If you were
hoping the Ontario Conservative party would take a strong stand in
favour of unfettered suburbanization and highway building, forget
about it. Despite the appearance of being pro-905 and
pro-automobile, even the Harris Tories really weren’t into building
highways any more than the NDP or Liberals. No regime in Queen’s
Park has leveraged the kind of cash needed for massive road or
transit expansion -- not for decades.
Where do the
Ontario Conservatives stand now? I spoke to Durham MPP John O’Toole,
the party transport critic whose job is to harry the Liberal
government and new Minister of Transportation Donna Cansfield.
The Grits have
been pouring out announcements lately, whether it be about new
highway widenings and when they will fix Ontario’s bridges, or how
they intend to limit urban sprawl. Are premier McGuinty’s Liberals
really spending more on roads, as the flurry of press releases might
indicate? Says O’Toole, they’ve “committed pretty much the same
annual capital spending on highway infrastructure as the
Conservative government did” -- around a billion dollars a year. He
contends a recent Grit announcement of highway funding amounted to
“$3.4 billion over five years, which is actually a reduction.”
However the
numbers crunch, we’re not talking about a radical departure from the
way all three parties have spent our money.
One sign that
legislators are indeed worried about Ontario’s cities is how
everyone is finally willing to talk about development, and how the
best-laid highway (or transit) plans can be overrun by urban sprawl.
A growth plan
for the southern part of the province -- which is high on the
Liberal to-do list -- is a “very, very important” issue says
O’Toole. The Tory critic makes it clear that transport and
development must be in harmony, noting the government’s “Places to
Grow” scheme is “a continuation of a plan started by us which was
called the Smart Growth Plan -- talking about more intensive use of
existing infrastructure. It means more people living on less land.”
Buses and
trains are no longer afterthoughts, in the new Tory view. Says
O’Toole
“Public transit
works best when there’s density -- where there’s lots of population
clustered.” He speaks of connecting the dots between “places to live
and places to work. That could be as simple as Durham to Union
Station -- from Mississauga, from Brantford or wherever, to
destinations like Union Station, like the airport, like the
universities, like the hospitals.”
The Tories are
even supportive of the soon-to-be launched Greater Toronto
Transportation Authority, but he stresses there has to be “a plan
for the linkages -- not of just public transit, but of public
roadways as well, and that would be complementary to the provincial
roadway system, which is the 401, 407, 427, 404.”
Naturally, the
Conservative member echoes the concerns of various chambers of
commerce and the Toronto Board of Trade that the GTTA has to have
real funding, less politicians in charge, and needs to get moving.
Money? Well,
the Tories are still disposed to more user-pay for transport. (Tolls
are not a dirty word.) What about the big cash -- the kind that
can’t be raised privately to build the transport grid? He looks to
Ottawa and new Conservative Prime Minister Brian Harper.
Says O’Toole,
“What revenue or tax room or tax points is Harper going to give the
provinces? Or is he going to upload responsibilities (to the federal
government) -- like is he going to take on more of the
responsibility in healthcare? That’s what’s killing every province.”
This summer the
Ontario Tories will continue to canvass voters on their commuting
and travel needs, and start honing a platform for the October 2007
election. Check
http://www.gridlocked.ca/ for details.
Ed Drass
Email the
Traffic Guru at
edrass@nationalpost.com