The challenge of governing regions that fall within the jurisdiction of more than one municipality is a long-standing policy problem for local governments. This paper examines interlocal agreements in six Canadian metropolitan areas.
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Have Greater Toronto Area (GTA) municipalities raised their property tax rates to the point at which they are likely to lose tax revenue? In other words, will further tax rate increases lower the size of the tax base? How important is tax competition between municipalities in the GTA?
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On IMFG’s tenth anniversary, panelists Enid Slack, Richard M. Bird, and Zack Taylor look at the past, present, and future of municipal finance and governance and give their progress reports: what have cities learned?
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This paper describes the reasons for forming inter-municipal agreements, discusses the different forms these agreements take, and presents the findings of a 2012 survey of Ontario municipalities that examined the nature of shared services arrangements.
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This paper profiles election campaigns in six of Ontario’s biggest cities – Hamilton, London, Mississauga, Ottawa, Toronto and Windsor. For each of the six cities, a local expert was recruited to take on this task.
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A key ingredient in Toronto’s success has been the city-building and civic leadership that has emerged from private firms, public institutions, non-profits, and cultural sector organizations in Toronto’s wider civil society. This paper reflects on how, for any great city, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
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This paper describes the City of Toronto’s financial condition and recent fiscal trends in four areas: spending and services; taxes and revenues; infrastructure; and debt and savings.
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This paper makes the case for a local business tax. The BVT is better than the discriminatory and heavy real property taxes currently levied on businesses in Ontario and other provinces. Moreover, such a tax would be complementary rather than competitive to VATs like the GST and HST.
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