Torontonians support some new taxes to fix the city’s pandemic-ravaged finances, poll says

Survey finds approval for hiking on-street parking fees and the vacant home tax but a small majority opposing a city sales tax.

Thestar.com
Aug. 24, 2023
David Rider

Torontonians support the introduction of some new taxes to help rescue city finances from pandemic ruin, a new poll says, but they aren’t keen on a city sales tax.

The survey of 816 Torontonians by Liaison Strategies comes as Mayor Olivia Chow convenes her executive committee Thursday for a rare summer session to get an update from city staff on city finances and options for how to fix them.

Toronto is facing a $46.5-billion revenue shortfall over the next 10 years and risks, without new cash sources, further city service cuts and the cancellation of planned capital projects, city staff said in a report released last week.

The report recommends, in the short term, lifting a $5-an-hour cap on metered on-street parking and boosting the land transfer tax rate on the sale of luxury homes. Options that require more study, staff say, including hiking Toronto’s vacant home tax from 1 per cent to 3 per cent and seeking provincial approval for a Toronto-specific sales tax.

The poll found that 67 per cent of respondents approve of hiking the land transfer tax on homes that sell for $3 million or more. Just under one-quarter disapproved and nine per cent were unsure.

Some 73 per cent support hiking the vacant home tax while 16 per cent disapprove and 22 per cent are unsure.

Increasing on-street parking fees also got majority approval, with 54 per cent in support, 31 per cent against and 15 per cent unsure.

Asked about introducing a one per cent Toronto sales tax, however, 52 per cent disapprove while 43 per cent approve and five per cent are unsure.

City staff have warned council that, even if Toronto does everything within its existing legislative powers to raise more revenue, it can hope to cover only 40 per cent of its 10-year projected shortfall. The provincial and federal governments are refusing to fill the $1.5 billion gap expected for Toronto’s 2024 budget.

A city-specific or regional sales tax, like those of New York City and some other big U.S. cities, could generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Premier Doug Ford quickly said his government would not give Toronto sales tax powers.

Candidates for the Ontario Liberal leadership, however, said as premier they would at least talk to Toronto about the possibility of a new tax or the city receiving a slice of the existing 13 per cent HST collected by Queen’s Park and Ottawa.

Liaison Strategies, which conducted the interactive voice recording survey last Friday to Sunday for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, also asked respondents if they approve of the job Chow and city council are doing.

Chow, who won a mayoral byelection to replace John Tory in June and took office last month, got a high approval rating, at 73 per cent, with 18 per cent disapproving and nine per cent unsure.

Some 57 per cent approve of the job being done by council as a whole, while 31 per cent disapprove and 12 per cent are unsure.

The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.43 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.