A decade of austerity budgets at city hall has cost Toronto greatly when it comes to transit, housing and child care, a new report from advocacy group Social Planning Toronto outlines.
The report, “
Toronto After a Decade of Austerity: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly,” comes just days before the city’s budget deliberations begin on Friday. It makes the case for council to raise new revenues through three measures: Increasing the municipal land transfer tax on luxury homes, introducing a vacant home tax, and reintroducing the vehicle registration tax.
“For the past decade, Toronto city council has made the political choice to keep property taxes low — the lowest rate in the GTA, Hamilton, and Ottawa — and to reject other options to raise revenues. That choice has come at a cost to our city,” the report says.
“It has starved our city of the necessary resources to create affordable housing, to end homelessness, to improve the public transit system, to increase access to high quality and affordable child care, to address pedestrian and cyclist safety, and to pay for the critical public services our communities rely upon.”
Social Planning is a non-profit organization that advocates for social justice initiatives at city hall, with roots dating back to 1937 when it was known as the Toronto Welfare Council. The report was authored by Beth Wilson, the group’s lead on policy and research.
Although the report applauds
Mayor John Tory’s recent move to
increase property taxes by 8 per cent over the next six years to fund transit and housing projects, Social Planning says it’s only a start.
The report highlights stark realities about affordability in the city today: The average rent for a one-bedroom unit increased by 33.7 per cent between 2010 and 2018; the Toronto Transit Commission continues to have the lowest government subsidy per rider of all mass transit systems in Canada and the U.S.; and child care in Toronto is the most expensive in the country, with more than 17,000 children on wait lists for subsidized spaces.
