BRADFORD — Bradford West Gwillimbury is joining an appeal for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford to give municipalities their “fair share” of funds collected on home sales to address “critical” needs.
Based on a motion from Aurora, Bradford council passed a resolution of its own Dec. 3, calling on the federal and provincial governments to provide more ongoing funding to help municipalities with the cost of infrastructure like roads, water and sewers.
“This is a great opportunity for us to grab some of that extra revenue they take that we don’t see,” Mayor James Leduc said.
That was in reference to a statistic from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) which claims municipalities rely mainly on property tax and user fees, and only receive nine cents of every dollar households pay in all taxes, compared to 44 cents for the provincial government and 47 cents for the federal government.
While the exact amounts aren’t specified in the motion, it requests the federal funding come from the goods and services tax (GST) from property sales while the provincial portion come from its land transfer tax.
The Ontario government collected $3.54 billion in land transfer tax in the 2023-24 financial year, compared to $4.43 billion in 2022-23 and $5.83 billion in 2021-22. According to Nina Ioussoupova, a spokesperson for the Canada Revenue Agency, “it is not possible” to specify how much GST was collected from home sales because filings for the tax are not split into specific commodities.
In both instances, council is asking for the funds to come in a “predictable and sustainable” manner to avoid creating “a new tax burden on residents,” while still allowing municipalities to invest long term and ensuring they are “supporting local economic growth and improving the quality of life for residents.”
“We alone in Bradford West Gwillimbury have sunk hundreds of millions of dollars in the ground in infrastructure,” Leduc said. “We are closest to the people and provide the most services for people.”
Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper called the potential funding “a great way” to prevent adding another cost to residents who are “already bearing the weight of rising taxes from four government bodies — municipal, regional, provincial and federal.”
Bradford’s motion essentially mirrors one from Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas, dated Nov. 5, but even if the municipalities are successful in their appeal to the upper levels of government, it’s uncertain how long the federal funding would flow.
While visiting Aurora late last month, official opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, said he would not support the requested GST transfer to municipal governments, claiming they’re already “bursting with cash, and they’re wasting it all.”
In recognition of those comments, Bradford Coun. Joseph Giordano said he is offended and sees the town as an exception, where others might not be running as “efficiently” or “lean.”
During the recent budget deliberations, councillors decided to forego their own raises for 2025 to help minimize the town’s property tax increase, anticipated to be just 2.7 per cent.
“I’ll support this for Bradford, but not for everybody,” Giordano said of the motion.
Whether the transfer is for all municipalities or just a select few, it may still be less than anticipated, as in late October Poilievre pledged to eliminate the GST on new homes sold for less than $1 million if his party wins the next federal election.
In addition to the upper levels of government, the town also plans to send the resolution to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and AMO, in the hopes of receiving their endorsement and advocacy.
— With files from Bailey Moreton
