Ontario’s Property Tax Time Bomb - A 10-Year Policy Failure Costing Businesses Millions

Ontario’s commercial property tax system is broken and it's costing business across the province tens of millions of dollars A YEAR. And all because of the municipal assessment policies set at Queen's Park. Premier Doug Ford knows there's a problem, yet has done nothing about it since taking office in 2018.

In this episode of On the Ledge - your Ontario Politics Podcast, Dave Trafford sits down with property tax advocate Paul Sullivan to unpack the hidden consequences of Ontario’s decade-long property assessment freeze.

Sullivan argues that because Ontario properties are still being assessed using 2016 values, the province has created a distorted and increasingly unfair tax system — especially for small businesses. While municipal budgets and tax rates continue to rise, the underlying assessments haven’t kept pace with dramatic changes in commercial real estate values, consumer behaviour, development pressures, and post-pandemic economic realities.

The conversation breaks down how “ad valorem” taxation is supposed to work, why regular reassessments matter, and how freezing assessments has shifted disproportionate tax burdens onto local retailers, restaurants, and independent businesses. Sullivan shares findings from his analysis of more than 3,000 GTA property sales and reveals that many neighbourhood businesses are unknowingly paying thousands more in property taxes than they should.

Dave and Paul also explore the broader political and economic implications: municipal dependence on property taxes, provincial reluctance to reform the system, development slowdowns, rising costs for consumers, and the erosion of trust in public finance. Despite the complexity of the issue, the discussion keeps returning to a simple question: who is really paying the price for outdated tax policy?



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