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Hydrogen
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Time for Toronto to get angry
Jul 19, 2007 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
How appropriate that Toronto City Council should defer new taxes and that the TD Bank should release a report about the city's economic decline on the same day.
In case there was any doubt in anyone's mind, the GTA is not doing well. Indeed, its role as Canada's economic powerhouse is threatened. And not just because Alberta has oil.
What we're seeing now are the results of a decade of provincial and federal neglect – even penalization – of Toronto.
Not that the proposed municipal taxes were necessarily good for the city. Many would argue that both the land transfer tax and a vehicle registration fee are best levied by the province, and applied across the board. Though the McGuinty Liberals have taken steps to promote intensification, mainly through the Places to Grow Act and Greenbelt legislation, there's much left undone.
For example, it has refused to take back its legally mandated responsibilities to fund social services, long since dumped on the city.
As University of Toronto urban studies professor Larry Bourne points out, "The province says it wants intensification but keeps many policies that are counterproductive. Why, for instance, doesn't it introduce uniform education taxes on business throughout Ontario and level the playing field? I find it hypocritical."
Car registration fees are ridiculously low in Canada, Bourne also points out, so why doesn't Queen's Park raise them throughout the province? "It's not appropriate for the city to levy such taxes," Bourne continues. "The province should."
Again and again, we are faced with the disturbing truth that the provincial government is the main cause of the GTA's decline. All that talk about the city getting its house in order sounds good, but it misses the point. As Don Drummond, co-author of the TD report says, Toronto exists within a "financial straitjacket."
True, the province gave the city new taxing powers last January, and they are absolutely necessary. But rather than using those powers wisely, city councillors have rejected them.
What council should be contemplating are congestion fees, road tolls and the like, measures that would help the city triply; first by raising revenues, secondly by improving travel times within the GTA and finally by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But council's actions and the TD report add up to a portrait of a city caught in a downward spiral. Unable to raise the money it needs to deliver the services residents expect, Toronto cuts back. This in turn makes the city less competitive, less attractive to individuals and business, which quit the city, further lowering the tax base.
And so it goes.
Who loses? Not just Torontonians, but all Ontarians and indeed, Canadians.
But still, all three provincial political parties have made it clear they're not interested in dealing with the issue, which is largely of their own making.
This isn't just short-sighted; it's self-destructive, even ruinous.
History tells us that urban centres rise and fall as surely as the tides. One need look no farther than Buffalo and Detroit to see once-thriving centres reduced to civic husks.
The same process of decline has started in Toronto, and although a decade of damage has been inflicted, recovery is well within the realm of possibility.
But before anything can happen, Torontonians must get angry, very angry, and get rid of those who would destroy their city and way of life.
Dalton McGuinty, Stephen Harper, are you listening?
Jul 19, 2007 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
How appropriate that Toronto City Council should defer new taxes and that the TD Bank should release a report about the city's economic decline on the same day.
In case there was any doubt in anyone's mind, the GTA is not doing well. Indeed, its role as Canada's economic powerhouse is threatened. And not just because Alberta has oil.
What we're seeing now are the results of a decade of provincial and federal neglect – even penalization – of Toronto.
Not that the proposed municipal taxes were necessarily good for the city. Many would argue that both the land transfer tax and a vehicle registration fee are best levied by the province, and applied across the board. Though the McGuinty Liberals have taken steps to promote intensification, mainly through the Places to Grow Act and Greenbelt legislation, there's much left undone.
For example, it has refused to take back its legally mandated responsibilities to fund social services, long since dumped on the city.
As University of Toronto urban studies professor Larry Bourne points out, "The province says it wants intensification but keeps many policies that are counterproductive. Why, for instance, doesn't it introduce uniform education taxes on business throughout Ontario and level the playing field? I find it hypocritical."
Car registration fees are ridiculously low in Canada, Bourne also points out, so why doesn't Queen's Park raise them throughout the province? "It's not appropriate for the city to levy such taxes," Bourne continues. "The province should."
Again and again, we are faced with the disturbing truth that the provincial government is the main cause of the GTA's decline. All that talk about the city getting its house in order sounds good, but it misses the point. As Don Drummond, co-author of the TD report says, Toronto exists within a "financial straitjacket."
True, the province gave the city new taxing powers last January, and they are absolutely necessary. But rather than using those powers wisely, city councillors have rejected them.
What council should be contemplating are congestion fees, road tolls and the like, measures that would help the city triply; first by raising revenues, secondly by improving travel times within the GTA and finally by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But council's actions and the TD report add up to a portrait of a city caught in a downward spiral. Unable to raise the money it needs to deliver the services residents expect, Toronto cuts back. This in turn makes the city less competitive, less attractive to individuals and business, which quit the city, further lowering the tax base.
And so it goes.
Who loses? Not just Torontonians, but all Ontarians and indeed, Canadians.
But still, all three provincial political parties have made it clear they're not interested in dealing with the issue, which is largely of their own making.
This isn't just short-sighted; it's self-destructive, even ruinous.
History tells us that urban centres rise and fall as surely as the tides. One need look no farther than Buffalo and Detroit to see once-thriving centres reduced to civic husks.
The same process of decline has started in Toronto, and although a decade of damage has been inflicted, recovery is well within the realm of possibility.
But before anything can happen, Torontonians must get angry, very angry, and get rid of those who would destroy their city and way of life.
Dalton McGuinty, Stephen Harper, are you listening?
