Taxes & tolls to pay for transit, Toronto report proposes

Sales taxes and road tolls are among the 10 options the city is considering to fund transit across the GTA, but none of the fees will be implemented without public consultation.

The City of Toronto is looking to raise $2 billion for Metrolinx’s The Big Move project, which has a total cost of $50 billion.  The money would be used to pay for expanded transit in Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton.

One of the items that could be considered is the vehicle registration fee, which was scrapped by Mayor Rob Ford upon his election.

However, Ford’s executive committee still has to approve public consultations on the report.  The executive committee will meet on Oct. 9.

Revenue could come from nine other sources: personal income tax, sales tax, payroll tax, highway tolls, fuel tax, property tax, parking levies, land transfer tax and development charges.

The report states that a one per cent sales tax alone could net $1.3 billion.

Ontario has already committed $13 billion in capital expenses to the $50-billion project. However, with Queen’s Park facing a project $14.8-billion deficit, it’s unlikely that extra funds will come from the provincial government.

The city’s report said that public consultations on the revenue proposal will wrap up in the spring of 2013, just before Metrolinx is due to present its investment strategy.

The funding must be in place by June 2013.

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