It is obvious that various departments, politicians who chair committees, the legal department, etc. at Silly Hall are not talking to each other.
city hall bureau chief
Toronto officials are scrambling to determine whether the city's new $60 vehicle registration tax has unfairly hit drivers who were supposed to be exempt.
It looks like the little guy running a small business – from taxi drivers to couriers to newspaper carriers – is getting smacked by a new city "revenue tool" that was supposed to apply only to personal vehicles, not commercial ones.
Taxi drivers were the first to complain, saying that when they went in to renew their plates they were asked to pay Toronto's new $60 fee as well as the regular provincial fee.
"It's a massive cash grab under the guise of they didn't think it through," Louis Seta, president of the Toronto Taxicab Industry Association, said this week. "Some exemptions should have been worked out or a rebate system created."
Here's the hitch:
Where the vehicle is registered to an individual, it is deemed a personal vehicle. Where the vehicle is registered to a corporation or other entity, it is not considered personal.
But, to ensure taxi licences aren't controlled by companies, the city's "ambassador taxi" program requires its cabs to be owned by the operator.
It doesn't appear city council considered the dilemma last year before approving the fee, which went into effect this month.
Councillor Howard Moscoe, who chairs the city's licensing and standards committee, said the city will rectify the situation if taxis are being considered personal vehicles.
"There's no question that taxis are commercial vehicles. They have meters in them and they have numbers on the door and they carry licence plates that identify them as a commercial vehicle," Moscoe said.
"Now, if somebody is doing casual pizza delivery, it may not be in the same category."
Councillor Case Ootes thinks this was a mistake: "I don't believe the intent of the personal vehicle tax was to tax the same guy with a small business who uses a personal vehicle," he said.
City spokesperson Cindy Bromley said officials are looking into the complaint, and will meet next week with taxi industry officials.
The province has agreed to collect the tax for the city when drivers renew their plates. Drivers who refuse to pay it won't get the renewal.
Toronto expects to collect about $20 million in additional revenue from the fee during the rest of this year and $56 million over a full year.
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