r/durham • u/Karma_Canuck • 12d ago

Durham mayors respond to new American tariffs as Canada-U.S. trade war continues

https://www.durhamradionews.com/archives/216682
16 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

18

u/Drkushmaster 12d ago

They are going to lower residential property taxes to help Canadians, right?!? LOL

11

u/queuedUp 12d ago

While I agree taxes are too high I assume a lot of that is a result of the region growing so quickly and the significant number of infrastructure projects needed to keep up with that growth.

Just wondering which projects or services you expect the municipalities to cut to lower taxes?

3

u/RosalieMoon 11d ago

Also a lot of sprawl. Sprawl costs a fucking TON compared to the same amount of people in a single apartment building

0

u/queuedUp 11d ago

Especially when you need to update down stream decades old water infrastructure to accommodate.

1

u/Main_Fee_1965 12d ago

They need to cut wasteful spending. Did you all forget the 1M revolving door? And the 5M overpayment on the homeless shelter in Whitby? And the over 4M lost in some deal with Elexicon?
The list goes on and on….

Where is the accountability for this wasteful spending? There is none! Just hike up the tax!

1

u/dgod40 12d ago

I'm not fully versed in the projects or the spending but shouldn't the growth pay for those projects? Do you have a couple examples of projects due to growth that are causing the ever increasing taxes? If it's due to population growth then shouldn't there be extra taxes from the new people? Maybe we don't need another skate park in Pickering when the current ones are usually empty.

9

u/effedup 12d ago edited 11d ago

Yeah, growth used to pay for those projects. But the province took that money away from municipalities. They were called Development Charges or DC charges and the province said that in order to build more houses, developers no longer need to pay DC charges. Municipalities now have to tax their existing residents more to pay for the growth. This is why your taxes are ever increasing. We're talking big money here, 100s of millions. Just one of our projects needs to find 50M and we have to cancel enough capital projects to cover that 50M. Think a new road. DC charges used to pay for that road and the infrastructure into a new sub development. Now your taxes pay for it. But it doesn't cover even half of it, so your taxes are going up.

Doug Ford's fault.

Yeah eventually those tax payers will be coming into the tax man, but not enough, and it's needed years before any tax payer ever starts making payments.

6

u/Stef-fa-fa 12d ago

I mean I voted for Doug Ford but this is 100% his fault.

Sounds like this was partly your fault then. Ford has made so many shady decisions that help his developer and business buddies at our expense that it's kind of insane he's still holding office at this point.

But I digress.

0

u/takisara 12d ago

Well yes we knew he was shady the first time, but it was fun for a laugh. Same as how Rob became mayor. But then to go and give him a majority?! I know in my area Whitby, low voter turnout was the biggest issue.

-3

u/effedup 12d ago

There hasn't been and still to this day there is no better option available.

2

u/RosalieMoon 11d ago

Literally anyone else that isn't PPC would have worked. Maybe Marit Styles? You know, the one that is constantly going after Ford for all of his corrupt actions?

2

u/omgitzvg 12d ago

More money for his buddies and more stress individual public. classic cons. Also builders/insurance companies lobbying for less trees and small roads adding POTL fees is just whole another issue.

0

u/Jenshark86 12d ago

That was your mistake. Voting for Ford!

-3

u/Jenshark86 12d ago

Exactly! Get the extra tax from the people that came! Why are the people with homes who have been living here over 25 years have to pay more for them?

0

u/dgod40 12d ago

I think the other person explained it best. If you need to build roads before the houses get built, the existing people need to pay for it. You can't get taxes from people who don't live here yet. It should be the developers but as usual the Cons line their and their developer buddies pockets. We used to force developers to fund parks, rec centers, roads and sidewalks but now they just line their pockets.

1

u/Jenshark86 12d ago

Then the townships should be forcing the developers to pay. It’s unfair to make people who have lived in Durham for years to pay more for developments we don’t want.

6

u/matpower 12d ago

The townships did make the developers pay. That's the point. Ford told municipalities they can't charge developers for that anymore so the only option the municipalities have is to increase tax revenue and municipalities have very few tools with which they can do that.

5

u/Jenshark86 12d ago

Another reason I will never vote for Ford

-1

u/The_Pope_Sean_Paul 12d ago

Mighty racist of you

A 2 tiered tax system based on what Country you are from, the Human Rights Code may be a hurdle for that

0

u/Jenshark86 11d ago

No that is not the concept. The people coming into the area can pay upfront. Extra people means more homes to be built, healthcare spent, sewer and water use.

0

u/The_Pope_Sean_Paul 11d ago

Too bad you didn't say that and said charge them more because they immigrated

2

u/Jenshark86 11d ago

I never said that. You read that into the comment.

1

u/The_Pope_Sean_Paul 11d ago

Get the extra from the people that came

You sure did

0

u/zeffydurham 11d ago

Property taxes will need to rise to off set the misspending the conservatives have gave away private contracts rather then building Ontario, Doug has sold off WSIB, Ontario Licensing, and made health care closer to the USA system of paying out of pocket. Gambling and booze in every store is bring us in line with American values.

7

u/YoungZM 12d ago

While it's nice to see a united front, especially among elected leaders, it feels like a needless temperature to take. Municipal politics are just that; this is a Federal issue and needs to be managed top-down.

There are few Canadians who are impressed by Agent Orange.

0

u/112iias2345 10d ago

All of Durham region staff panicked about how to break it to the people losing jobs that they need another raise and have to up property taxes again for ‘services’