Toronto homeowners could face inflationary property tax increases in the range of 5 to 6% next year, Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong warned Tuesday in a farewell speech to city council.
“And that’s something the residents of this city haven’t seen in a long, long time,” he said. “MLTT (Municipal Land Transfer Tax revenues) will be down and at the same time there’s going to be a lot of pressure to do a lot of things and I think that’s going to be a real challenge.”
Council has a lot of tough decisions facing it next year including property taxes and the spread of rooming houses, he said, adding his colleagues should keep an open mind, consider all options and respect all ideas.
As he prepares to bow out after 28 years, the suburban councillor asked his fellow councillors to remember not just tenants but also homeowners
“For some reasons it seems that it’s a bad thing to be a homeowner these days, a residential homeowner, to have someone who has saved up for 25 years for their homes and now they have this little piece of wealth that is going to take them forward,” Minnan-Wong said.
“My message to you is don’t forget about them — they’re real people — and I think that sometimes because they don’t come down to City Hall we tend sometimes not to listen to them.”
Councillor Ana Bailao, who has also announced she will not seek re-election in the fall, urged councillors to prioritize housing to maintain Toronto as a place of opportunity.
“If I could caution you on something it’s that housing is a really complex issue and we live in an era of populism,” Bailao said.
Not all financial issues can be solved with spending cuts at City Hall and sometimes council has to have “tough conversations” with Torontonians, she noted.
Governments need to invest in deeper affordable housing and also ensure building goes ahead for the other end of the market, Bailao added.
“Efficiencies is not going to cut it,” she said. “In housing, I say this very often, we’re not going to pay our way out of this crisis and we’re not going to build our way out of this crisis. We need both.”
The makeup of council will be different after the Oct. 24 election, regardless of the voting results.
Minnan-Wong, Bailao and John Filion are not seeking re-election. Joe Cressy bowed out of council earlier this year, and Mike Ford and Kristyn Wong-Tam resigned after gaining provincial seats in the June election.
Mayor John Tory, who is running for a third term, said he believes this council has been less fractious than earlier versions, noting they were able to weather the historic challenge of a pandemic.
“And we did it together,” Tory said.
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