City of Toronto spent $4,010 per person in 2016, the most of any GTA municipality

TORONTO—The City of Toronto spent the most per person of any municipality in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas in 2016, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. “Local governments provide important services that residents rely on everyday, but it’s often difficult to decipher how much revenue municipalities collect, how much they spend and what they spend our money on,” said Josef Filipowicz, senior policy analyst with the Fraser Institute and co-author of Comparing Municipal Finances in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

The study analyzes municipal finances for 26 municipalities in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area from 2009 (the first year of new provincially-mandated accounting practices) and 2016, the most recent year of comparable data. It finds that in 2016, the City of Toronto spent $4,010 per person, the most of any municipality in the region. In fact, Toronto’s per person spending was nearly $1,000 more per person than Hamilton ($3,086). (Toronto’s comparatively high levels of spending is at least partly due to the Toronto Transit Commission and other spending responsibilities unique to the City of Toronto, including a number of provincially-mandated requirements.) But even though Toronto spent the most per person in 2016, the city was one of nine municipalities in the region (along with Hamilton, Oshawa and Pickering) to actually reduce per person spending from 2009 to 2016. Toronto reduced spending by 7.7 per cent (adjusted for inflation)—more than any other municipality regionwide. Elsewhere, the City of Brampton increased per person spending by 15.1 per cent to $2,804, and Mississauga increased per person spending by 9.4 per cent to $2,705 in 2016. “Ultimately it’s up to the residents to decide if they’re getting good value for their municipal tax dollars, but to make that call they need clear information about their local government’s finances,” Filipowicz said. Media Contact: Josef Filipowicz, Senior Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute Ben Eisen, Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute Bryn Weese, Associate Director, Communications, Fraser Institute bryn.weese@fraserinstitute.org