“This proposed budget will mean change in Torontonians’ lives today. Change means libraries open seven days a week, transit fares frozen while TTC service increases and thousands more kids fed meals at schools and summer camps,” Chow told reporters at city hall.
“Pools open sooner and longer; renovictions prevented by taking housing off the market and more support for tenants; traffic agents to keep Toronto moving and emergency responders arriving sooner when you need them most.”
☝️Now that’s how a politician should talk about taxes.
Municipalities in Ontario don’t have the ability to tax those things.
I think a municipal sales tax is technically possible.
Not as it stands. Sure, the Ontario government could allow municipalities to introduce sales tax, and it has come up a bunch lately. However, municipalities are creatures of the province, and as such, new provincial legislation would be needed to allow municipal sales tax.
Sales taxes are regressive. They affect the poorest the most. The concern is that property taxes aren’t targeting wealth enough. Sales tax fails on the same terms. In fact it might be worse than property tax. Someone has probably done the math in some study cited in Wikipedia.
In addition, property taxes on a large house are much higher than the property taxes on a condo. So even though they can’t target wealth very well, the property tax is somewhat progressive.