‘It didn’t happen overnight’: Why property taxes are skyrocketing in some Ontario cities

Municipalities are calling for a more modern fiscal framework for the division of tax dollars to address step property tax increases.

Steep property taxes increases for next year has several Ontario municipalities seeking change in how tax dollars are divided to curb such a rise again.

Cities such as London, Mississauga, Hamilton and Burlington are sounding the alarm, saying deals struck over 100 years ago with the federal and provincial governments are out of date and aren’t matching the level of population growth.

“It didn’t happen overnight, and it certainly didn’t happen just with this government, but over the past, I’d say 10 and 20 years, increasing responsibility for social service delivery and health-care infrastructure has been downloaded to municipalities to look after,” chair of Ontario Big City mayors and Burlington mayor Marianne Meed Ward said.

“Even where we have cost-shared agreements with, let’s say, the province for the delivery of social services, they haven’t kept up with growth.”

For 2024, Burlington is looking at a 5.97 per cent property tax increase, while communities like London are reporting a 7.3 per cent increase. Others like Mississauga are projected to come in over nine per cent, Windsor at 6.4 per cent increase, and Hamilton 6.9 per cent.

Unlike the province or federal government, municipalities are unable to carry a deficit, so in order to provide basic services, money needs to come from somewhere — the main source being property taxes.

Municipalities receive between eight to 10 cents of every dollar collected in taxes at all levels, but the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities notes that they are responsible for 60 per cent of all infrastructure.

“We are seeing this increase in property taxes, and what it speaks to really is a need for a modernized fiscal framework for local governments to fund these much-needed services in their communities,” said Rebecca Bligh.