Bill PR20 explained in plain English
Hot Docs Act (Tax Relief), 2020
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
This Act allows the City of Toronto to exempt Hot Docs' property at 504 Bloor Street West from municipal and school taxes from January 1, 2020, under specific conditions, and details how this exemption might be affected by property sales or leases.
This Ontario Act, also known as the Hot Docs Act (Tax Relief), 2019, allows the City of Toronto council to pass by-laws that exempt specific land (504 Bloor Street West) from municipal and school property taxes. This exemption applies from January 1, 2020, as long as Hot Docs occupies and uses the land solely for its registered charity purposes. The Act also outlines conditions for cancelling previously levied taxes and for handling situations where the land is sold or leased, including provisions for transferring the tax relief to newly acquired land under certain circumstances. It specifies that local improvement rates are not included in the tax exemption.
- Authorizes the City of Toronto council to pass by-laws to exempt the specified property (504 Bloor Street West) from municipal property taxes, excluding local improvement rates.
- Authorizes the City of Toronto council to exempt the specified property from school taxes.
- Allows for the cancellation of previously levied municipal and school taxes, including interest and penalties, for the specified property, subject to conditions.
- Establishes conditions and procedures for agreements between Hot Docs and the City of Toronto related to the sale, lease, or disposition of the specified property, including potential payment of taxes and transfer of exemption to newly acquired land.
- Specifies how any amounts payable to the City of Toronto under these agreements will be shared with school boards.
- States that the revocation of a tax exemption by-law does not affect the terms of any agreement between Hot Docs and the City of Toronto regarding payments.
- Specifies that the Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Hot Docs (the organization)
- The City of Toronto (council and municipal tax collection)
- School boards in the City of Toronto
- Owners of the specified property at 504 Bloor Street West in Toronto
- The public, in relation to the use of municipal and school tax revenues
- The City of Toronto council has the authority (right) to pass by-laws for tax exemption and cancellation.
- Hot Docs has the right to apply for tax exemptions under specific conditions.
- Hot Docs has an obligation to ensure the specified property is occupied and used solely by Hot Docs and that Hot Docs is the registered owner and a registered charity for the exemption to apply.
- Hot Docs may have an obligation to pay taxes, interest, and penalties to the City of Toronto if the property is sold, leased, or otherwise disposed of, unless specific conditions for postponement or transfer of the exemption are met.
- The City of Toronto has the right to register agreements on the title of the specified property or acquired land, creating a lien or charge.
- The City of Toronto has the right to collect unpaid amounts through the collector's roll.
- School boards have a right to share in payments made to the City of Toronto under certain agreements.
- The tax exemption begins January 1, 2020.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent (December 9, 2020).
- Potential loss of municipal and school property tax revenue for the City of Toronto and affected school boards on the specified property.
- Potential for Hot Docs to pay back taxes, interest, and penalties if the property is sold, leased, or disposed of, depending on the agreement and subsequent land acquisition.
- The Act specifies that local improvement rates are not subject to the tax exemption.
- Taxes collected by the City of Toronto under these provisions are shared with school boards.
- If Hot Docs sells or disposes of the property without an agreement or fulfilling its terms, a specified amount of taxes becomes payable.
- Amounts payable to the City of Toronto under agreements can be added to the collector's roll and collected like real property taxes.
- The City of Toronto may register agreements against the title of the property, making amounts payable a lien or charge until paid.
- The Act specifies that any portion of the property occupied or used by an entity other than Hot Docs is not exempt from taxation.
- The effectiveness of the tax exemption and cancellation by-laws is conditional upon Hot Docs meeting specific criteria regarding occupation, use, ownership, and charitable status.
- The specific amount of taxes that may become payable upon sale or disposition is defined as the amount that would have been payable if the exemption by-law had not been passed, for a defined period.
- The conditions for postponing tax payment and transferring the tax exemption to acquired land are detailed but depend on Hot Docs acquiring other land within two years and meeting specific criteria for that land.
- The Act does not define 'local improvement rates'.
- The specific details of the agreement between Hot Docs and the City of Toronto are not fully detailed in the Act but are referenced as being authorized.
- The precise duration for which taxes were levied but not paid before the by-law came into effect is not explicitly stated, only that cancellation applies to taxes for which 'taxes have been levied'.
Allows the City of Toronto council to pass by-laws granting tax exemptions for municipal purposes on specific land, excluding local improvement rates.
Source: Section 2(1)
Provides for exemption from school taxes on the specified property, aligning with the municipal tax exemption period.
Source: Section 4(1)
Section 318 of this Act, concerning taxes collected on behalf of other bodies, applies with necessary modifications to taxes cancelled for school purposes under this new Act.
Source: Section 4(4)
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced