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Budget needs to tackle widening 'fairness gap'

BY MARYAM SHAH, FIRST POSTED: SUNDAY, JULY 10, 2016 04:28 PM EDT | UPDATED: SUNDAY, JULY 10, 2016 04:29 PM EDT

TORONTO - Advocates say the city’s budget process for 2017 needs to address a widening “fairness gap” that hits low-income families while sparing the owners of homes and cars.

Commitment2Community raised the issue ahead of this week’s council meeting where councillors will address Toronto’s long-term financial direction.

One campaign representative — Gideon Forman, an analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation — said a lot of councillors “just don’t realize” there’s a fairness gap in who has had to pay more Toronto City Hall (Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun) over the years for city services.

Taxes such as those imposed on alcoholic beverages or charging fees for vehicle registration stickers are “no big Article deal” in other cities around the world, he added. Recommend 0 “They realize that when a city reaches a certain size — about 2 million, 2.5 million — you cannot rely just on the property tax,” Forman stressed. Tweet Sean Meagher, executive director of Social Planning Toronto, said property tax 1 rates in Toronto have not increased with the rate of inflation over the past six years, yet user fees for transit and recreational services have gone up. TOP STORIES “The (costs for) services that lower-income families use have been going up, POPULAR LATEST VIDEOS while the costs for property owners and car owners have been going down,” Meagher said. Former Paul Bernardo fan Report an error charged in U.S. Consulate The pair suggested that three taxes the city could impose within the next six attack Related Stories months — including a parking levy of $1.50 per spot each day at malls and other locations — could bring in $535 million annually. City urged to probe potential LED street lights risk “I think it’s important to remember that these aren’t conversations about just budgets or revenues or dollars and cents,” Meagher said. “They’re conversations Tenors change lyrics to O Safe injection site debate lands at about how we build a city.” Canada at MLB all-star council game Budget chief Gary Crawford was unavailable for comment. Tory ready for the Scarborough Thousands of used subway debate to end all condoms found in Lake [email protected] Ontario Scarborough subway debates

Mayor pledges to support some 'revenue tools' later this year

Enough talk. Build the Scarborough subway

Councillor wants to look at bike licensing system

Read my lips: No new taxes — yet

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