Don’t expect the feds or province to come to Toronto’s rescue this time
‘Higher taxes and fewer services likely as mayor-elect Olivia Chow tries to dig city of out financial hole’
Toronto mayor-elect Olivia Chow has promised a “modest” tax increase. Unfortunately for Torontonians, even something an NDPer would call modest won’t be enough to get the city out of the financial hole it’s in.
Toronto has a budget deficit of nearly $1.4 billion on total operating spending of $16.16 billion. By law, it must balance its books each year. That deficit consists of $454 million from 2022, which must be paid off, and an anticipated $933 million for this year. The city says the money is required to cover continuing pandemic-related costs for transit, public health, shelters, supportive housing and refugee response.
Plan A for Toronto has been to demand big fat cheques from the federal and provincial governments. Toronto municipal politicians seem to be under the mistaken impression that taxpayers across the province, even across the country, should make up their budget shortfalls.
That plan isn’t going so well. During the pandemic, the provincial government did give Toronto $3.4 billion to help pay for pandemic costs. The most recent part of that was $235 million to help pare the 2022 deficit down to $454 million. The province hasn’t expressed the slightest interest in giving more.
