Municipalities take a pass on land transfer tax powers

Monday, November 30, 2015

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

When it comes to acquiring powers to levy land transfer taxes, it appears Ontario’s municipalities are just not interested.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Ted McMeekin, minister of municipal affairs and housing, said a regular review of the Municipal Act turned up little interest in extending the power to be able levy the tax to all municipalities. Toronto alone has had that power since 2006.

“I was pleased to communicate our government’s position today, that other than in Toronto, where the power already exists, our government will not be extending municipal land transfer tax powers to other Ontario municipalities,” McMeekin said in the statement.

In recent weeks the Ontario Real Estate Association has warned about the possibility of municipalities obtaining the power to levy land transfer taxes.

“We were told in the election promises they weren’t going to allow it,” Pat Verge, the organization’s president, told Better Farming in a November interview. “And then we got wind late summer from (Ottawa-Orleans MPP Phil McNeeley)’s office that yes, they were going to give it as an option for the municipalities to use as a tax collection tool. And we went ‘what’?”

However, many others in the municipal sector downplayed the possibility, noting that such taxes would not benefit the bottom-line of most Ontario municipalities.

John Innes, Lambton County general manager, finance, facilities and court services, told Better Farming in November that such taxes wouldn’t generate a lot of revenue in an area like Lambton County where the property sale rate and real estate prices are much lower than in Toronto. Innes predicted that because the province had received a largely negative response when it was broached, “we will probably not see this happening.” BF