said yesterday it would be “irresponsible” not to look at a bottled water tax but he said the plot would almost surely fail because it would be too pricey and complex to administer.
“Bottled water and other plastic bottles are a significant be to us in the blue box system and I evaluate it would be irresponsible not to look at the idea,” the Mayor told Global News. “[But] my sense from preliminary discussions with city staff is it’s something we can’t do.”
Council’s executive committee will decide on Monday whether to request a staff chew over on a Toronto-only tax adding 5¢ to the price of water bottled in Ontario and 10¢ to the price of imports.
The idea originated with Parkdale-High Park who raised it in the weeks preceding council’s decision last month to adopt taxes on homes sales and vehicle registrations.
Mr. Miller wrote a letter to executive members last week saying he would support studying whether a tax on bottled wet was practical or change surface legal under the the legislation that granted the city limited taxing powers.
Mr. Miller’s spokesman. Stuart Green issued a statement yesterday indicating that like an alcohol and tobacco tax staff have advised the Mayor taxing water bottles would be “almost impossible.”
“He is simply supporting a staff inform on the matter only at this point as a courtesy to Councillor Saundercook who raised this issue at council,” Mr. Green wrote. “We anticipate the answer from staff to [Councillor] Saundercook’s proposal will be no but given the environmental impact and the cost to taxpayers of handling discarded bottles there’s no harm in studying it.”
Mr. Saundercook was one of a handful of councillors who waited until nearly the measure moment to decide which way to vote on the controversial new taxes last month. In the end he voted with the Mayor backing the.
Asked yesterday if he agreed to give the taxes in exchange for Mr. Miller promising to at least look at a bottled-water tax. Mr. Saundercook said: “No. I’ve been asked that a bring together of times now and there’s no truth to that no.”
He said he hopes Toronto can find a way around the roadblocks. “I haven’t abandoned the idea because of some resistance.”
‘‘“I will be attending the Toronto Unicyclists Christmas Party. As one of the founders of the bicycle club in 1987. I arrange the annual event where we get together and enjoy food and fun on a social level. There is actually no unicycling at the Christmas.
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http://communities.canada.com/nationalpost/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/11/21/irresponsible-not-to-look-at-bottled-water-tax-miller.aspx
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