossible to negotiate a new deal.
This then raises the question of the timing of the sudden news conference featuring Doug Ford and Olivia Chow.
The government’s critics would point to the 25 provincial seats in the Toronto area including the premier’s own riding that needed to be attended to before the next provincial election. However, Premier Ford has countered this criticism with his own version of the truth that ,” the city of Toronto’s financial situation was not sustainable”.
Olivia Chow in agreeing with the premier went on to explain Toronto’s deficit situation listing downloaded concerns which are also reflective of the Region of Waterloo such as, “ housing, transit, welfare, child care and policing ……”.
In all, both Premier Ford and Olivia Chow have unwittingly constructed a template for reform that should be applied to all communities across Ontario, not just for the freewheeling entitlement of Toronto.
Moving forward, the Region of Waterloo needs a, “New Deal”. The ratepayers of our community deserve a tax system that fairly reflects true municipal expenses and not the hidden downloaded costs from the province.
In that way, we will finally be able to respond to the plight of local ratepayers while at the same time challenging the homeless and addiction issues that are confronting our community.
Doug Craig
