Toronto board of trade recommends gas tax, road tolls pay for transit

Toronto’s board of trade is recommending a gas tax and road tolls to help pay for transit expansion in the city, a plan that is sure to ruffle feathers at city hall.

“We need to act or fall behind,” Carol Wilding, the president and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade (TRBOT), said at a news conference Monday.

Wilding said the four revenue tools are “economically responsible” and would bring in far more than the $2 billion needed each year.

The four measures are a one per cent regional sales tax, a $1/day parking space levy, a 10 cent/litre regional fuel tax and high-occupancy toll lanes, under which single drivers would be charged 30 cents a kilometre.

According to the TRBOT’s figures, the regional sales tax would bring in $1 to $1.6 billion annually, as would the parking space levy. The regional fuel tax would bring in $640-$840 million and the toll lanes would bring in $25-$45 million.

Mayor Rob Ford has repeatedly said he does not want to use taxes to pay for expanded transit.  Ford has also touted his pro-business agenda and solid relationship with the business community, which could make it difficult for him to ignore the board of trade’s recommendations.

Calls to his office were not immediately returned, but deputy mayor Doug Holyday said the money for transit should come from Section 37 funds – a fee developers pay to the city to increase density.

Holyday does not support a sales tax and was lukewarm on tolls.

If Toronto implemented a regional sales tax or a fuel tax, Holyday said, residents would simply drive elsewhere to shop and fuel up.

“As far as tolling existing roads, I don’t think that would work. On the Gardiner, for example, traffic would be pushed off the Gardiner and through Etobicoke, Parkdale and downtown, and it will change those neighbourhoods.

“Tolls would be supportable if there was a new lane built on the Don Valley, for example, and it was used for buses and high occupancy vehicles, and if individual drivers wanted to use it, they would pay a toll,” Holyday told CityNews.ca.

Luca DeFranco, an organizer with transit advocacy group TTCRiders, did not offer any revenue-generating alternatives , but said his organization was concerned with recommending principles that were environmental sustainable and benefit the public.

“You want a revenue tool that has its funding going to transit, not the maintenance and operation of the tool,” DeFranco told CityNews.ca.

There are administrative and overhead costs associated with high occupancy road tolls, he said, and while the group is not necessarily against that tool, there are some cost concerns.

“We want to make sure, with a sales tax, that people of low and middle income, aren’t unfairly hit by that,” he added.

The city and surrounding regions are in the midst of a provincial overhaul of transit infrastructure. Metrolinx’s plan, dubbed The Big Move, will see $50 billion invested in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) over the next 25 years, but some of that money will have to come from municipalities themselves.

A Metrolinx report on funding ways is due to the province on June 1.

The TRBOT has long said that gridlock costs Toronto $6 billion a year in lost productivity, and by 2031, that number will leap to $15 billion annually.

As Wilding spoke, the board also launched an ad campaign and website called Let’s Break Gridlock.

“Those who disagree with our proposed recos, as a responsible stakeholder, we ask that you respond with an alternative,” the board of trade tweeted, using the hashtag #letsbreakgridlock.

“The debate is no longer if we need new revenue tools, but which ones. To succeed, all of us will have to contribute.”

Here’s a small sample of the online reaction to the proposal:

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