The JTF has recognized that Toronto is the "economic engine of Canada" and as such should be given broader powers and more autonomy.
Much of the interim report is touchy-feely, mentioning the usual buzzwords and phrases such as "environmentally sustainable", "vibrant", and "fostering social cohesion" etc. But one of the more significant aspects of the report is the power to be given to the city to raise revenues.
The province of Ontario will not give powers to the city of Toronto to levy general sales or income taxes. But the city will be allowed to raise revenues by proposing specific taxes on items such as hotel rooms. It is understandable why the province would want to give these taxing powers to the city. Every dollar that the city can raise from taxes is one dollar less that will have to come from another level of government, most notably the province. But by prohibiting wide sweeping taxation powers (which would not be good in any event) the result will be higher specific taxes that will dampen spending while at the same time not raising enough revenue to meet the city’s ever growing need to spend. a tax on say, hotel rooms, will cause the demand for those rooms to decrease. Yet the overall amount of taxes that will be taken in by the city will not be able to keep up with council’s seemingly endless ability to find new areas to spend in or new special interest groups to fund. It will become a lose-lose situation for those who are already overtaxed and will not prevent mayors such as David Miller from constantly begging other levels of government for more money.
another troubling aspect of the interim report is that the JTF stated that the city should be given broad powers regarding, amongst other things, the size and composition of council. If this recommendation is implemented, it will put an end to any thoughts of reducing the oversized council that consists of a mayor and 44 councillors. It is often discussed that council is too big and should and that one councillor per ward instead of the current two would be sufficient. In any event it is impossible to imagine that the number of councillors could ever be reduced if the power to do so rests with them.
There are some features of the proposed changes that are beneficial to both city council and the residents of Toronto. The city of Toronto should have the power to make more local decisions without having to go to Queen’s Park to get permission from the provincial government. If the city wishes to extend hours of operation for the sale of liquor in bars and restaurants it should be able to do so without seeking permission. It seems a complete and utter waste of time to have to go to the province and have them decide on what is a purely local matter. The city will run more smoothly, if that’s even possible, if they don’t have to constantly go to Queen’s Park to seek what in the general scheme of things, are minor changes to legislation.
One difficulty in giving the city more power is that the city can get away with things that other levels of government cannot, simply because people do not pay as much attention to what is happening locally as they do to what happens at Queen’s Park and Ottawa. When the next year’s property taxes are being worked upon, it’s a general starting point that they will increase by 3 per cent. Then after much hand ringing and fears that there will have to be a 10 per cent increases, taxes are raised by the initial 3 per cent and Torontonians breathe a collective sigh of relief that the increase wasn’t any higher. Neither provincial nor federal levels of government could get away with what at least appears to be automatic tax increases. Yet, the city can because too many people do not pay attention to their local government. If the city gets more power, its residents had better be prepared to spend more time watching what its politicians are doing.
The city should be spared having to run to the province to make minor changes to its laws. But giving the city that can’t stop spending more power to raise revenues is frightening.
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