Comparing Apples to Apples – A response

I recently saw a blog post by London City Councillor Paul Hubert that caused a bit of a boiling of my blood. It was titled “Comparing Apples to Apples.” Councillor Hubert was trying to make the point that London was a very well-managed municipality that spent tax dollars wisely. That compared to the City of Toronto that has required ‘bailouts’ from the Provincial government, London’s 1.8 percent tax increase and building of reserve funds was a wonder of fiscal management.

Here's a link: comparing-apples-to-apples/

I have some beefs about this blog and the charts that Mr. Hubert selectively included. The Councillor paraphrased complaints about London’s government and the cost of it relative to other municipalities. When compared solely on the basis of Property Tax paid per household, London measures-up quite favourably to other municipalities. However, anyone with a passing understanding of Property Taxes, Assessments and City Services, as well as the very different circumstances that Toronto finds itself in from all other Ontario and indeed Canadian Municipalities, can tell you that Mr. Hubert is comparing apples to boathouses. He’s not even using fruit for a comparison.

London’s per-household (Single-Family Residential only) property taxes are about $1500.00. Unfortunately this is based on an assessment that is about 1/3 of what a Toronto’s house is. The average price of a Toronto home, including those in Scarborough is around $375,000.00. That would buy a lot of house in London but its taxes, if London were Toronto without the increase in density and accordant increase in the Tax base, would be about $4500.00. Comparing taxes paid does not make for a deep analytical comparison.

First, there are vastly different realities facing London and Toronto that play an important role in the cost of providing services. For starters, Toronto’s workforce is made up of significant numbers of people who don’t live in the City and don’t pay taxes to the City of Toronto yet use services in the City. From Public Transit to sidewalks to public garbage bins, from roads to parks and every other municipal service that these migrant workers use on a daily basis, costs are borne for their provision by City residents. On top of these are the tens of thousands of international tourists who visit Toronto and don’t make it to a place like London.

Secondly, there is the scope of services offered by the City of Toronto relative to those that the City of London offers. One shining example: Library hours. London’s Libraries are closed on Sundays, some of them on Mondays too. Not so for Toronto’s Libraries. Council Services is another example where Toronto’s costs are necessarily higher. City Councillors in Toronto are full-time workers with a paid staff of 3 and a communications budget of $53,000. This means they communicate with their constituents on a regular basis. In six months in London I’ve seen rampant complaints about a lack of consultation and I know that our Councillors are part-time with a staff of 3 – for all 14 Councillors.

I’m sure there are other examples of how Toronto offers much better services but I don’t need to be exhaustive to dismiss Mr. Hubert’s comparison.

Thirdly, Toronto is a magnet for those in need of social services. While London plays the same role regionally, it’s not hard to imagine that Toronto attracts people both from our region as well as the rest of the country in search of good public social services as well as access to a larger and more fluid job market. This increases Toronto’s costs.

Fourthly, while London is nearly as old as Toronto it did not grow as rapidly in its early years as Toronto did and hence, the age of its infrastructure is not as much of an issue as Toronto’s.

Fifthly, per-capita income is actually less while costs of living are higher in Toronto. It is a rich City but it is also a very poor City.

So there are a few quick points that illustrate how meaningless it is to compare Property Taxes paid. I’ve not even mentioned the fact that Mr. Hubert did not discuss the fact that Toronto is the engine of the Canadian economy or that it competes with other global Cities that do receive investment from Senior levels of government in their nations.

One must look at: Service provided, Cost of Services provided, Per-household costs, per-population costs, per assessment class costs. The Ontario Government had previously set requirements for benchmarking. These provide more valid data for a comparison between municipalities. How much does it cost per household to pick up my garbage. Even then, frankly there is no comparison to be made between London and Toronto and Londoners should really just stop with the envy thing.

I’ve lived in London for 28 and a-half years. I also lived in Toronto for 10 years. I have never understood the resentment of Toronto. It is the Province’s urban playground, where we go to see concerts and festivals and gritty urban scenes. We buy our fashion there and many of the movies we watch and the clothes we buy are designed and produced in Toronto. Let’s stop the comparisons. Let’s measure London by our own standards and expectations for our local government. Let’s see Toronto’s difficulties as our own. We need National Urban and Transit strategies. Not petty bickering.