Toronto, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow to cancel her plans to force new taxes on Toronto taxpayers.

“Torontonians are hurting from the effects of high inflation and soaring living costs,” said Jay Goldberg, Ontario Director of the CTF. “Instead of looking at a laundry list of new taxes, Chow should be looking for ways to find savings.”

Toronto currently faces a $1.5-billion budget gap for the 2024 fiscal year. Cities are not allowed to run deficits. Rather than finding budget savings, Chow is indicating she plans to hike taxes to balance the city’s books.

“If Toronto simply returned to the spending levels the city had in 2022, just eight short months ago, the city’s entire deficit would be eliminated,” said Goldberg. “Chow shouldn’t be looking to pummel Torontonians with new and higher taxes when modest spending cuts could solve the city’s entire budget problem.”

Chow is proposing to increase the municipal land transfer tax on homes sold for over $3 million. She is also planning to bring other tax hike proposals to her Executive Council, including a commercial parking tax, a foreign buyer land transfer tax, a vacant home tax increase and a plan to increase property taxes. Chow hasn’t yet specified how much she plans to increase property taxes ahead of next year’s budget.

“Torontonians can’t afford Chow’s reckless tax hikes,” said Goldberg. “Chow should be doing everything she can to find savings before asking taxpayers to pay another cent in new taxes.”