But Who Stands up for the Little Guy?

With a 100% increase looking likely not so long ago, optimistic developers are trying to see the glass as half full this week, as Rob Ford’s executive committee voted to hike development charges by 70%.

Critics say that the city capitulated to builder pressure spurred by fears of an OMB challenge, but my first thought was simply, “What other industry could endure even a 70% hike?” Imagine if the auto sector suddenly increased its PDI charges by 70%, or you had to pay an extra 70% on top of the already exorbitant taxes on air travel? Not only the industry, but consumers as well would be spitting mad. But because development charges are cloaked as being aimed at builders, we don’t seem to register it for what it is — a tax grab directed at us.

Development charges, both pre- and post-increase, are not only exorbitant, but redundant: development charges are supposed to pay for infrastructure, as are property taxes. Buyers, who let’s have no doubt will eat the increase, pay property taxes as well, so aren’t consumers paying for infrastructure twice? If the government is going to foist a 70% increase on consumers (it’s only via the developers), shouldn’t there be a property tax break in the first year or so? Which, of course, would render useless the tax hike.

While the government has its vocal element and the developers theirs, it doesn’t seem that anyone is speaking for the consumer. Or are they?

We speak as consumers every time we buy something. Every time we agree on a price, we tell the manufacturer, distributor, retailer, and whatever middlemen are in place that we’re willing to pay that price. Every time we buy a home in Toronto, get into a bidding war, or pay over asking, we’re letting sellers and developers know that we’ve got the fever, that we will pay whatever they ask to own that piece of the real estate pie.

The only way we can tell the government and the developers that we won’t take on this extra tax is not to pay it. But who could advocate for that? Real estate is one of the major engines that propels the economy.

You can tell from this website that I support development, but I support fairness too. What would developers do if they had to absorb the cost of these hikes themselves? Let’s face it — they’re not starving. How streamlined might the planning process suddenly become if the government had to eliminate waste to make up the charges we refused to pay? (And they’re not starving either.)

I’m not saying do it, but wouldn’t it be something if, the next time one of us put an offer in on a one-bedroom unit, we lowballed it by precisely $9,776.52. Just a thought.

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If there was one demographic you’d think would be safe from financial woes, it’s the dead. Depending on whose beliefs turn out to be closest to the truth, it may well be the only thing death has going for it.

But dense urban living being what it is, cemeteries seem to be the next, uh, neighbourhoods to feel a fiscal crunch. Grounds maintenance in Toronto’s graveyards is expensive, and with interest rates so low, the interest on the requisite 40% of each burial plot sale cemeteries must put aside is no longer enough to perform the snow removal, grass-cutting and stone-righting they require; the capital on that percentage can’t be touched, so cemeteries rely on trust fund interest. Cemeteries that can’t pay for their upkeep end up turned over to the municipality; there are at least 17 such sites in Toronto according to The Toronto Star.

Are graveyards the next greenspaces? Lots of folk already stroll through Mt. Pleasant. As long as you’re not creeped out, cemeteries are usually very pretty places. It’s only because of our various religious beliefs that we even need such things. If we were strictly practical-minded, we’d all end up, well, up the flue.

With land at a premium across the GTA, there’s little doubt those cemeteries that remain will remain such only as long as they can pay for their own maintenance. If we want to be proactive about what’s going to become of us when we shuffle off this mortal coil, we better get over our reluctance to talk about it and get real. What will we do when the land runs out?

Ah, city living. Never a dull moment, not even posthumously.