Turn foreign home buyers' tax over to municipalities: Markham councillor

yorkregion.com
April 21, 2017
By Lisa Queen

Amid looming financial problems facing York Region, the provincial government should turn over funding from the new 15 per cent foreign home buyers’ tax to cash-strapped municipalities, Markham Coun. Jim Jones says.

The tax will generate at least hundreds of millions of dollars in York alone, he calculated.

“Where is the money going to go? The question should be to the province that whichever municipality generates the foreign buyers’ tax, (it) should stay there to develop the infrastructure,” Jones said at the April 20 council meeting.

The region is bringing in a new development charges bylaw next month, which will raise the fees on new construction to help pay for growth-related infrastructure, but that is “chicken feed” compared to what the foreign buyers’ tax would raise, Jones said.

“This (foreign buyers’ tax) is a tax grab,” he said.

“Where is this money going to go, that the big question. That would solve a lot of our infrastructure problems in York Region if that money would stay in York Region.”

There is little chance the province will pass revenue from the tax along to municipalities, regional treasurer Bill Hughes speculated.

Instead, councillors in York, and surrounding regions, should consider asking Queen’s Park for similar taxing powers as those granted to Toronto in 2006.

Those include a land transfer tax, which could raise as much as $250 million a year for the region, and a vehicle registration tax, which could raise as much as $80 million a year for the region.

Although it hasn’t done so, Toronto also has the power to impose alcohol, tobacco and amusement taxes and road tolls.

While Hughes said the region has made positive moves over the last few years to address financial challenges, such as reducing its debt and raising its water and wastewater rates, it is facing number of significant financial pressures.

That includes much slower growth than anticipated, meaning the region only brought in half of the $2.2 billion in development charges that it had expected between 2012 and 2016, and higher than forecasted debt.