I get a lot of complaints about property tax. Even though I'm a federal MP, people complain about it to me. What they say is that consistently, for as long as they can remember, property taxes have gone up faster than inflation. Population growth should pay for itself, because there are development fees paid by the builder, and then every time there's a new house built there's a new property taxpayer sending a cheque to city hall. Then on top of that, you've had the gas tax transfer, which is a brand-new contribution. It's been in place now for about six years, roughly. That's a whole new revenue stream that didn't exist before. And then there were record contributions to infrastructure by the federal government on top of that. And then when we discuss the state of municipal finances, we're told that they're still not paying the bill, not able to meet the obligation. That's the overall question we're getting.
On October 3rd, 2011. See this statement in context.