It’s the big bang of Toronto city hall’s financial dreams: a local sales tax that could raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually and go a long way toward tackling a massive fiscal hole.
Municipal sales taxes are common in many foreign cities but not in Canada, and a successful rollout may pave the way for other cash-strapped Canadian municipalities to follow suit. But a sales tax also carries risks. And before the idea could even become a reality in Toronto, the Ontario government would have to give its permission.
Everything in this town will get worse no matter how much money Chairman Chow extorts.
