TORONTO – Property tax payers in Canadian cities are subsidizing the telecommunications industry by more than $107 million a year, according to a new report released today by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).
Local governments have no way to recover road management and repair costs from telecommunications companies that tear up and occupy roadways to expand, upgrade and operate their networks, states the report Highway Robbery: How Federal Telecom Rules Cost Taxpayers and Damage Public Roads.
The FCM is calling on Ottawa to amend the Telecommunications Act to rectify the situation.
“In Canada’s larger cities the current regime has cost property tax payers $646 million since 2001 in indirect subsidies to telecom companies,” said FCM President Jean Perrault, who is the mayor of Sherbrooke, QC. “Even as cities struggle to hold the line on property tax increases in the face of a growing infrastructure deficit, federal rules invite telecommunications companies to tear up our streets, install their cable, and leave property tax payers with a running tab.”
Toronto councillor Howard Moscoe, chair of the FCM’s telecommunications committee, added that telco companies’ actions have resulted in a $134 million subsidy to the industry in Toronto – or $35 extra on a family of four’s property taxes each year.
