By Antonella Artuso, Queen's Park Bureau Chief
Low-income seniors and disabled residents struggling to keep their homes with skyrocketing property taxes need more help from the Ontario government, Tory MPP Peter Shurman says.
Shurman's private member's bill, scheduled to be debated in the legislature today, would create a province-wide property tax deferral system.
Eligible homeowners would be able to defer up to $10,000 a year in property taxes that would be payable upon the sale of the house or death of the owner.
"It costs the people of Ontario absolutely nothing," Shurman said.
Seniors and the disabled should not be forced out of their homes, those that they might have raised children in, because they can't afford to pay rising property taxes, he said.
If passed, Bill 78 would replace the patchwork municipal system of property tax deferral with an accessible and uniform program, he said.
NDP MPP Peter Kormos said this policy deserves to become law.
"This is relevant not only to folks in Toronto and big-city Ontario,but also to people in smaller-town Ontario," Kormos said. "It acknowledges the reality of seniors and others on fixed incomes who are finding it increasingly difficult to remain in their own homes."
Susan Eng, vice-president of advocacy for Canada's Association for the Fifty Plus (CARP), said the organization supports the principle of the legislation.
"The ever-increasing cost of living is a real challenge to financial security for seniors, especially those on fixed and low incomes," Eng said. "We've heard from a number of those who do own their own homes but are living on fixed income and have been unable to keep up with the rapid pace of massive tax increases, and these seniors are facing the prospect of being forced out of their homes."
Shurman said a $250 property tax credit in the Ontario Liberal government's 2008 budget was a "good start" to addressing the problem.
"However, that is a drop in the bucket, as anybody who pays taxes in the province of Ontario knows, and we wanted to build on that," he said.
Private member's bills rarely make it into law, but the Dalton McGuinty government has incorporated some of these bills into legislation.