I’ve had some comments challenging the reality of Markham’s 0% tax increase achievement. Since exaro doesn’t publish anonymous comments, they don’t get posted, but the myths they raise warrant response.
The most egregious remark had to be the one, “i [sic] read yesterday that Markham actually does NOT pay for water, welfare, police, ... These are all covered by Peel.” No attribution of source, so maybe it was read on a washroom wall on councillors’ row at Toronto City Hall. I would be nice if Markham taxpayers didn't pay for these services – although this town would be a lot more crowded – but alas...
Unlike Toronto, Markham has a two-tier system of municipal government with some services provided by the town and others by York Region (yes, I get to vote for representatives to four levels of government. That’s a issue for another day). While Markham has held the line on spending, York Region will likely increase rates about 2.5% (increase has not yet been finalized) which will equate to about a 1.5% increase on the tax bill for Markham residents. I haven’t seen anything about increases in water and sewer rates although these have crept up at abut the rate of inflation in recent years.
Welfare and police services are provided by York Region. York Region sends millions of dollars annually to Toronto to subsidise Toronto’s welfare expenditures at the same time as it takes care of its own significant welfare expenses. The last Ontario budget committed to end this subsidy, over seven years, as the cost is shifted to provincial taxes. Toronto’s welfare costs are also heavily subsidized by the province, a fact that is seldom mentioned by the “woe is us” crowd in the big city. Also never mentioned is the fact that Toronto has steadfastly refused to ever account for how it spent the millions send from Peel, York and Durham regions to subsidise welfare costs; we will never know if years of transfer payments went to legitimate welfare costs or were lost in the sink-hole of general revenues. We can only hope that the provincial government will demand accountability as it assumes on more and more of the cost of taking care of the less well to do.
York Region Police services account for a pretty big portion of total spending but are seldom the topic of complaint. Other than the street-racers, most residents are pretty happy to see the police helicopter (shared with Durham Region Police) over-head, I think. There has never been the controversy a helicopter stirs in Toronto. And, to date, our cops have had far fewer embarrassing incidents than Peel Region Police. Yes, we are happy Peel does not provide our police and we pay the bill as happily as any taxpayers.
Water and sewers may cause some confusion. York Region, unlike Peel, Durham and Toronto, does not border on Lake Ontario, but with a population nearing 1,000,000 uses the lake as a source of water and final disposition of treated sewage. The communities south of the Oak Ridges Moraine (Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill) get their water from Lake Ontario while the towns in the north of the region (Aurora, Newmarket, Stouffville, Chiswick etc.) get their water from region-operated wells. York Region buys Lake Ontario water from treatment plants in and operated by Toronto and Peel Region (maybe Durham too, not sure) which it then stores and distributes to each of the towns that maintain local water mains and collect payment from users. Unlike Toronto, Markham meters consumption and we pay for what we use. Similarly, York Region gathers waste water from local sewers and pumps it to treatment plants in Peel, Toronto and Durham, from whence it is discharged to the lake. York pays for treatment services and local residents are charged according to the volume of water they used.
The water and sewage treatment systems in Toronto and Peel were designed and built with the needs of York Region in mind and were cost-shared by the municipalities and the Province of Ontario. It’s not York’s fault that is doesn’t border Lake Ontario and reasonable people can accept the rationale of cost-sharing services with others who have access to the lake. York may not own and operate the treatment facilities but it certainly does share the costs.
Markham residents pay for water and sewers three ways; direct billing based on consumption, local and regional taxes to maintain the pipes and reimburse Peel and Toronto for treatment services and provincial taxes that contribute to the construction and operation of the treatment facilities. If user fees in Markham are increasing less rapidly than in Toronto, it is because we are not paying catch-up for decades of neglect of the distribution system because Markham schedules maintenance and replacement rather than waiting for pipes to break and making emergency repairs.
Markham’s direct responsibilities include streets and roads, parks and recreation libraries, urban planning and development, business regulation and similar purely local services. To be completely fair, Markham’s taxes need to be combined with the York Region increase before being compared with Toronto and its one-tier system (so it’s 1.5% vs. 10%). On the other hand, were directly comparable departments like Toronto Parks and Recreation, or Toronto Roads able to live on their previous year’s budgets?
Somewhat a non-sequitur but worth debunking is the constant gripe from some Torontonians that residents of the Greater Toronto Area force the city to overspend because we ride on the transit system and drive on the roads, blah blah blah. The gripers overlook that GTA residents pay for those services too through our share of provincial and federal government subsidies and grants to Toronto. They also overlook what a sad little town Toronto would be without the millions of GTA-residing customers for its businesses, knowledge workers for its corporations.... Toronto and the GTA are mutually dependent upon each other. The GTA has acknowledged and adapted to this interdependency for years. Will Toronto?
