Many services in Ontario are delivered by municipal governments, despite being provincial responsibilities elsewhere in the country. With declining revenues and increasing costs, municipalities can’t meet this demand, which means property taxes are going up and services are declining. 

Municipal governments can only raise money through user fees and property taxes, and with so many of these services being mandatory public rights, that means higher property taxes. If transferred to the Province, the burden on taxpayers would be lower, because the Province has many more revenue tools at its disposal. This would mean lower taxes and better services to deal with social problems. 

In 2023, Ontario’s municipalities subsidized the province by more than $5 billion in areas that everywhere else in Canada are provincial responsibilities, including community housing, social services, long-term care, public health, and ambulance services. This represents a 20% increase from 2022, equivalent to one billion dollars. 

Ontario already has the second highest property taxes and payments-in-lieu of taxes amongst all provinces and territories at $2,100 per capita. However, provincial program spending is the lowest in Canada at $13,065 per capita. 

Municipalities can only raise revenues through property taxes and user fees, and levying fees on community housing, social services, healthcare, etc. either contradicts their fundamental freedoms, or would violate the Charter rights of their users. Provincial governments, on the other hand, can raise revenues through income and capital gains taxes, excise taxes, bonds, sales taxes, and many, many other tools that can spread this burden to make it less impactful and/or where it is most fair. 

We ask that services currently delivered by municipalities should be impartially reviewed to determine whether transferring them to the Province would result in tax savings, better services, or both. Additionally, no new transfers should take place without a similar impartial review. 

2022-ongoing