ssiguy2
Senior Member
Why does Toronto make things so complicated?
Has no one ever heard of electronic tolling? All one has to do is provide all citizens of the GTA a little sticker and if there city is not getting improved transit service or their city hall refuses to implement revenue tools then the road toll for those people could be adjusted or even negated completely.
Toronto could also, if it had the balls, make the Gardiner and/or the DVP toll roads and issue all drivers in the City of Toronto an electronic decal which defaults their toll......the suburbanites pay and city dwellers don't.
The new premier makes little difference, this is a Toronto and GTA political problem not a provincial one. Toronto is getting a staggering $9 billion this decade for transit infrastructure with few strings attached and no expectations of contribution from the city except it's part of the Spadina ext. I have never even heard of any city anywhere on this planet where the municple government is given such massive amounts and the city doesn't haven't to contribute a dime...........let another example of McGuinty incompetence.
Toronto has always had the ability to toll the Gardiner/DVP but has lacked the balls to do so. It also has the ability to levy special taxes on certain businesses one of which would be a special levy on gas stations. Those stations would of course have to charge more to make up the difference..........a gas tax that doesn't need provincial approval. Toronto has the ability to greatly raise parking taxes especially in it's downtown core and spend that money on transit and to discourage urban driving which Calgary has done since the 1960s, Calgary is the most expensive downtown parking in NA outside of NYC.
There are numerous revenue tools that Toronto could have already implemented but choose not to for political expedenency and both left and right wing councils have played the game. Toronto has gridlock and a very small rapid transit service for it's size because it made a conscious decision not to expand it.
Has no one ever heard of electronic tolling? All one has to do is provide all citizens of the GTA a little sticker and if there city is not getting improved transit service or their city hall refuses to implement revenue tools then the road toll for those people could be adjusted or even negated completely.
Toronto could also, if it had the balls, make the Gardiner and/or the DVP toll roads and issue all drivers in the City of Toronto an electronic decal which defaults their toll......the suburbanites pay and city dwellers don't.
The new premier makes little difference, this is a Toronto and GTA political problem not a provincial one. Toronto is getting a staggering $9 billion this decade for transit infrastructure with few strings attached and no expectations of contribution from the city except it's part of the Spadina ext. I have never even heard of any city anywhere on this planet where the municple government is given such massive amounts and the city doesn't haven't to contribute a dime...........let another example of McGuinty incompetence.
Toronto has always had the ability to toll the Gardiner/DVP but has lacked the balls to do so. It also has the ability to levy special taxes on certain businesses one of which would be a special levy on gas stations. Those stations would of course have to charge more to make up the difference..........a gas tax that doesn't need provincial approval. Toronto has the ability to greatly raise parking taxes especially in it's downtown core and spend that money on transit and to discourage urban driving which Calgary has done since the 1960s, Calgary is the most expensive downtown parking in NA outside of NYC.
There are numerous revenue tools that Toronto could have already implemented but choose not to for political expedenency and both left and right wing councils have played the game. Toronto has gridlock and a very small rapid transit service for it's size because it made a conscious decision not to expand it.