About one-third of Toronto’s residential property taxes are levied by the Provincial Government for education purposes. In addition, more than 50% of all commercial and industrial taxes are levied by the Province using a tax rate that is much higher than that levied on the 905 area and several times higher that the provincial education rate on commercial and industrial properties in small town Ontario.

Of the $13.5 billion of educational spending in Ontario, 18 per cent comes from residential taxes. However, in Toronto, 21% of educational spending (about $550 million) comes from residential taxes. An additional 50% ($1.3 billion) comes from commercial and industrial taxes. It is clear that Toronto provides more than its fair share of education taxes, especially when the downloading of housing, social services, transportation and roads is taken into consideration.

Further, funding for Toronto schools has no relationship to the amount of taxes raised from Toronto as school boards receive funds according to a provincial formula applied across the province. There has been criticism that the extremely high residential and commercial property values in the City of Toronto as well as the higher commercial and industrial education rates set by the province force Toronto taxpayers to subsidise schools outside the city. The irony of this is that Toronto schools now have insufficient funds to provide the standard of education enjoyed in the past.

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