Status of Outstanding Payments in Lieu of Tax Amounts for Federal, Provincial and Municipal Properties

In most cases, government agencies pay the full amount of payments in lieu of taxes that the City requests. There may, however, be outstanding payments in lieu of taxes amounts requested from federal, provincial or municipal bodies that the Controller has concluded, in consultation with the City Solicitor, to be uncollectible. In these cases, the City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 71 (Financial Control) provides authority to the Controller, in consultation with the City Solicitor, to adjust for accounting purposes any outstanding receivables in respect of payments in lieu of taxes that have been determined unlikely to be paid. Through this delegated authority, the Controller has approved and made adjustments to three federal payments in lieu of taxes receivable accounts totaling $13,485,624 in December 2021 to reflect that these amounts are not collectible. As a result, the City's outstanding payments in lieu of taxes receivable balance has been reduced by $13.5 million, from a net payments in lieu of taxes receivable of $20.9 million at the end of 2020, to a net payments in lieu of taxes receivable of $7.1 million by the end of 2021, a reduction of 66 per cent. The amounts approved for adjustments will not have a negative financial impact for the City since these amounts have been included in the City's Non-Program 2021 Operating Budget under the Payments-in-Lieu Provision account.