Search Results for: Municipal Revenues
IMFG Paper | 2021
Provincial-Local Equalization in Canada: Time for a Change?
Richard M. Bird and Enid Slack
New IMFG and Urban Project paper reviews the current state of provincial-municipal equalization transfers in Canada and suggests ways to improve their design. Arguing that no province provides adequate equalization for municipalities, the authors take a critical look at the mechanics of such a transfer, and how it should ideally operate. Issues that first need to be resolved range from determining how local needs are calculated to ascertaining how municipal fiscal capacity is measured. Slack and Bird conclude with some suggestions for what is needed to devise fair, efficient, and transparent provincial-municipal equalization systems.
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IMFG Paper | 2021
Addressing the Fairness of Municipal User Fee Policy
Almos Tassonyi and Harry Kitchen
User fees are one of the principal funding mechanisms for a range of municipal services, from water and waste management to transit and recreation. New IMFG paper explains why user fees are a good source of revenue for municipalities, how they are employed in Ontario, and how to navigate the trade-off between efficiency and fairness.
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Video | 2021
Property Taxes: Effective, But Regressive? A Review of the Evidence
Devin Bissky Dziadyk
Graduate Fellow Devin Bissky Dziadyk reviewed the decades of research on the property tax, and provide new estimates of the incidence of the tax in Canada. Most estimates suggest that the property tax is regressive. If so, what does the regressivity of the property tax imply for cities, and do we need to reform the property tax to make it fairer?
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Presentation | 2021
Property Taxes: Effective, But Regressive? A Review of the Evidence
Devin Bissky Dziadyk
In this presentation, Graduate Fellow Devin Bissky Dziadyk reviews the decades of research on the property tax, and provide new estimates of the incidence of the tax in Canada.
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IMFG Paper | 2021
Municipal Financing Opportunities in Canada: How Do Cities Use Their Fiscal Space?
Jean-Philippe Meloche and François Vaillancourt
Over the past decade, most major cities have received some new revenue sources. Yet, little is known about how cities actually use them or how they have benefitted. This paper reviews data from the municipal financial statements of the largest city in each province to investigate how Canadian cities are employing their revenue sources and whether more sources lead to more revenues and better services in cities.
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Video | 2020
9th Annual IMFG Toronto City Manager's Address
Chris Murray
In this video, Toronto’s City Manager Chris Murray shares his thoughts on the learnings of the COVID-19 crisis and what he sees as the way forward.
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Presentation | 2020
If Not Now, When? The 9th Annual Toronto City Manager's Address
Chris Murray
In this presentation, Toronto’s City Manager Chris Murray shares his thoughts on the learnings from the COVID-19 crisis and what he sees as the way forward.
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Video | 2020
Global Check-Up: How Has COVID-19 Affected Municipal Fiscal Health?
Many Canadian municipalities have taken hits to their budgets due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But what has the effect been on municipalities around the world? Have municipalities in different countries fared better than others? What accounts for any differences? What needs to be done to ensure municipalities bounce back?
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Search Within Results
IMFG Report on Toronto’s Amalgamation in Vancouver’s Daily Hive
June 17, 2022
IMFG Visiting Scholar Gerard Turley on Lessons from Canadian Vacant Property Taxes
June 15, 2022
TVO’s The Agenda: Enid Slack on Municipalities and the Ontario Election
May 30, 2022