This story initially appeared on Canada’s National Observer and is a part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
A plan to cost Toronto householders and companies for paved surfaces on their properties is making a public backlash, a deluge of negative international media attention, and even derisive feedback from Donald Trump Jr.
The outcry reached such a crescendo final week, the town canceled public hearings on the tax, which is meant to assist offset the a whole lot of hundreds of thousands spent managing stormwater and basement flooding.
Dubbed “the rain tax” by critics, together with the previous US president’s son on X, a SkyNews host also condemned the plan and discouraged folks from visiting Canada’s largest metropolis saying: “You thought it couldn’t get any worse … Don’t go to Toronto as a result of they’re going to tax you when it rains.”
The quantity of exhausting floor space would decide the contentious stormwater cost on a property which doesn’t take up water, corresponding to roofs, driveways, parking tons, or concrete landscaping.
“After we get a giant rainstorm, basements flood, roads flood, sewage overflows and runs into the lake or on our rivers,” mentioned Toronto mayor Olivia Chow in an online video post on X. “Stormwater slides off paved surfaces as a substitute of absorbing into the bottom. It overwhelms our water infrastructure, causes injury to your house and the setting.”
The brand new charge would modify water payments to cut back water consumption charges and add a stormwater cost primarily based on property measurement and exhausting floor space.
Online public consultations had been to be adopted by public conferences. Nevertheless, after lower than per week, the web consultations had been paused and public conferences canceled. The city claims the delay is required so employees can discover a option to marry the brand new charge with the town’s broader climate-resilience technique.
Chow mentioned she would like the town provide residents monetary incentives to plant gardens of their backyards or set up permeable pavement to assist drain the rain.
“I do not assume it is truthful to have a stormwater coverage that asks householders to pay whereas letting companies with large parking tons off the hook,” mentioned Chow. Many companies with giant paved areas, corresponding to parking tons, pay no water payments and due to this fact don’t contribute to stormwater administration.
“That’s the reason I’m asking Toronto Water to return again to metropolis council with a plan that helps extra inexperienced infrastructure, prevents flooding, and retains your water payments low,” Chow mentioned.
In final yr’s city budget, a 10-year plan (2023 to 2032) allotted $4.3 billion for stormwater administration, together with the $2.11 billion Basement Flooding Safety Program. Final yr alone, the town invested $225.3 million within the basement program.
Different close by cities, like Mississauga, Vaughan, and Markham, have had stormwater expenses for a very long time.
In an electronic mail response, the Metropolis of Vaughan mentioned its stormwater cost helps quite a few applications and initiatives throughout the town to assist shield the setting, property, and water high quality. Vaughan’s 2024 stormwater charge is $64.20 yearly for a indifferent single residential unit, a rise from final yr’s charge of $58.63, the town mentioned.
