The report is expected to list possible steps, such as a parking tax, sales tax, or vehicle fee
Today, Torontonians will learn more about the taxes and fees that the city council could use to help solve its financial problems.
In February, when John Tory was still mayor, he asked city staff to look into a number of new taxes and fees that could help the city’s finances. He had hoped that the study would help the city deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, which had made the city’s annual deficits worse.
The city says that city manager Paul Johnson and interim chief financial officer Stephen Conforti will talk to the media this morning about its new long-term financial plan. The briefing will take place at 10:30 a.m. ET.
The media should hear from Mayor Olivia Chow in an hour.The city says that at its meeting on Thursday, August 24, its executive committee will talk about the plan and staff recommendations.
Chow, who became mayor of Toronto on July 12 after winning a byelection on June 26, has said that the city’s budget will be short by almost a billion dollars this year. He has asked both the federal and provincial governments for help.
Ottawa says no to Chow’s request for more help
But at the end of July, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland turned down Chow’s request for financial help worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
In a letter sent on July 24, Freeland said that since the Liberals were elected in 2015, the federal government has given more than $6 billion to the city. Freeland said that if Toronto needs more help, it should either take money from its reserve funds or talk to the provincial government led by Premier Doug Ford.
The province has made it clear that it wants to work with the city.
At the time Tory made the request to city staff, he thought that the city’s spending gap for 2022 and 2023 would be more than $1.5 billion. He said that a big part of the problem is the city’s “COVID hangover” and that Ottawa and the province need to do something about it.
Tory has always said that property taxes, which are Toronto’s main source of income, can’t pay for all of the city’s programs and services. He also said that they can’t keep up with the city’s crumbling roads, sewers, and expressways. This year’s state-of-good-repair backlog of $9.5 billion is expected to double in the next ten years.