Like many renters in Toronto, Paula Alexis spends the majority of her monthly income on rent each month.
Alexis, who works at a non-profit and rents a one-bedroom apartment in downtown Toronto, has little left over for discretionary spending or savings after this one expense.
“I budget really, really hard,” she says. “And sometimes I cross my fingers and swipe the card anyway.”
Alexis says many of her friends have already left the city or moved back in with their parents because of high rents. And those who do live in the city often have near nothing left over to spend on get-togethers.
In an effort to bring down rental costs, Ottawa recently announced that it would waive the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for purpose-built rental housing projects. The GST is a five per cent sales tax, applied individually in some provinces or bundled into the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in other provinces.
On Wednesday, Ontario’s finance minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said the province would follow Parliament’s lead by waiving the eight per cent provincial portion of Ontario’s HST for these same projects.
