Media Releases

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

June 27, 2016

New paper from the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance looks at the impact of potential revenue tools on eight Canadian cities

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