I just thought of something.

Say development charges for new homes go up by $20,000.  Two things happen :-

1. The person buying a new house needs to get a mortgage of additional $20,000.  Their mortgage is $20K higher, so they pay higher interest
2. Since the house price goes up by $20,000 because of the additional tax (ya ya, it’s a tax), they pay higher GST!
3. Their property values are assessed $20,000 higher, so the Town / Region collects more property tax

So let me get this straight: first we hit people when they buy a house, then just because we taxed them more, we increase their property taxes. Lovely :)

A person buying a $550,000 new construction in Halton next year will pay :

• Development charges that the builder passes on
• GST [higher because of highest development charges]
• PST (both actually combined into HST)
• Ontario Land Transfer Tax [also high.  The guts of Province: first they take PST and then they also take the land transfer tax]

By the time it’s all done, the poor person purchasing a new home will end up paying over $100,000 extra just in taxes.

Sweet, sweet gravy train.