Search Results for: IMFG Paper

This paper discusses why property taxes are particularly challenging to reform and suggests several ways in which efforts to reform this tax may become more successful in the future.
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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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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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Three major trends are buffeting provincial-municipal arrangements in Ontario. The first is a growing recognition of the role cities and metropolitan regions play as centres of growth and national prosperity. The second is increasing complexity in the provincial-municipal relationship. The third is the emergence of threats to the fiscal health of Ontario municipalities.
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The paper first sets out the theory of expenditure assignment with respect to decentralizing infrastructure expenditure, and then considers how practice around the developing world appears to differ from what that theory appears to suggest.
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Following the 2002 amalgamation, half Montréal’s pre-amalgamation suburbs de-merged in 2006, leading to the creation of a smaller megacity with 19 decentralized boroughs. This paper identifies factors that affect the capacity of Montréal’s boroughs to fulfil their responsibilities.
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This paper reviews different ways in which the formal governance of metropolitan areas may be restructured, such as through two-tier structures, voluntary cooperation, special districts, and municipal mergers. It includes a case study of the amalgamation in Toronto.
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