Statement on the City’s commercial parking lot levy progress report from TEA, TTCriders, and Social Planning Toronto

January 21, 2025 (Toronto, ON)

A new report from the City of Toronto says that the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is blocking a critical source of City funding - over $100 million annually - for no good reason. 

Instead of getting on with this important tool to help fix our ailing transit system, the city is now waiting for an unelected board stacked with finance and real estate executives to decide its fate. There’s no indication of why MPAC stopped participating, or when we will get answers. One thing is abundantly clear - we need to know why MPAC is holding the City hostage on a decision about Toronto’s financial future.

This tool, a levy paid by the owners of large commercial parking lots, could be a game-changer for Toronto. It’s a tool to get big corporate mall owners to help fund critical transit improvements like faster subways, buses, and streetcars, or even programs to help fix the flooding caused by their massive parking lots. As proposed, it would cost approximately 1-2 cents per hour and would only apply to large commercial parking lots.

The report states that “with estimated revenue potential of $100 to $108 million annually, the commercial parking levy may represent a reliable and significant source of annual revenue to the City which could be used to sustain critical municipal services, including transit.”

The City of Toronto has been studying this tool for 10 years. Countless cities have had similar tools for decades and are now benefitting the sustained funding it provides. Montreal’s Commercial Parking Lot Levy has been active since 2010, and New York has had a commercial parking lot levy since the 1980s. Now, after all this time, the report in front of us tells us that a commercial parking lot levy may never see the light of day in Toronto because MPAC doesn't want it. 

“We’ve seen the lobbying records,” says Sarah Buchanan, Campaigns Director at Toronto Environmental Alliance. “Corporate lobbyists like Shell, Walmart, Brookfield and Cadillac-Fairview have been banging down the doors of City Hall to whine about the commercial parking lot levy, while regular people in Toronto are still stuck waiting for better, more reliable transit. It’s frustrating to see that this is now being blocked and delayed by unelected people who have probably never had to wait for the 510 Spadina replacement bus on a cold January morning.”

“If MPAC was not blocking this revenue tool, transit riders could see major service improvements like 6-minute service on all streetcar routes, 10-minute or better service on more bus routes, and an earlier start to bus service on Sundays,” said Shelagh Pizey-Allen, Executive Director of TTCriders. “For years, we’ve been told that a commercial parking lot levy tool was within the City of Toronto’s power to implement. It’s shameful and disappointing to learn that what’s been standing between transit riders and better service is a group of unelected MPAC executives.”


“Social Planning Toronto has been advocating for years for the City to diversify its revenue sources to properly fund, green, affordable housing, transit, and vital community services,” says Jin Huh, Executive Director at Social Planning Toronto. “The Commercial Parking Levy is an invaluable tool the City should have at its disposal. MPAC’s blocking of this tool is undemocratic and will harm the City of Toronto’s ability to fund a better city."

 

Contact:

Sarah Buchanan, Campaigns Director, Toronto Environmental Alliance

(647) 835-8203

[email protected]

 

Shelagh Pizey-Allen, Executive Director, TTCriders

(416) 799-0760

[email protected] 


More information: BACKGROUNDER: Why Toronto Urgently Needs a commercial parking lot levy