Toronto's property tax to go up 5.5% as part of 2023 budget: Tory

Toronto residents could be in for a 5.5 per cent property tax increase as the city unveiled its 2023 budget Tuesday morning.

Mayor John Tory said the increase is necessary to help sustain frontline services and make key investments in public safety, transit and emergency services as the city continues to recover from the pandemic.

City staff will introduce the $16.1 billion operating budget today at a special committee meeting.

Tory campaigned for re-election on a pledge to keep taxes below the rate of inflation in this year's spending package. He said this proposed budget accomplishes that task.

"The budget delivers on that promise with a 5.5 per cent tax increase for the operating budget that is below Toronto's present 6.6 per cent inflation rate," he said.

"But I recognize it is, nonetheless, a significant increase in that we're asking people to pay more. I wish it could be lower because I know that any increased cost right now is hard for people to bear."

CBC Toronto will provide updates throughout Tuesday as city staff unveil details of the 2023 budget.

This year, the city faces hundreds of millions of dollars worth of financial pressure. So, here are some burning questions and answers about Toronto's budget.

No, but Toronto's finances are complex and increasingly the city has been asked to fund a slew of services with limited means to pay for them.

Add to that the city's "COVID hangover," as Tory often calls it. In November, he said the city would enter the fiscal year with as much as $1.5 billion in pandemic cost pressures, the rising cost of fuel and inflation.

On Friday, he said that figure is now approximately $900 million and he continues to ask that the federal and provincial governments fill that gap.. 

Myer Siemiatycki, professor emeritus at Toronto Metropolitan University, said the city's assets and financial reserves just don't cover the bills.

"We are not broke, but we are broken," he said.

"We cannot continue to rely on the two main pillars of municipal finance, which are the property tax and service charges."