One of the most important elements of Toronto’s budget could end up on the cutting room floor because of the city’s fiscal challenges.

It’s a 20-year strategy aimed at lifting residents out of poverty. Among them in this rich city: 29 per cent of children, 30 per cent of people with disabilities, 33 per cent of people from visible minorities, 37 per cent of female lone parents, and 46 per cent of recent immigrants.

Though the city has approved the anti-poverty strategy, it has yet to fund it. And the chances that it will be able to meet all its goals to do so this year are very tenuous, considering that the preliminary budget presented to council for 2016 is already $57.4 million in the hole. And that doesn’t even include $67 million more for previously identified priorities including earlier subway operations on Sunday, repairs to public housing, $6 million in poverty reduction strategies and $1.6 million for a plan to expand a free-breakfast program in some schools in low-income areas.

That’s why city council should implement a recommendation from a coalition of social justice organizations and a research institute to fund the poverty reduction plan and other supports for the poor by reinstating the vehicle registration tax.

By reviving the $60-per-car-charge that was killed in 2011 under the Ford administration, the city could raise $66 million this year, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives argued this week.

Sheila Block also recommend revisiting previously studied taxes on entertainment to raise $18 million, tobacco to raise $30 million, alcohol to raise $77 million, road tolls to raise $78 million, and private, non-residential parking spots to raise an additional $174 million.

While all those taxes are worth considering, the fastest and most sensible way to raise money for anti-poverty strategies in this year’s budget (which is up for a vote in mid-February) would be simply to reinstate the vehicle registration tax. It could help:

Create more affordable housing in a city where 90,000 households are on waiting lists for social housing.

Increase the number of subsidized daycare spaces. (There is a connection between accessible daycare and people finding employment.)

Improve public transit to reach inner suburbs where many of the poor live.

Provide healthy food for children in poverty by increasing school nutrition programs.

The vehicle registration tax is a modest amount of money for those able to afford a car and could help to raise thousands of Torontonians and their children out of poverty. It should be brought back.