{"id":336488,"date":"2025-12-10T09:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T09:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/336488\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T09:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T09:24:09","slug":"doug-ford-wont-block-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/336488\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Ford won’t block increase"},"content":{"rendered":"

The proposed hike to the luxury home tax is among several items expected to be discussed this morning as Mayor Olivia Chow’s executive committee meets at City H <\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he will not be blocking Toronto from increasing its land transfer tax, despite a letter from the city\u2019s realtors urging him to do so. <\/p>\n

\u201cI totally disagree with the land transfer tax. I will not be stepping in, but you know who will step in? The people, coming up in the election in 2026,\u201d Ford told reporters at Queen\u2019s Park Tuesday, referring to the next planned municipal elections in October. <\/p>\n

In Toronto, most homebuyers pay a Municipal Land Transfer Tax (MLTT), in addition to the provincial land transfer tax paid by homebuyers across the province. <\/p>\n

Mayor Olivia Chow\u2019s Executive Committee adopted a motion Tuesday to boost the municipal land transfer tax<\/a> for homes above $3 million, saying it is \u201casking luxury homebuyers to chip in more\u201d to make life affordable for families in the city. <\/p>\n

The average home price across all housing types in Toronto<\/a> sits at about $1.1 million. <\/p>\n

In a letter to Ford Tuesday, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) asked the premier to intervene to stop the City of Toronto from boosting the tax again. <\/p>\n

TREBB noted<\/a> it would be the third increase in the last eight years and said the hikes \u201chave created a prohibitive barrier to homeownership and hurt Toronto\u2019s housing market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chow introduced the new graduated rate structure in 2023 and it came into effect in 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of some of the highest development charges in Canada, MLTT increases have helped make Toronto one of the most heavily taxed housing markets in North America, with buyers of an average-priced home paying more than $17,000 in Municipal Land Transfer Tax alone,\u201d TRREB said in its letter. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed 2026 increase will further suppress market mobility and undermine provincial policy objectives to increase supply and support affordability at a critical time for Ontario\u2019s economy and housing market.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ford said Tuesday that he won\u2019t be stepping in, he accused city hall of having a \u201cspending problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a message to anyone running and even the mayor: when you go into an election, raising taxes is not the best thing to do,\u201d Ford said. \u201cWhy don\u2019t they lower taxes? They don\u2019t need to continue gouging people, no matter if it\u2019s the development charges or park fees or whatever, they have a spending problem at city hall, and they always have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Olivia Chow defended her plan Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you can afford a home that\u2019s five, ten, $20 million \u2013 I\u2019ve seen the homes, $34 million\u2014 you know, you can pay a bit more,\u201d Chow said. <\/p>\n

Speaking with CTV Toronto, Coun. Gord Perks also defended the higher tax for $3 million-plus homes. <\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason why we have to raise taxes is because we\u2019re picking up work that the province of Ontario should be doing,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not providing housing supports. They\u2019re not investing in our affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack pushed back against that idea at Queen\u2019s Park. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve been very fair to the City of Toronto,\u201d Flack said, noting the province is providing the city with some $1.2 billion in relief through the new deal. <\/p>\n

Ford did not say why he won\u2019t block the tax increase this time when he has not shied away from intervening in municipal affairs in the past. <\/p>\n

If approved by Toronto City Council, the new rates<\/a> for municipal land transfer tax would come into effect in April 2026. <\/p>\n

With files from CTV News Toronto reporters Natalie Johnson and Siobhan Morris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposed hike to the luxury home tax is among several items expected to be discussed this morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-336488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}