Toronto's New Land Transfer Tax will Hurt all Canadians

Does the City of Toronto manage their budget and finances well and does their system as it is help the rest of Ontario and Canada? Rhetorical - of course not. This jurisdiction doesn't have a reputation for sound fiscal management.

Hasn't the Province, by giving Canada's largest municipal taxing power the authority to tax everything they can rather than control their spending, also made a decision to have a considerable negative effect on national economic interests? Well, yaaaaa.

Think - an extra tax on buying a home in Toronto and the effect that this will have on the Ontario and Canadian economy.

Forget for a minute about the effect of a high dollar on Ontarios manufacturers - currently the only people benefitting from a 110% dollar are matrons prepared to suffer the time and indignity of travelling hours by bus and getting humiliated by border guards. We could get into a whole discussion on what the Bank of Canada is doing and whether they should lower the interest rates to slow the growth of the dollar but that is dinner for another day.

By adding an additional land transfer tax to the cost of acquiring a home, David Miller's city is incentivizing people to live in Oakville. Have you ever been in Oakville? Not a paradise, let me assure you. Not hell, but from Oakville, you can see Hell.

Basically, an extra housing acquisition cost, as being ordered by David Miller and his Marxist Minions, will take money out of the pockets of consumers and put it in the pockets of government. A typical Toronto home - say at $500K - will result in about $7 k being given to the City rather than spent on renos, new cars, or big screens. Is this good?

Well, I suppose people can drive to Buffalo to buy all their cars, furniture and big screens and compensate a little. But then again, sans tax, this is spending taken from Toronto merchants.

Ontario's economy has always been referred to as the "middle third" and the city of Toronto is about 1/2 of this. So when Toronto coughs, the rest of Canada spits out phlegm.

David Miller's stupid solution promises to not only harm Toronto irrevocably, but Canada overall. Harming the ability of Toronto residents to consume promises to be another socialist cancer on Canada's economy.