Overcoming desperate times requires making hard choices, and these indeed are desperate times for Toronto's financial health.
With a city budget shortfall of $575 million looming next year, Toronto City Council must find new sources of money, at the same time it works aggressively to find new efficiencies in its existing operations.
Unavoidably, that means either imposing new taxes, raising old ones, killing programs, laying off workers, or a combination of these and other options. Any decision will be controversial. But if Toronto is to grow, not stagnate, then difficult decisions will have to be made.
To that end, the fate of Toronto's proposed new land transfer tax, which will be discussed Monday by the city's executive committee, may not be popular, but it does offer one way to deflect a crippling financial crisis that the city now faces. A report prepared by city staff recommends a municipal tax on the sale of homes and businesses. It would raise $300 million each year to help cover the chronic budget shortfall and support public transit and other urban infrastructure.
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