Some councilors want the vacant home tax scrapped, but Chow vows to fix it

Will it fix it or not?

That's the question Toronto City Council will debate this week as it continues to grapple with the aftermath of the disaster. catastrophic spring break on vacant house tax.

The tax was supposed to help Toronto deal with a housing crisis by discouraging property owners from keeping much-needed homes vacant. Instead, it's become a bureaucratic crisis, with bewildered owners of foreclosed homes being hit with thousands of dollars in worrisome bills.

The city is fast returned these charges and says it will add a number of measures to help the process this year, further improving it next year.

But Etobicoke councilor Vincent Crisanti says it's time to ditch the tax. He introduces proposal at Wednesday's council meeting called on the council to scrap the tax, saying it was “irreparable”.

His proposal, introduced by Councilor Stephen Holliday, calls for the tax to be removed “immediately” and also directs city staff to report to City Council by the fourth quarter of 2024 on “innovative ways to address Toronto's housing affordability crisis.” .”

“The City of Toronto has received more than 60,000 complaints and hundreds of residents have been illegally billed large tax bills in the thousands of dollars,” Crisanti's filing states. “Not only is the vacant house tax invasive to our taxpayers, but it is clearly disruptive and inconvenient to fix.”

Crisanti told CityNews that his office was inundated with tax complaints, adding that he “took direct control of my office.”

“I hope I would be successful in asking the council to remove this tax,” he told CityNews on Monday.

“I think if we do this successfully, it will just go away, because a lot of the comments or responses I get are that these taxes are so broken and fundamentally broken that it can't be fixed.”

“It should be removed,” he said. “Too broken for serious repair. Can't edit. This should be canceled.”

Homeowners had until March 15 to declare their homes vacant – or face an additional one percent tax based on their property's assessed value.

Despite living in their homes, many of those affected by the bills said they didn't know they needed to claim housing, while others said they filled out the forms on time but still received a bill.

Those who failed to declare home status on time but disputed the vacant home tax bill they received were initially slapped with a $21 late fine, which Mayor Olivia Chow later waived as she tried to make amends for the angry mob.

Chou apologized for the mess, saying the system was in place before he took office.

“The way we put this program out is wrong … I promise I'm going to clean it up,” he said earlier this month.

Although Cristiano “did well”, Chow is convinced that the tax is effective. the process can be correctedalthough he admitted that his original design had a “fatal flaw”.

“In the third quarter of this year … you will see a completely redesigned program,” he told CityNews last Friday in defense of the vacant home tax concept.

“We need to make sure these speculators, some of whom (own) apartment buildings that sit vacant year-round, are financially disciplined so we can take that money and use it to build affordable housing.”

“The concept is a great idea,” he said. “We will redesign it and it will be operational next year.”

“You don't throw the baby out with the bath water, do you?”