On October 30, at the General Issue Committee Meeting where the budget was being discussed, Mayor Fred Eisenberger brought up the possibility of implementing a Municipal Land Transfer Tax (MLTT) in Hamilton. Discussion was had both against and in favour of the MLTT. Mike Zegarac, General Manager of Finance & Corporate Services at the City of Hamilton, informed the councillors that they cannot simply implement such a tax or revenue generating measure – they would first need to approach the provincial government to gain approval for such a tax collection.
As you may know, the provincial government under Doug Ford rejected York Region’s plan to implement a MLTT this time last year – essentially setting precedent in the matter.
A vote was held at the meeting to inquire with the province about a possible MLTT. The exact wording of the motion was:
“We direct our staff to ask the province if the revenue tools that Toronto was given are available to other municipalities, including Hamilton.”
This motion was voted down 7 to 6 votes. Below are the councillors who voted in favour and against the motion.
| Voted in Favour of Investigating the MLTT | Voted Against |
| Mayor Fred Eisenberger | Ward 2 – Jason Farr |
| Ward 1 – Maureen Wilson | Ward 5 – Chad Collins |
| Ward 2 – Nrinder Nann | Ward 6 – Tom Jackson |
| Ward 4 – Sam Merulla | Ward 7 – Esther Pauls |
| Ward 8 – John-Paul Danko | Ward 9 – Brad Clark |
| Ward Ward 11 – Brenda Johnson | Ward 10 – Maria Pearson |
| Ward 13 – Arlene VanderBeek |
RAHB will continue to monitor this issue, and will advocate against such a measure should the discussion at City Hall move forward. We would also work with our partners at OREA and the provincial government for support, as well as the public – as we know, this is not a popular issue with Hamiltonians.
If you have any questions, please contact Wendy in the RAHB office at wendys@rahb.ca.
Absolutely the wrong thing to do until they ease up on mortgage qualifiers.
I would encourage every citizen to look at the councillors that voted in favour of an increase and look for an alternative candidate to vote for come the next civic elections. Housing affordability is already getting unreachable for people and this Municipal Land Transfer Tax increase would be an extreme blow to home buyers and also have a negative effect on current owners trying to sell their properties. Enough is enough!
Upsetting that the vote was so close. It reflects a real disconnect with the reality and causes of affordability for both owners and tenants and would only increase the problem.