A major victory was achieved by the Motor Vehicle Retailers of Ontario (MVRO) after the passing of Ontario’s 2025 Budget, which saw the permanent removal of the City of Toronto’s ability to impose a vehicle registration tax.
It has been a top advocacy priority for the MVRO since 2006, when the provincial government granted Toronto the power to impose the tax. “Toronto drivers can move forward without the looming threat of unnecessary vehicle taxes,” said Brent Ravelle, President of MVRO, in a statement. Ravelle is also a new car retailer based in Listowel, Ontario.
Vehicle owners in Toronto are expected to save up to $94 million a year, based on the MVRO. They said this was the cost they would have faced if a $100-per-car tax had been implemented, based on the data they pulled from a City of Toronto Staff Report.
“After 19 years, it’s fantastic to see Toronto’s vehicle registration tax finally run out of gas,” said Frank Notte, Director of Government Relations for the MVRO, in a statement. “New car retailers and Toronto drivers are no longer threatened by a needless tax that unfairly penalized people for simply owning a vehicle to run their household.”
Ontario’s 2025 Budget, known legislatively as Bill 24, the Plan to Protect Ontario Act, was passed in the Ontario Legislature on June 3, and Bill 24 officially became law on June 5. As a result no municipality in Ontario, including Toronto included, will be able to impose a tax on the family car.
