# Build note: canada-tax-stack data layer Question: Toronto: affordability problem, or tax problem? Verdict in the data: a tax problem inside an affordability problem. Government charges were about 25 to 30 percent of a new Toronto home's price at the 2024/2025 peak. Remove every one of them and a new detached house still costs about 9 times a median household income, against an affordable range of 3 to 4 times. Built 2026-10-23. Every number on the site comes from `stack.json`. The site adds no figures of its own. ## Files | File | What it is | |---|---| | `stack.json` | The single verified dataset behind the site: worked tax stacks, DC history, the new-vs-resale wedge, the counterfactual, the CMHC city comparison, Toronto's DC service breakdown, the 2026 test, data gaps, and the source list. Also served at `/data/stack.json` and `/api/stack`. | | `dc-comparison-cmhc2026.csv` | Detached and 2-bed apartment total DC per unit for nine municipalities, extracted from the CMHC June 2026 workbook. | | `cmhc-toronto-dc-2026.csv` | CMHC Table 7.0, City of Toronto: the full service-by-service DC breakdown, non-rental and rental schedules. | | `cmhc-dc-2026.xlsx` (in the project repo, `data/`) | The CMHC workbook as downloaded, 35 municipalities, one sheet each. | ## Sources - City of Toronto, Implementation of the Development Charges Reduction Program, July 22, 2026 (current and discounted DC rates, Table 2). - City of Toronto rate notice, Development Charge Rates Effective June 6, 2024 (By-law 1137-2022). - CMHC, Development Charges data tables, June 3, 2026 (Excel, 35 municipalities), and CMHC, We built this city on development charges, December 4, 2025. - CHBA Municipal Benchmarking Study 2024 (Altus Group): Toronto municipal charges $195,300 low-rise blended, $134,900 high-rise, highest of 23 cities. - CRA, Excise and GST/HST News No. 122, April 2026; Ontario Budget 2026 (enhanced HST rebate). - Statistics Canada, table 18-10-0205-01 (NHPI Toronto) and the 2021 Census (median household income, Toronto CMA: $121,200). - TRREB MLS Home Price Index public tables, September 2026. - City of Toronto Open Data, Development Charge Revenues (retired dataset). ## Method: the worked stacks Two prototypes, priced before HST, with shares taken on the pre-HST price: - Detached: price $1,500,000. Full rates (2024/2025): municipal charges $195,300 (CHBA basket: DCs, parkland, community benefits, planning and permit fees) + HST $171,000 (13 percent net of the legacy Ontario rebate of $24,000) + land transfer tax $52,950 (Ontario plus Toronto) = $419,250, 28.0 percent. 2026 relief window: municipal charges $112,600 (the DC cut of $82,708 applied; parkland and community benefits unchanged) + HST $65,000 (flat $130,000 of enhanced relief at this price) + land transfer tax $52,950 = $230,550, 15.4 percent. - Two-bedroom condo: price $800,000. Full rates: municipal charges $134,900 (CHBA high-rise basket, community benefits and parkland included) + HST $80,000 + land transfer tax $24,950 = $239,850, 30.0 percent. 2026 relief window: municipal charges $86,500 (the DC cut of $48,414 applied) + HST $0 (fully removed under $1M in the window) + land transfer tax $24,950 = $111,450, 13.9 percent. Rules followed throughout: - The municipal basket already contains the development charge. The site never adds the DC on top of the basket. - Layers are always published in the same order: bylaw charges, then land-value charges (parkland, community benefits), then fees, then transaction taxes. - Land transfer tax uses the Ontario and Toronto brackets on the stated price. First-time buyer refunds are not netted out of the prototypes. ## The DC history points Four points, each with its source document recorded in `stack.json`: 1999: $4,795 (City council comparison table). 2010: $12,910 (City schedules and the BILD/OHBA State of DCs series). 2024: $137,846 (rate notice, By-law 1137-2022, frozen through 2025 and 2026). 2026: $55,138 discounted rate (DCRP report, Table 2; a 60 percent cut for projects whose first building permit is issued on or after March 30, 2026). Growth 1999 to 2024: 28.7 times. Context: the weighted-average DC actually paid per residential unit in 2024 was $61,477 (City of Toronto Annual Development Charges Statement), because most units are apartments and multiplexes up to six units pay $0. ## City comparison From the CMHC June 2026 tables: total DC per unit including education and regional charges where they apply. Toronto's bylaw-only total is $141,739 detached ($137,846 municipal + $3,893 education, Toronto Catholic District School Board only; the Toronto District School Board levies $0) and $84,583 for a 2-bed apartment. Community benefits charges and parkland sit outside these totals because they depend on land value. Montreal has no general per-unit DC in the tables; CMHC's December 2025 survey put Montreal's total developer fees at $30,597 detached, against $180,600 in Toronto on the same all-in basis. The all-in and bylaw-only Toronto totals differ by about $39,000 and CMHC publishes no reconciliation; this project publishes the stack in layers so the two can be compared honestly. ## Could NOT build (gaps) - The development charge revenue series: Toronto's Open Data dataset for DC revenues is retired (last refreshed May 17, 2024). Rebuilding it means extracting the City's annual treasurer statements, which are PDFs. Not yet built. - A DC rate history: rates exist only in bylaw PDFs and rate notices. The four-point history on the site is the start of that series. - Per-project government bills: Toronto building permits data lists estimated construction value but not the charges paid, so no permit can be matched to its bill. The fix is to estimate each project's bill from the rate in force at its permit date and its unit mix, with the method published. Not yet built. - What buyers actually paid: charges sit in builders' purchase agreements and closing statements, which are private. Every total on the site is a model built from public schedules, labelled with its sources, not a measurement of any single home.