LRT portion of Regional taxes could decrease

The LRT portion of Regional taxes could be lower in the future if changes to Ontario’s Development Charges Act are passed.

The province is looking at changing the Act and allowing municipalities to receive some transit project costs through the charges.

Regional Chair Ken Seiling says Waterloo Region along with Ottawa have been asking for a change in the Act to allow them to include their respective rapid transit projects in development charges because under the current rules, a 10 year history is required.

“This allows us to blend in some charges for the rapid transit system” says Seiling. “That will in fact help us finance it without doing it on property taxes.”

Seiling says at this point the amount of money that could be applied to the project is not known but any funding could adjust the Regions current payment schedule.

Taxpayers will see an increase around 1.1 percent on their tax bill for 7 years to pay for the ION and rapid buses in Cambridge.

“We could then adjust that payment schedule if there were in fact addition revenues coming from the payment charges” says Seiling.

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