Toronto, July 12, 2007 – Sixty-nine per cent of Toron­to­ni­ans – includ­ing a major­ity of those who voted for cur­rent Mayor and tax pro­po­nent David Miller – believe that any new taxes should be debated in the 2010 munic­i­pal elec­tion before being imple­mented. These are among the key find­ings of a new pub­lic opin­ion poll released today.

The Envi­ron­ics Research Group Ltd. poll was com­mis­sioned by the Cana­dian Fed­er­a­tion of Inde­pen­dent Busi­ness (CFIB), the Cana­dian Restau­rant and Food­ser­vices Asso­ci­a­tion (CRFA), the Motion Pic­ture The­atre Asso­ci­a­tion of Canada (MPTAC), the Toronto Auto­mo­bile Deal­ers’ Asso­ci­a­tion (TADA), and the Toronto Real Estate Board, whose mem­bers are very con­cerned with the pro­posed new taxes the Mayor and his allies on City Coun­cil seem deter­mined to push through, despite strong oppo­si­tion from cit­i­zens and busi­ness owners.

When asked about new taxes, 86% of respon­dents who voted for Mayor Miller say there was lit­tle or no dis­cus­sion of new taxes dur­ing the 2006 cam­paign and 39% of Miller sup­port­ers say they would have been less likely to sup­port a can­di­date who favoured these new taxes. Half the respon­dents say that City Hall has no man­date to go ahead with its pro­posed new taxes.

“These are very damn­ing num­bers for a Mayor who cam­paigned on a promise of a more open sys­tem at City Hall,” says CFIB Ontario Vice-President Judith Andrew. “He didn’t run on a plat­form of impos­ing a raft of new taxes on the City but now that he’s been elected, David Miller has decided that is what the peo­ple of Toronto sup­ported in vot­ing for him. The peo­ple of Toronto are feel­ing duped and ill-served by their Mayor.”

“The poll shows that peo­ple are pay­ing atten­tion,” says Toronto Real Estate Board Pres­i­dent Don­ald Bent­ley. “More impor­tantly, they are speak­ing up. The Toronto Real Estate Board is aware of thou­sands of emails that have been sent to the Mayor and all Coun­cil­lors, and peo­ple are con­tin­u­ing to voice their oppo­si­tion through our web site,” added Bent­ley. “If they are ignored, they will have tough ques­tions for who­ever sup­ports new taxes.

“Monday’s vote on the pro­posed taxes will reveal who sup­ports increas­ing the tax bur­den and who pro­tects tax­pay­ers’ inter­ests,” says Stephanie Jones, Vice-President, Ontario of CRFA. “When the next elec­tion rolls around, we will remind Toron­to­ni­ans of those vot­ing records so that the Mayor and Coun­cil are held account­able for their choices.”

Beyond the account­abil­ity issues, the poll results also reveal scep­ti­cism about the City’s abil­ity to man­age the new taxes in a man­ner that would actu­ally ben­e­fit tax­pay­ers. Fifty-three per cent of respon­dents believe there will be no improve­ment in munic­i­pal ser­vices despite increased tax rev­enue, and 72% say the new taxes will not solve the City’s fis­cal prob­lems. The tax pro­po­nents have been very vague on just how the addi­tional tax money would be used.

“Of course the Mayor him­self con­tin­ues to claim the provin­cial gov­ern­ment should also be send­ing the City more money because provin­cial down­load­ing has put too much pres­sure on the City’s bud­get,” said Bill Davis, Direc­tor of Gov­ern­ment Rela­tions for TADA. “There is a case to be made for re-aligning ser­vices and upload­ing some costs back onto the province, but the City is defeat­ing its own cam­paign by refus­ing to seri­ously look at spend­ing cuts and by using its new pow­ers to raise taxes. The City is mak­ing it very easy for the Provin­cial gov­ern­ment to ignore the whole re-alignment issue.”

Toronto’s cit­i­zens also want Miller and Coun­cil to tighten their belts rather than go to the tax­pay­ers for more money. Sixty-nine per cent of respon­dents said that even if the province does not help Toronto with its fis­cal prob­lems, the City should cut spend­ing rather than intro­duce new taxes.

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Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion

Related posts:

1. David Miller’s taxes
2. Toronto city coun­cil votes to delay deci­sion on new taxes
3. Help Fight Toronto Land Trans­fer Tax Increase
4. Toronto real estate agents respond to City’s plan for new taxes
5. Toronto Real Estate Agents Raise Con­cerns Over Toronto “Home-buying Tax”