Search Results for: IMFG Paper

Toronto is known for having been a prosperous and successful city in the decades after the Second World War, and the postwar period has come to be seen as something of a Golden Age for the city. What role did Toronto’s postwar municipal finances play in making the city the success that it was?
Find out more »

The City of Toronto implemented a land transfer tax on real estate transactions in February 2008. This study explores the impact of the tax on housing sales in the City of Toronto and the rest of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Find out more »

Canadian cities have long called for access to more tax revenues. This paper argues that additional taxes are appropriate for major cities, describes the advantages and disadvantages of potential new taxes, and estimates the revenue from a city income tax, a city sales tax, and a city fuel tax for eight Canadian cities.
Find out more »

This paper situates Canadian local governance practices within a review of international perspectives on the meaning and evaluation of governance quality. The author finds that Canadian authorities have construed local good governance largely in utilitarian terms, as the efficiency of service delivery.
Find out more »

This report reviews tax increment financing (TIF) and land value capture (LVC), two alternative sources of revenue to support new infrastructure and development for which municipal funds are not readily available. It simulates a 30-year TIF implementation along the Sheppard East corridor in Toronto.
Find out more »

This paper defines the terms Big Data, Open Data, Open Government, and Smart Cities and uses two case studies – London (U.K.) and Toronto – to examine questions about using data to drive economic growth, improve the accountability of government to citizens, and offer more digitally enabled services.
Find out more »

While the financial situation of municipal employee pension plans in Canada is satisfactory overall, these plans involve significant financial risks and in some cases have experienced financial difficulties that have caused problems for municipal finances.
Find out more »

Why did Canadian municipal credit conditions improved so dramatically after the 2008 recession compared to other subnational governments around the world?
Find out more »