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TAX FREEDOM DAY IS NOVEMBER 2010!

CURRENT NEWSLETTERS

Party Hands Out 2007 Awards (December 2007) (PDF)

Detonia Park Special Edition (PDF)

OUR GENERAL MESSAGE

As 2007 draws to a close, The Toronto Party is one year closer to running candidates in the next municipal election and one year closer to bringing a new hope to Toronto.

In 2007, Mayor Miller and his supporters on city council passed, against the wishes of the people, a new land transfer tax (26 to 19) and new motor vehicle registration fee (25 to 20). (See how they voted here.)

As stated by William Robson, CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute, an independent policy think-tank, these taxes are dumb. In an article appearing in the Globe and Mail on October 20, 2007, Mr. Robson wrote: "Then there's the dumb end of the [tax] scale: vehicle registration charges and land transfer taxes. Simply owning a vehicle does not wear out roads, impede other traffic or pollute the air. How much and where you drive it is what matters. And hitting property that is changing hands with extra heavy levies is worse than raising property taxes more generally. It sends a clear message to anyone thinking of locating in the city that they are not wanted."

Other options exist

We remain steadfast that imposing the new taxes was unnecessary.

The city's operating budget is $7.8 billion. A 5% across the board reduction in every department would trim $400 million from the budget and virtually balance it (Toronto's current projected budget shortfall is $413 million).

Other alternatives can also be found to trim the bureaucratic fat and to raise revenues. For more options, please download a copy of our Budget and Revenue Plan.

In addition, a cause for concern among some groups is the rising cost of labour and trade union monopolies at City Hall. A significant portion of Toronto's operating budget is allocated to pay employees. It is also believed that trade union monopolies at City Hall add to the city's operating costs. A report looking at the issue of trade union monopolization in Hamilton was recently prepared for Hamilton City Council. The report is available here (PDF). A related news item appeared in the Hamilton Spectator: "Union hold on carpentry could shut down city" by Nancy McIntyre.

A simple change to the Ontario Labour Relations Act would solve this problem. Municipalities are not "construction employers".

According to information that we have received, the trade union agreements that bind Toronto cost the city an estimated additional $100 million a year. More information about this issue can be found at www.workingfamilieswatch.ca.

Yet the Mayor refused to listen and refused to consider other options.

Anger and Frustration 

The people of Toronto are angry and frustrated with the Mayor and with the attitudes of free spending councillors who get reimbursed for, among other things, limo rides to nowhere, paintings and expresso machines, camera equipment and foreign trips with their spouses.

Toronto has faces some real problems, but to solve these problems Torontonians must take action. Torontinians must take leadership, because we know that leadership is not coming from our elected representatives. In the January 2008 edition of Toronto Life, Philip Preville writes as follows:

"Toronto's civic conversation is so preoccupied with the money we don't have, we no longer talk about what we do with the money we've got. All told, nearly $10 billion in expenditures will wash through city hall next year. Much of it will be shovelled into the sacred cows of transit and policing, a good deal of it will be squandered, and public sector unions will make a play for the remainder while other services suffer and the city is left to run itself. City hall lacks more than money. It lacks leadership from its mayor, vision from its councillors, accountability from its public service, and vitality and ingenuity from its entire organization. None of these things costs money -- they are merely components of civic spirit -- but their absence has helped bring Toronto to the place where it stands today: barely functional and on the brink of insolvency."

It is time for Torontonians to take action!

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT NOW!

The time has come for all people opposed to Mayor Miller, his taxes and his regime to become members of a civic action party. Please take the time to complete a membership form, which can be accessed on our "Join Us" page, and mail it to us today!

Membership in the party is not restricted to Toronto residents.