WATCH ABOVE: The City of Mississauga is close to implementing a new stormwater fee while Toronto continues to study the idea. Mark McAllister reports.
TORONTO — Mississauga could soon have a new stormwater runoff tax, and Toronto may follow suit.
Fees could range from $50 for smaller properties to $170 for large properties.
The Mississauga decision is pending final approval; if it goes through Mississauga will begin collecting a fee next year from property owners to help pay for stormwater infrastructure maintenance.
A number of factors will determine a property’s fee, depending on the area of hard surface on the property or on the property’s structure.
The basic idea is to determine the amount of stormwater soaking into the ground, and how much is running off a property. The larger a property, the more owners will be required to pay.
Christine Van Geyn from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation told Global News this is just one more tax increase on already overburdened residents.
“People in Toronto and in Mississauga are really being hammered in taxes,” said Geyn. “It’s an unsustainable burden on the people in these cities.”
She said the cities need to be smarter about balancing budgets to keep infrastructure maintained, instead of hitting up residents with new taxes and fees.
“We’re already paying for stormwater infrastructure, it hasn’t been maintained because there’s a lot of other budgetary pressures in the cities,” said Geyn. “Perhaps we have other priorities like stormwater — when we see big floods at Union Station — instead of paying more than half the police force to be on the sunshine list.”
Toronto city Councillor Gord Perks said a fee system based on individual properties would in fact be more fair for homeowners, and could save some people money.
“We already charge user fees for storm sewage usage,” said Perks. “What this would do is make that charge smaller for those of us who have a lot of soft service, or bigger for other people who don’t.”
He’s glad to see Mississauga getting on board with the fees, which he said is common in many municipalities around the world.
“We have to make sure that we are not charging you to pay for the bad decisions someone else is making,” said Perks. “Yes, it’s a new tax, but what it could do is save some of you, who behave well, some real money.”
Perks said Toronto could have a similar tax in place within “a year or two.”
One city resident said if new fees are imposed, there must be transparency on where the money is going.
“A surcharge for specific programs is probably acceptable to most people in the city,” said John Brown, who owns a home in Riverdale. “Where it becomes worrisome is when there’s a tax increase and you never know where the money goes.”
With files from Mark McAllister
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