Toronto, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow to scrap the city’s vacant home tax after tens of thousands of Toronto homes were wrongly declared vacant and homeowners were stuck with massive tax bills.

“Toronto’s vacant home tax has been a complete fiasco,” said CTF Ontario Director Jay Goldberg. “Taxpayers in every corner of the city have wrongly received massive tax bills and it’s time to recognize that a vacant home tax is not the answer to Toronto’s housing affordability problems.”

Roughly 167,000 homes in the city of Toronto were declared vacant earlier this year, according to a municipal report. That represents about 20 per cent of Toronto’s homes.

The number of homes declared vacant skyrocketed this year, increasing from just 11,000 in 2023.

In many cases, homeowners forgot to file before the March 15 deadline to declare their property occupied. Many others made the declaration, but were billed regardless.

Any home declared vacant is subject to a tax of one per cent of the property’s assessed value.

More than 108,000 charges have been reversed since March 15, according to city officials.

Councillors Vice Crisanti and Stephen Holyday have called on Chow and council to repeal the city’s vacant home tax.

“Toronto’s politicians should focus on promoting policies that encourage more homes to be built, not imposing a punitive tax on homeowners,” said Goldberg. “Chow and the rest of council must join with Crisanti and Holyday and vote to scrap the tax and end this taxpayer nightmare.”