What do China, Metrolinx and Woodbine Mall have in common? They all owe Toronto over $500K, the city says
CBC
The City of Toronto is owed $39 million from its largest tax debtors according to a new report, released at a time when mayoral candidates are debating the city's challenging fiscal outlook.
The list of debtors is restricted to corporations and individuals that owe in excess of $500,000. And it includes some recognizable names including Woodbine Mall, the People's Republic of China and Metrolinx.
Councillors on the city's general government committee are expected to receive and debate the report from city staff at a meeting today.
Coun. James Pasternak, who chairs the committee, said given the city's fiscal pressures — which include a budget gap of over a billion dollars — it needs and expects everyone to pay their taxes.
"The city is cash-starved, we cannot afford to forgive or turn a blind eye to these millions of dollars in taxes," he said. "We absolutely need them for city operations for programs or for services."
The list includes 23 properties owned by corporations that owe over $37 million. Three individuals, who are not publicly named, account for the remaining balance.
The city stresses in the report that as much as 97 per cent of city residents and businesses pay their taxes within the year they're levied. The report also outlines the efforts city staff are making to collect the funds in arrears and the details of the cases, some of which date back decades.
Cities have a number of tools at their disposal to collect tax arrears, including hiring bailiffs to enforce orders and to run tax sales of the property. To initiate a tax sale, the city must issue a notice giving the owner a year to pay the arrears in full or they forfeit the property.
While the city is owed millions, Casey Brendon, the director of revenue services, said because tax liens remain on properties even when they're sold, the city expects it will recover the money.
"It's just a question of at what point will we get paid," he said. "But it is not likely that this money is at risk of write-off or anything like that. We do expect to collect it."
Woodbine Mall Holdings Inc., which owns the Etobicoke mall, owes nearly $8.7 million in taxes, penalties and interest to the city dating back to 2017.
The city said it's tried a variety of means to collect and has now turned to a bailiff who is collecting payment directly from the mall's tenants.
"Anything we collect from the tenants is used to offset the owners' taxes," Brendon said.
Woodbine Mall did not respond to a request for comment.
People continue to flock to Banff National Park.
Two Toronto councillors have brought forward a motion to ban raising foreign flags at Toronto City Hall and civic centres.
Thousands of Maritime Electric customers in multiple communities across Queens County are without power Saturday morning.
Three weeks into the conflict in the Middle East, the joint U.S.-Israel onslaught has killed much of Iran's leadership, knocked out much of its ballistic missile capability, sunk nearly all of its navy and, according to U.S. President Donald Trump, has "militarily WON" the war already.
Sometimes to understand the weather, you have to fly straight into it.
When he was a student at what was then known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Andrew Scott had a professor who regularly said that painting was something that could be done until someone dropped dead, while rock n' roll had a best-before date.
Almost a year after a Miramichi woman spoke out about how dealing with an insurance-related company left her in financial ruin, a watchdog commission in the province is formally warning people to stay away.
Getting a job is not the same as it used to be, a young job seeker told CBC Toronto at an employment fair in Oakwood Village earlier this week.
A teenage girl is dead after she was struck by at least one vehicle Friday night in Vaudreuil-Dorion — a suburb located about 45 kilometres west of Montreal.
There was a time when Manitobans used to consider Saskatchewan a rural, underdeveloped backwater.
The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) found some reasons to celebrate the 2026-27 provincial budget, but it takes issue with the amount designated for the province's Water Security Agency (WSA).
The family of an Edmonton woman who died in Honolulu last year is pushing for Hawaiian authorities to re-open the case.
It was around this time in 2020 that everything changed.