Toronto, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow to reject Toronto Budget Chief Shelley Carroll’s call for a municipal sales tax.

“The last thing Toronto taxpayers need is a municipal sales tax,” Jay Goldberg, CTF Ontario Director, said. “Politicians need to look for savings, not pummel taxpayers with a new tax that would make everything more expensive.”

As part of Toronto city council’s efforts to address the city’s $1.5-billion budget hole, Carroll and other Toronto politicians, including Mayor Olivia Chow, have been looking at a raft of new taxes to impose on Toronto taxpayers. One of the proposals put forward by Carroll is a one per cent municipal sales tax. The budget gap must be closed before March of 2024 because cities cannot run deficits.

Staff with the city of Toronto estimate that a one per cent sales tax would take between $800 million and $1 billion out of taxpayers wallets and into city coffers. That’s $470 for a family of four living in Toronto. No other city in Canada currently has a municipal sales tax.

Former mayor John Tory increased city spending by $1.2 billion earlier this year.

“Families can’t afford to pay an extra $470 a year because city politicians don’t want to do their job and cut wasteful spending,” Goldberg said. “If Toronto went back to 2022 spending levels, the city’s budget gap would be almost entirely eliminated.”