Toronto, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow to go back to the drawing board and protect taxpayers from a massive property tax hike.

“Chow’s property tax increase is still far too high,” said CTF Ontario Director Jay Goldberg. “Chow needs to rein in city spending in order to get that property tax hike down even further.”

The city’s original budget proposal included a 10.5 per cent property tax hike, which works out to $758 for the average Toronto homeowner. Chow’s new proposal calls for a 9.5 per cent property tax increase, which will hit the average homeowner with a $690 tax increase. The total cost of Chow’s property tax increase to taxpayers will be $401 million.

“More than 400,000 Ontarians are working more than one job just to make ends meet,” Goldberg said. “Fifty per cent of Canadians say they’re $200 away from not being able to pay their bills. Taxpayers cannot afford to see hundreds of dollars more this year taken from their pocketbooks just to fund Chow’s bloated budget.”