Roads: GTA West Corridor—Highway 413

[Northern Light]

So the 6% increase overall would equal about an extra 7 cents.. and the Carbon Tax added an estimated 4.5 cents a litre.. Bam, that's your missing 13.5 cents.

Not to be pedantic but that adds up to 11.5c, not 13.5c.

But that's not the same thing as arguing that Canada's gas taxes have not increased since 1992.

There's a difference between gas tax and taxes which apply to gas.

I make the distinction because HST applied to a vast range of services that had not been taxed under PST.

Its not as if that 6% is on gas, its on all services/goods that were previously not taxed with the narrow list of exceptions like groceries/rent.

Since it inflated the cost of goods/services more generally that fossil fuels in particular, I wouldn't count it as 'gas tax'.

A gas tax is one which makes fuel inordinately expensive relative to others goods/services. A targeted tax.

Worth noting as well is VAT (HST) rates in other counties. Excepting our neighbour to the south, we have a fairly low VAT by international standards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates

 

[nfitz]

we saw hst added about 10 years ago though, that was a 13% increase.

The Conservative government put in the 7% GST in 1991. HST is the combination of the GST and HST. So it's only 6% higher in tax than it was in 1991.

The other 24.7¢ of tax (10¢ federal and 14.7¢ provincial) are fixed, and don't increase with inflation. The federal 10¢ rate hasn't changed since 1995! The Ontario 14.7¢ rate went into effect in January 1992.

Surely, if you look at how much you paid for gas in 1995, with 7% GST and 24.7¢ taxes - then the percentage paid as tax then, is far higher than it is now, with 13% HST and 24.7¢ taxes!

If you look at Stats Canada the average 1995 gas price in Toronto was 52.4 ¢/L. So that would be 3.7¢ of GST and 24.7¢ of gas taxes, meaning the before tax price was 24.0 ¢/L and the total tax rate is 118%.

Today's gas rice is 112.9 ¢/L so that's 14.7¢ of HST and 24.7¢ of gas taxes, meaning the before tax price was 73.5 ¢/L and the total tax rate is now only 53.5%

When gas peaked around 140 ¢/L recently, there would have been 18.2¢ of HST and 24.7¢ of gas taxes, meaning the before tax price was 97.1 ¢/L and the total tax rate was only 44.2%

We are paying a lot less percentage wise in gas tax rates than we were in the 1990s!

I'm always amazed at how cheap gas is in Canada compared to most places!

 

[Allandale25]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1093206767016837120

 

[BurlOak]

I wonder if they will revisit the highway going all the way to Guelph.
The freeway would go from the bend, north of Georgetown and roughly parallel to highway 7 - a distance of about 40km. This would be called Highway New 7, and connect to the New 7 coming from K-W (likely give it a 400 designation, as the highway would go from the west side of K-W to Vaughan - 457?). The short connector roughly parallel to Winston Churchill would be Highway 425, and be analogous to 412 in the East.

http://www.gta-west.com/pdf/3-3-09/Brochure.pdf

 

[innsertnamehere]

the full thing to Waterloo would make getting to cottage country from Waterloo region a whole lot faster.

 

[Bureaucromancer]

Ugh.

Just ugh.

Can't add a few km of freight track to the 407, but a whole new corridor in the greenbelt?

 

[Leo_Chan]

I wonder if they will revisit the highway going all the way to Guelph.
The freeway would go from the bend, north of Georgetown and roughly parallel to highway 7 - a distance of about 40km. This would be called Highway New 7, and connect to the New 7 coming from K-W (likely give it a 400 designation, as the highway would go from the west side of K-W to Vaughan - 457?). The short connector roughly parallel to Winston Churchill would be Highway 425, and be analogous to 412 in the East.

http://www.gta-west.com/pdf/3-3-09/Brochure.pdf

the full thing to Waterloo would make getting to cottage country from Waterloo region a whole lot faster.

Bringing up the whole “New Highway 7” thing in relation to Highway 413 reminds me of a thought I had a while a back about how it’s weird Highway 407 intersects with Highway 401 in the West. What if Highway 407 went north of Brampton and it’s west end was around Kitchener Waterloo?

 

[BurlOak]

Bringing up the whole “New Highway 7” thing in relation to Highway 413 reminds me of a thought I had a while a back about how it’s weird Highway 407 intersects with Highway 401 in the West. What if Highway 407 went north of Brampton and it’s west end was around Kitchener Waterloo?

I can't picture this.

Here is my thought. In an ideal world, 407 would end at 401.
This new 457 would go from KW (maybe eventually Straford, London, and join 402).
425 would take over the part of 407 to the Ford Plant.
403 would continue to the Freeman Interchange at QEW (near Ikea).

Seems there should be some freeway east of Hwy 400 (Bradford By-Pass seems too far north).

 

[Bureaucromancer]

If we are going to build this stuff Id think you'd want to set up for the 425 portion to line up with a mid peninsular corridor and have it incorporate the 400/404 link York wants.

 

[Leo_Chan]

If we are going to build this stuff Id think you'd want to set up for the 425 portion to line up with a mid peninsular corridor and have it incorporate the 400/404 link York wants.

Wouldn’t that be too North at Highway 400 and not really close enough to existing development to relieve 400/427/407/401?

 

[BurlOak]

If we are going to build this stuff Id think you'd want to set up for the 425 portion to line up with a mid peninsular corridor and have it incorporate the 400/404 link York wants.

Which link?
The Bradford By-pass (which is half Simcoe County and half York), or have there ever been plans for a link farther south entirely within York (i.e. maybe near Oak Ridges).

 

[BurlOak]

If we are going to build this stuff Id think you'd want to set up for the 425 portion to line up with a mid peninsular corridor and have it incorporate the 400/404 link York wants.

I imagine the Highway 6 will be improved to 4 lanes RIRO (similar to highway 11 between Barrier and Orillia).
Then I would have highway 408 (some call it 424) go from the East side of Cambridge to Hamilton mountain, which is where the mid-pen highway would join (using part of the newer highway 6). The last thing missing is for highway 5 to become 4 lane RIRO, with a new ~10km stretch built to connect Clappison's Corners (highway 5/6 intersection) to 407.

 

[pstogios]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1093206767016837120

This is great news.
I have no idea why that Graeme Frisque guy is so confused.

 

[nfitz]

Given the replacement for the GTA West link is the upcoming 401 widening to Cambridge, does that mean the PCs are going to indefinitely defer that project while they write more reports?

 

[Bureaucromancer]

Given the replacement for the GTA West link is the upcoming 401 widening to Cambridge, does that mean the PCs are going to indefinitely defer that project while they write more reports?

Wasn't that just the replacement for the GTA West crossing the escarpment, with the overall cancellation coming a year or so after that decision?