Greater Toronto REALTORS® have released the results of pub­lic opin­ion research on var­i­ous munic­i­pal issues includ­ing sat­is­fac­tion with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and the direc­tion of Toronto City Coun­cil, the Toronto Land Trans­fer Tax, the City of Toronto’s bud­get, and GTA munic­i­pal services.

The poll was con­ducted by Ipsos Pub­lic Affairs for the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB).

“Munic­i­pal issues are impor­tant to home­buy­ers. Things like Toronto’s Land Trans­fer Tax, prop­erty taxes, and pub­lic tran­sit affect home­buy­ers’ deci­sions,” said Bill John­ston, TREB Pres­i­dent. “It’s been six months since last fall’s munic­i­pal elec­tion, so REALTORS® felt that this was a good time to take the public’s pulse on how sat­is­fied they are so far, and what they expect on munic­i­pal issues mov­ing forward.”

The poll found that 70% of Toron­to­ni­ans approve of the over­all per­for­mance of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, and that 65% believe that Toronto City Coun­cil is on the right track with regard to the man­age­ment of tax­payer dollars.

With regard to spe­cific poli­cies, the poll found that 75% of Toron­to­ni­ans sup­port Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s com­mit­ment to repeal the Toronto Land Trans­fer Tax. Even when asked to con­sider the City’s expected bud­get short­fall, the public’s sup­port for the repeal of the Toronto Land Trans­fer Tax remains very strong, with 68% of Toron­to­ni­ans believ­ing that the Mayor should follow-through on this com­mit­ment. The poll also found that a large num­ber of Toron­to­ni­ans, 61%, were pre­vi­ously aware that Mayor Ford has com­mit­ted to repeal the Toronto Land Trans­fer Tax.

“The public’s sup­port for Mayor Ford and the cur­rent direc­tion of Toronto City Coun­cil is high, and it is clear that mov­ing for­ward with repeal­ing the Toronto Land Trans­fer Tax will help to keep it there,” said Johnston.

The City of Toronto is cur­rently under­tak­ing a com­pre­hen­sive review of what ser­vices it deliv­ers and how it deliv­ers them. In this regard, the poll also asked Toron­to­ni­ans what they thought should receive the most atten­tion as part of this review:

79% agreed that down­siz­ing of City staff through attri­tion should receive some atten­tion
79% agreed that more public-private part­ner­ships should receive some atten­tion
77% agreed that con­tract­ing out selected ser­vices should receive some atten­tion
76% agreed that pulling out of or elim­i­nat­ing some City agen­cies should receive some atten­tion
68% agreed that impos­ing or increas­ing user fees should receive some atten­tion
59% agreed that reduc­tions and/or dis­con­tin­u­a­tion of some ser­vices should receive some attention

“Clearly the pub­lic wants Toronto City Coun­cil to con­sider inno­v­a­tive approaches to man­age the City’s fis­cal sit­u­a­tion, instead of rely­ing on taxes like the Toronto Land Trans­fer Tax,” said Johnston.

The pub­lic was also asked which munic­i­pal ser­vices most influ­ence their home buy­ing deci­sions. Access to pub­lic tran­sit ranked high­est with 69% indi­cat­ing that it would influ­ence their deci­sion about where to buy a home.

“Mayor Rob Ford has made sub­way expan­sion a key pri­or­ity. Clearly, pub­lic tran­sit is an impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tion for home buy­ers,” said Johnston.

The poll also sur­veyed res­i­dents across the GTA regard­ing their sat­is­fac­tion with the value of their munic­i­pal tax dol­lars, reveal­ing some clear con­trasts between Toronto and GTA res­i­dents. The poll found that:

* in Toronto, 72% feel that City pro­grams and ser­vices they receive are good value for their tax dol­lars, com­pared to 81% in the GTA.
* 45% of Toron­to­ni­ans believe that their tax dol­lars are being spent effi­ciently, com­pared to 72% of GTA res­i­dents who feel that way.
* with regard to user fees, 44% of res­i­dents in the GTA believe that these fees are too high, while only 29% of Toron­to­ni­ans feel that way

The poll of 913 adults liv­ing in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area was con­ducted on-line between April 18 and April 26, 2011, and is con­sid­ered accu­rate to within +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20.

Greater Toronto REALTORS® are pas­sion­ate about their work. They adhere to a strict Code of Ethics and share a state-of-the-art Mul­ti­ple List­ing Ser­vice. Serv­ing over 31,000 Mem­bers in the Greater Toronto Area, the Toronto Real Estate Board is Canada’s largest real estate board.

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Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion – 416−388−1960

Lau­rin & Natalie Jef­frey are Toronto Real­tors with Cen­tury 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these arti­cles, they just repro­duce them here for peo­ple
who are inter­ested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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