College pays no property taxes on land in Yorkville’s ‘Mink Mile’
The owner of top-dollar land under a swanky Yorkville mall pays zero property taxes to the city — a multimillion-dollar anomaly that infuriated councillors fighting over “scraps” to fund vital services.
Victoria University, a federated college of the University of Toronto, owns 131 Bloor St. W. in the heart of the posh “Mink Mile” shopping strip.
Revenue Properties leases the land and owns The Colonnade — 71,156 square feet of apartments plus luxury shops, including Cartier, Chanel and Escada — atop it.
The 1951 Victoria University Act exempts all the college’s land but not commercial buildings.
The U of T enjoys the same exemption but voluntarily pays the city about $240,000 a year in lieu of taxes for a few small commercial properties.
City staff estimate the Victoria exemption cost taxpayers $12.2 million between 2009 and 2015.
“This (tax-exempt) designation was meant for property used for education — not to have a profit centre,” said Kristyn Wong-Tam, the local councillor.
“Now is the time to come up with a resolution, otherwise we’ll push forward with asking the province to change the act to force Victoria College to start paying its fair share to the city like other commercial property owners.”
Councillor Joe Cressy, whose ward includes much of U of T, took a break from city budget deliberations Wednesday to say it’s infuriating that months of negotiations to remedy the situation have so far failed.
“If you’re using your land for commercial purposes, you should be paying commercial taxes,” he said.
“We’re debating whether to spend $85,000 to save school swim programs, whether we’re going to spend $265,000 to do much-needed newcomer settlement support, whether we’re going to spend $1million to not cut staff in the shelter budget — this is (property tax) money that would be well spent and well used to take care of our city.”
William Robins, president of Victoria College, refused an interview request but his office provided an email.
“Ontario deliberately created this policy, which encouraged the redevelopment of the south side of Bloor Street W. in a neighbourhood that was struggling at the time,” he wrote, adding buildings on Victoria land have provided the city with “millions” of dollars in tax revenues over the decades.
“Such development would also provide an income stream for post-secondary education and a new revenue stream for the City of Toronto,” and all lease income is used to fund the college’s “core educational mission, such as academic programming and student support.”
“As a university in the public sector, Victoria University holds that the tax treatment of its property should not be changed in a way that would have an adverse effect on students or the university.”
The city’s government management committee will next week debate a staff recommendation authorizing the city treasurer to negotiate with the college but also to ask the Ontario government to amend the act, bringing the college in line with other universities that pay commercial taxes on commercial land.
“The financial unfairness to the city and to the other public universities in Toronto from Victoria University’s broad tax exemption is stark and should be fixed,” says a report to councillors, who last June voted to put the issue on hold to give the college and city staff time to find a solution.
Robins said his college “is actively co-operating with the city as it conducts its review, and looks forward to continued discussions on this subject.”
Wong-Tam, however, said city staff told her talks have produced “no real progress.”
Councillor Joe Mihevc noted universities are primarily funded by the province. He called the situation “another example of the province absconding its responsibility through various dekes and moves.”
“I’m sympathetic to the funding plight of universities, but at end of day we need them to pay their taxes like everyone else,” he said.
An attachment to the city report is being kept secret because it contains legal advice.
A spokesperson for Deb Matthews, Ontario’s minister of advanced education, said she would have a response to the city’s concerns Thursday.