Media Releases

New IMFG paper makes case for new taxes for Canada’s largest cities

June 27, 2016

Toron­to, ON – The new IMFG paper, More Tax Sources for Canada’s Largest Cities: Why, What, and How?, released today by the Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Munk School of Glob­al Affairs, exam­ines a dilem­ma that many large Cana­di­an cities face: how should they pay for grow­ing expen­di­ture chal­lenges and dete­ri­o­rat­ing infra­struc­ture with a tax base that has remained large­ly the same for many decades?

Con­trary to the view of many city coun­cil­lors and local tax­pay­ers, the paper’s authors Har­ry Kitchen and Enid Slack argue that access to addi­tion­al tax sources is entire­ly appro­pri­ate and like­ly nec­es­sary for Canada’s major cities to con­tin­ue to thrive. Fol­low­ing an overview of the advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of poten­tial new tax­es, they esti­mate the amount of mon­ey that might be gen­er­at­ed from a city income tax, a city sales tax, and a city fuel tax in eight Cana­di­an cities: Van­cou­ver, Cal­gary, Edmon­ton, Win­nipeg, Toron­to, Ottawa, Mon­tre­al, and Hal­i­fax.

“Cities around the world levy a wide range of tax­es, includ­ing income, sales, fuel, and hotel tax­es,” says Enid Slack. “It is time for Cana­di­an cities to have access to some of those tax­es as well.” Accord­ing to Kitchen and Slack, a more diverse port­fo­lio of tax­es would allow Canada’s largest cities to achieve rev­enue growth, rev­enue sta­bil­i­ty, and fair­ness for tax­pay­ers.

The paper can be accessed at http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/imfg/new-imfg-paper-makes-a-case-for-new-taxes-for-canadas-largest-cities/

About the Authors

Har­ry Kitchen is Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus in the Eco­nom­ics Depart­ment at Trent Uni­ver­si­ty. Over the past twen­ty years, he has com­plet­ed more than 100 arti­cles, reports, stud­ies and books on issues relat­ing to local gov­ern­ment expen­di­tures, finance, struc­ture, and gov­er­nance in Cana­da. In 2013, he was award­ed a Queen’s Dia­mond Jubilee medal for pol­i­cy analy­sis and research con­tri­bu­tions to munic­i­pal finance, struc­ture, and gov­er­nance in Cana­da.

Enid Slack is the Direc­tor of the Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance, and an Adjunct Pro­fes­sor at the Munk School of Glob­al Affairs at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. Enid has been work­ing on munic­i­pal finance issues in Cana­da and abroad for 35 years. She has pub­lished books and arti­cles on prop­er­ty tax­es, inter­gov­ern­men­tal trans­fers, devel­op­ment charges, financ­ing munic­i­pal infra­struc­ture, munic­i­pal gov­er­nance, munic­i­pal bound­ary restruc­tur­ing, and edu­ca­tion fund­ing. In 2012, Enid was award­ed the Queen’s Dia­mond Jubilee Medal for her work on cities.

About the Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance (IMFG)

The Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance is a research hub and think tank that focus­es on the fis­cal and gov­er­nance chal­lenges fac­ing large cities and city-regions. It is locat­ed with­in the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Munk School of Glob­al Affairs.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Sele­na Zhang
Man­ag­er, Pro­grams and Research
Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Email: selena.zhang@utoronto.ca
Tel: 416–978-2168
www.munkschool.utoronto.ca/imfg