How one of Toronto's most lucrative companies wound up on the city's list of biggest property tax debtors

One of the city's oldest, best-known sports corporations has found itself on a dubious list.

Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment — owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors, among other pro sports franchises — has been named one of Toronto's largest property tax debtors, with an unpaid bill of roughly $1.18 million, dating back to the 2019 tax year.

That number came to light at April's meeting of the city's general government committee, when the annual list  of largest property tax debtors with tax arrears greater than $500,000 was made public. 

MLSE disputes that charge and says it's in discussions with the city to resolve the issue. 

Regardless of what's going on behind the scenes in terms of appeals or negotiations, one city councillor and former Exhibition Place board member says MLSE should pay the bill now and try to recoup the money later if  it feels it's being taxed unfairly.

"I can't imagine what it would be like for our city's administration if the tax money stopped flowing every time somebody raised a concern or an appeal," Coun. Stephen Holyday said. "That's why people are still expected to remit their taxes, and then the process will unfold in a very organized way and the accounting will be done at the end of that process to straighten it all out.

"But in the meantime, the taxes still have to be paid to the city."

The disagreement is over BMO Field at the city-owned Exhibition Place. Traditionally, organizations that rent at Exhibition place pay property taxes to the city as a portion of their lease payments.

MLSE's Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts both play out of the stadium. But MLSE said in a statement to CBC Toronto, it operates at BMO Field under a "management agreement" with the city, and the teams pay the city a "user fee" — not rent. As a result, they shouldn't be tagged with a property tax fee as traditional tenants at Exhibition Place like Medieval Times or the Liberty Grand, the company argues.

"The ultimate responsibility for the payment of realty taxes rests with the owner," the MLSE statement reads. "And MLSE is neither the owner of the property nor a tenant."

The company says there's a difference between its agreement with the city on BMO Field and the other two Exhibition Place properties it leases for the Leaf's minor league team, the Marlies, and for the Raptors' practice facility.

"As is publicly known, MLSE leases two properties on the Exhibition Place grounds, OVO Athletic Centre and Coca-Cola Coliseum, where all rents and taxes for which it is responsible have been duly and punctually paid," the MSLE statement reads. 

The controversy over BMO Field appears to have begun in 2016 as MLSE finished enlarging and upgrading the facility. Those renovations caught the eye of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), the agency that's tasked with deciding the value of every property in the province and passing that information on to municipalities so they can determine how much the owners should pay in property tax.

"BMO Field was previously exempt from taxation," MPAC said in a an email to CBC Toronto. "There were renovations and additions to BMO Field in or around 2016 that caused MPAC to review the entire property. In addition, in 2014, MLSE entered into a new Management Agreement for BMO Field, which was not provided to MPAC until in 2018."