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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

The end of plate-renewal stickers and fees is being formally announced at this hour by the Premier, as was telegraphed.

Official Presser here:


Of note, car-owners will still have to renew their plates every one to two years, just no fee, no sticker.

The rationale is proof-of-insurance, and that the province hasn't found a better way to enforce outstanding 407 tolls.
Epic stupidity.
 
The end of plate-renewal stickers and fees is being formally announced at this hour by the Premier, as was telegraphed.

Official Presser here:


Of note, car-owners will still have to renew their plates every one to two years, just no fee, no sticker.

The rationale is proof-of-insurance, and that the province hasn't found a better way to enforce outstanding 407 tolls.
Pretty thin soup. I'm not convinced the insurance data you enter at the time of renewal is retained; besides, you can cancel it the day after you renewal. As for 407, I wonder why the province would be worrying about collecting bills for a private company, unless it is baked into the lease agreement.
 
Epic stupidity.
Epic regressive policy. Those who own cars, on average have higher net worth too.

I disagree with the decision insofar as its a revenue-give away when there are far more important priorities.

However, I think it may well prove politically astute.

The downfall in that regard is not finding a way to ditch plate renewal entirely; which, I would support.

To be clear, I'm pro highway tolls, and pro parking tax; my issue here is simply that the plate renewal process is a very cumbersome way to administer what is, in effect, a tax.
The tax isn't progressive by income, or consumption (value of car/amount of use of car).....

So its really less than ideal and the cost of the system is rather excessive.

I'd really rather see electronic tolling as my preferred choice; and possibly a sales-tax surcharge on both luxury and gas-guzzling vehicles.

That said, its a visible tax break/hassle reduction that will be felt by millions of Ontarians.
Those of us who are progressive must be alert to the appeal of that; and to find ways to deliver that type of benefit to the public (not necessarily this specific policy) if we want
to see parties with which we sympathize, running on platforms we're inclined to support get elected/re-elected.

It reminds me of booze policy, and here I don't mean buck-a-beer, but rather the simple move Wynne made to open up some sales in supermarkets.
People really enjoy that convenience. In the last campaign Horvath suggested she might rescind that. A completely confounding move.
Sometimes you have to leave things that are popular alone or do more of them, rather be seen to be a party of micro-managers, who are always there to cause 'joe public' a hassle.

To be sure, Universal Dentalcare is a much more important policy plank, investing in transit too; and in housing affordability.

But you can't get to the serious stuff when you forget the comparatively small things that irk and please people.
 
That said, its a visible tax break/hassle reduction that will be felt by millions of Ontarians.
Since renewal is still required, I don't see where the hassle is significantly reduced for me. The most onerous part is remembering to make a note of the odometer reading. Plus after all the reminders that there would be no amnesty for renewal fees deferred during the pandemic they are going to mail out a pile of refunds to people who went out of their way to renew?

The best use for this stupid refund will be to donate to a liberal or NDP campaign.
 
Since renewal is still required, I don't see where the hassle is significantly reduced for me.

I agree that's an obvious shortcoming; but the fact that people who were facing or will face a renewal for which they are generally used to paying $120 per vehicle so $240, or more for some households, will no longer shell out, will still have weight to many, so will avoiding the need to either go to an office to get a plate sticker or wait on one being mailed out you to if you renewed online.

Again, we can agree this is not a good use of money, particularly insofar as its not being collected in some other way such as tolls (and in facts tolls were removed from 2 400-series highways in a separate announcement, earlier), which
makes that all the more problematic.

But there's little question if you're a a typical, 1-2 car household in small towns or suburbs, this will resonate positively. It probably won't shift many votes, but it will help make the PC party's core voters happier, and may steal a few fence-sitters such as is needed to retain a majority at Queen's Park.

Hopefully not.
 
I agree that's an obvious shortcoming; but the fact that people who were facing or will face a renewal for which they are generally used to paying $120 per vehicle so $240, or more for some households, will no longer shell out, will still have weight to many, so will avoiding the need to either go to an office to get a plate sticker or wait on one being mailed out you to if you renewed online.
I agree that many people will appreciate the money, but those who have been going to the office may not be that comfortable renewing online. Hassle is at best a wash.
 
I'd really rather see electronic tolling as my preferred choice; and possibly a sales-tax surcharge on both luxury and gas-guzzling vehicles.

Extending that a little further, have a city congestion tax similar to London, where if you're driving into the main core, you're going to get taxed. Or just have a transponder and charge for each km driven, adjusted for weight of car.
 
Road tolls, transponders, etc. might be solutions in an urban area; problematic province-wide.

Transponders can work anywhere there is cell service; you don't need real-time location data, just an odometer read out every so often.
Specific location data might be useful but not strictly necessary, and any disputes could be addressed by providing evidence to, or presenting your car for an odometer read out
at any Service Ontario location.

The latter method could also be used if any area is dead-zone for cell service.

In terms of rates, rural Ontarians pay gas tax now. One could choose to set rate-structures lower if vehicles are registered in or traversing rural areas though if a per-km number were burdensome in said areas.
 
Transponders can work anywhere there is cell service; you don't need real-time location data, just an odometer read out every so often.
Specific location data might be useful but not strictly necessary, and any disputes could be addressed by providing evidence to, or presenting your car for an odometer read out
at any Service Ontario location.

The latter method could also be used if any area is dead-zone for cell service.

In terms of rates, rural Ontarians pay gas tax now. One could choose to set rate-structures lower if vehicles are registered in or traversing rural areas though if a per-km number were burdensome in said areas.
I see what you are proposing. I was assuming transponders for real time collection per km toll data as now.

I assume the need for a cell phone implies mobile data (perhaps incorrectly - I'm a techno-dolt). According to StatsCan;

"Four-fifth of Canadians (80%) reported having a mobile data plan for personal use. Roughly 81% of Canadians living in a CMA/CA had a mobile data plan, compared with 73% of those living outside a CMA/CA."
Tolls/registration-by-income just seems awfully cumbersome. I can foresee people registering their vehicles to their kids or CPP-income relative.
 
I see what you are proposing. I was assuming transponders for real time collection per km toll data as now.

I assume the need for a cell phone implies mobile data (perhaps incorrectly - I'm a techno-dolt). According to StatsCan;

"Four-fifth of Canadians (80%) reported having a mobile data plan for personal use. Roughly 81% of Canadians living in a CMA/CA had a mobile data plan, compared with 73% of those living outside a CMA/CA."
Tolls/registration-by-income just seems awfully cumbersome. I can foresee people registering their vehicles to their kids or CPP-income relative.

Well, ideally you would have satellite up link of some kind; doing that directly from each car would be quite expensive and cumbersome; building out a new relay network would also be very pricey; so to me using existing cell towers to relay
the information would be more cost-effective.

As I noted, you can go old-school and have that odometer read by someone.

The problem w/that is that's labour-intensive, if its the normative practice; also, since that would presumably be quite irregular (annual?) you risk a very steep bill all at once.

Where integration w/cell towers would allow monthly billing.
 
Apparently, the Ford government will amend its own law on firm financial reporting deadlines in order to delay the provincial budget into the month of April.


The official line is Covid uncertainties........but somehow that hasn't stopped BC from delivering its budget yesterday, nor Alberta tomorrow, and most, if not all other provinces before the end of March.

I assume, that they are planning a very good news budget to send them into the election.

Of course, if they don't introduce it til the end of April its rather unlikely they will actually pass it prior to going to the polls.
 

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