Easing the Fiscal Restraints: New Revenue Tools in the City of Toronto Act

This paper show that there is a mismatch between the expenditure responsibilities that the City of Toronto is required to undertake and the revenue tools available to it. Toronto relies mainly on property taxes, user fees, and intergovernmental transfers to finance a wide range of services. In the absence of a realignment of service responsibilities (in particular, uploading social services and social housing to the provincial level), the paper makes the case for a mix of taxes at the local level. A mix of taxes, particularly taxes that grow with the economy, would give the city more flexibility to respond to local conditions such as changes in the economy, evolving demographics, and expenditure needs. A mix of taxes would be more effective than the property at linking the costs and benefits of services when people commute to work from one jurisdiction to another. Although the city should piggyback onto existing provincial taxes to minimize administrative costs, it is argued that it should set its own tax rates to ensure autonomy, accountability, and predictability of revenues.