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New energy audit just another home tax grab: By LINDA LEATHERDALE Amid a deep deflationary housing freefall - with the GTA's real estate crash deepening in February, fuelling fear this will be worse than the Nasty Nineties - you'd think our leaders would be scrambling for incentives to keep the market alive. But not the boneheads at Queen's Park. Dalton McGuinty's Liberals appear as determined as Toronto Mayor Miller on nailing the coffin shut on a valuable sector that with spinoff jobs is one of our biggest job creators. First, McGuinty's Liberals gave Toronto Mayor David Miller sweeping taxing powers that led to a new municipal land transfer tax. Then they rammed through a new tax grab by forcing small construction players, who were already paying their own insurance, to start coughing up workers' compensation premiums. And now this: In a new "Green Shaft" Home Energy Audit bill - Queen's Park won't allow Ontario home owners to sell their homes or condos until they pay for a new home energy audit. Today an audit costs $300 to $350, but mark my words, the price will skyrocket if this bill becomes law. Energy Minister George Smitherman says his plan will create new jobs for auditors, with only some 450 in operation today. But critics argue the bill will be a job killer. They also warn the audit industry is unregulated, with no standards to follow - and mandatory audits will squeeze the already empty wallets of over-taxed, overly-indebted consumers, who are already struggling with higher property taxes, skyrocketing hydro bills, on top of two land transfer tax regimes, one at Queen's Park, the other in the City of Toronto. Some even worry the insurance industry, already under the gun for trying to use credit scores to determine premiums amid staggering investment losses and higher costs, will use a poor energy audit score to hike what a client pays. "This is just another tax grab," snapped a regular reader of lindaleatherdale.com, who wanted to know if a seller of a bachelor condo would have to pay the same price for an audit as an owner of a mansion in Rosedale. This reader, who recently sold a detached home in Toronto and bought a condo, also vented anger over the growing burden of taxes on our homes. "First it was a new municipal land transfer tax, then another hike in our property taxes, and now this. When will it stop?" Gerry Weir, president of the Ontario Real Estate Association, says the industry supports moves to make homes more energy efficient, but adds it opposes "mandatory" energy audits that will impose "a signficant cost on home sellers." He warns seniors, first-time buyers, low and moderate income Ontarians, will all be hurt. Meanwhile, the Toronto Real Estate Board is upset that while Stephen Harper's Conservatives push to stimulate the real estate sector with incentives in its latest budget — the Ontario and Toronto governments continues to cripple the market with higher taxes, even though the economy is so reliant on a vibrant housing sector. "The feds understand that housing is a strong economic engine," said Von Palmer, TREB's chief government and media relations officer, who applauds Harper's Conservatives for trying to boost real estate and voiced disappointment that Queen's Park and City Hall continue to treat home owners as a cash cow. In the latest federal budget, there were a number of new initiatives aimed at boosting the market. They include: • A new First Time Buyers tax credit of 15% on the first $5,000 of a purchase price, to a maximum of $750. • Hiking the maximum allowed to be withdrawn "tax free" from an RRSP to buy a home under Ottawa's Home Buyers Plan from $20,000 to $25,000. For a couple, that's a maximum of $50,000. • A new home renovation tax credit on renovations worth $1,000 to $10,000, to a maximum of $1,350. Everything from exterior and interior painting, to laying new sod and paving a driveway is included. Ottawa also lowered the down payment amount needed to qualify for a conventional mortgage from 25% to 20%, meaning anyone who comes up with a 20% down payment will avoid paying hefty insurance premiums. Meanwhile, a brutal housing slowdown which began in Ontario, where the manufacturing sector has been bleeding jobs, has now spread to other parts of the country, like Alberta and B.C., whose hot economies are slumping as a commodities boom goes bust. According to TREB, only 4,120 homes sold in the GTA last month, down from 6,015 sales in February 2008. Housing values are also in freefall, with the average price at $361,305, down from $382,048 a year ago. A break-out shows 1,653 sales in the City of Toronto last month, down from 2,310 a year ago, while average prices fell to $391,929 from $424.435. In the 905, sales fell to 2,467 from 3,765, and average prices downl from $355,745 to $340,122. For the complete report go to www.torontorealestateboard.com. And here's a warning: During the Nasty Nineties, it took six years to hit bottom, with average Toronto prices dropping from a 1989-high of $287,500 to $196,500 in 1996. This meltdown could be deeper and longer, especially if McGuinty and Miller keep it up. It's time taxpayers fought back. Give them a pink slip.
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