News   Apr 15, 2024
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New Transit Funding Sources

Toronto should immediately implement a tax on Green P parking. It's ridiculous that I can drive downtown, park, and drive back home for not even half the price of a round trip TTC fare.
 
$3 parking. Where? Or should I ask, for how long?

I rarely park in the Downtown Core (south of College, east of Spadina, west of Church), but at other Downtown areas there's an abundance of Green P parking locations for $2.00 to $2.50 per hour. Around Bloor Street, for example.

I am frequently in the situation where I have to decide between taking a cheap car trip downtown and dealing with congestion, or an expensive ($6) TTC ride to avoid the congestion. This is totally opposite of how it should be.
 
Berlin and Frankfurt have a Dog Tax. That's interesting.

Toronto should implement an Entertainment Tax by the end of this year. I would not mind spending a bit more on a ticket to see the Raps, Blue Jays or a movie.
I'm in favour of an entertainment tax. However, it should be modest.

However, the city needs to attract an NFL team; the potential NFL stadium can be located atop a subway station, with the TTC generating funds from various events the stadium hosts.
 
Don't kid yourself. Any new tax will go into general revenue.
It won't be used 100% for transit.

Doesn't really matter, considering how much SOGR capital needs the city has. The question really is how much additional transit spending will new revenue streams supports.

AoD
 
Don't kid yourself. Any new tax will go into general revenue.

It won't be used 100% for transit.


Personally I don't want 100% of any tax to go towards transit. There are so many things that are important in this city like rebuilding aging community centres (i.e. like the one in Malvern)
 
Toronto should immediately implement a tax on Green P parking. It's ridiculous that I can drive downtown, park, and drive back home for not even half the price of a round trip TTC fare.

Why would the city tax Green P parking when they already own Green P and get all the revenue from it? They could just increase their rates.

On top of that, they could introduce a general parking tax like Montreal did.
 
Though I have no general objection to additional taxes to pay for transit (and other things); just because Montreal Berlin, London or wherever can impose a tax on x or y does NOT mean that Toronto can do so. Our taxing powers are governed by the City of Toronto Act.
 

So Toronto doesn't have a garbage tax but Paris does?
Toronto doesn't share the fuel tax but Madrid does?
How about our "voluntary" hotel tax?

Beyond this table's absurdities you then look at the tweet. We do have autonomy in several of these areas...we just don't use them.

The other problem is that many of these cities are equivalent to a province. Very misleading
 
Though I have no general objection to additional taxes to pay for transit (and other things); just because Montreal Berlin, London or wherever can impose a tax on x or y does NOT mean that Toronto can do so. Our taxing powers are governed by the City of Toronto Act.

Montreal also knows how to competently operate a transit agency. They incentivize their citizens to ride transit outside of peak hours with things like 5$ evening unlimited passes, which has actually had the effect of greater revenue (despite lower cost to each rider) because it is so attractive, and is recognized as a great socially responsible initiative which has helped curb drinking and driving. Not in Toronto. Let's leave that running infrastructure three quarters empty, and force people to take Uber or a cab (which end up being cheaper if you are 2 or more people). Especially considering people make many more stops on their way "out" for a night out. We should be looking to Montreal, it works much better than what we have here.
 
Good luck bringing a constitutional change to Canada.
It happened in the early 1980's when the party in power had 52% of the seats and 44% of the vote - but the rules were changed to make constitutional change nearly impossible.
Maybe Toronto can separate and then have some bargaining power to re-join confederation.
 
It would be time to declare the Greater Toronto Area a separate province.

What exactly do you hope that'll accomplish?

The City-State of Toronto would be in the 8 million person range. We already have a majority control of Queens Park. This control is growing, not shrinking; any issues at Queen's Park at a direct result of the electorate in the Toronto economic zone at this point.

Even if you did manage to just include City of Toronto boundaries (leaving 905 to completely different and competing tax policies); Premier Mel Lastman, Rob Ford, or even John Tory aren't going to do with that new-found power what you might hope.

On top of all that, the province of Toronto would be making significant annual transfer payments, being the top "have" province now (taking that slot from Alberta) and Old Ontario would be on the receiving end of a good chunk of those transfer payments. Financially, little would be achieved.
 
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