Tiny Voices- Episode 4: Interview with Property Taxpayers Alliance President, John Waylett

In the latest episode of Tiny Voices, we sat down with John Waylett, President of the Property Taxpayers Alliance (www.propertytaxpayer.ca), an Ontario not-for-profit corporation advocating for lower property taxes and greater efficiency/effectiveness in municipal operations.

We asked him to talk about one of the most pressing issues facing not only Tiny Township but communities across the province: the unsustainable rise in residential property taxes.

Waylett didn’t mince words. For decade now, property taxes in many Ontario municipalities and townships have been rising at 2, 3 even 4 times the rate of inflation, outpacing wage growth and threatening the stability of households already struggling with affordability. “This isn’t just a Tiny problem,” says Waylett. “It’s province-wide and its starting to force some out of their homes.”

Here in Tiny, we see the evidence every day. Families who have lived here for generations are being squeezed by tax bills that rise faster than their incomes. In fact, $900,000 in unpaid property taxes—about 5% of the township’s entire revenue—remain on the books. That isn’t a number on a balance sheet. It’s a measure of how many of our neighbours are falling behind.

Waylett argues that the problem goes well beyond bad budgeting at town hall. He says municipal governments across Ontario have quietly ballooned in scope, offering ever more discretionary services, while core services suffer. They layer regional and local bureaucracies on top of each other, and enjoy wages and benefits unheard of in the private sector. Yet when pressed to justify these costs, municipalities simply shrug and pass the increased burden onto the backs of property taxpayers. As Waylett puts it, “municipalities are abject monopolies .. they have no competition to force them to be efficienct and effective”.

So what’s the solution? Waylett is quite clear: the province must start setting much more stringent guardrails for municipalities and townships, create healthy competition and track/report on improvements to taxpayers. Ontario already collects annual data from municipalities in the Financial Information Return (FIR). This data is not complete but does indicate many areas where municipal governments are inefficient/ineffective. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has the power to update the Municipal Act, enforce accountability, and tie provincial transfers to actual productivity gains. What’s missing is the political will to act.

And this raises a deeper issue: who exactly is running our local governments? Waylett pointed out that the majority of councillors and mayors in Ontario come from a very narrow demographic—many are retired public servants and the independently wealthy. They have pensions, benefits, and time to spare. Meanwhile, working families who feel the brunt of rising taxes are effectively locked out of local politics. They must work into their 60’s and some into their 70’s just to save enough to retire. They can’t run for council positions. The result? Councils that are structurally biased toward making spending decisions that don’t reflect the lived reality of the majority.

If taxes continue to climb faster than wages, more families will lose their homes, resentment will deepen, and trust in local government will erode even further. As Waylett warned, “this is about more than money, it’s about the legitimacy of local democracy itself.”

At TinyTRA, and as members of the Property Taxpayers Alliance, we share that concern. We believe in local decision-making, but local autonomy cannot mean local unaccountability. It’s time for the province to step up, update the rules, and insist that municipalities live within the means of the people they serve.

Because when ordinary families are forced out of their homes by runaway taxation, democracy doesn’t just weaken—it breaks.