Despite strong
opposition among auto drivers, road tolls are now a serious
possibility. The independent panel on Toronto’s finances recently
recommended user fees for the city-owned Gardiner Expressway and Don
Valley Parkway as well as other GTA highways. Although the Ontario
government rejects tolls on provincially owned roads, the regional
transportation agency it created could end up supporting such a
plan.
You can be
pretty sure the municipal politicians who sit on the Metrolinx board
do not relish the idea of pushing tolls -- many motorists are set
against paying more to drive and they will make things hot for any
official who proposes it.
To argue
against “road pricing”, you have to believe there are other sources
of money for maintaining and expanding our transport network.
Infrastructure gobbles a lot of cash, as subway tunnels and highways
age and need extensive repair. Brand new rail lines, buses or
pavement need more funds on top of that, and most of the existing
revenue streams are accounted for.
What’s more,
even the projects already proposed for the GTA may not be anywhere
near enough to make up for past under-funding as well as the massive
growth in traffic expected in the next decade.
Drivers often
point out taxes are already embedded in the cost of fuel, and this
form of user fee should be spent directly on highways. In fact both
the federal government and Queen’s Park have boosted their spending
on roads, bridges and transit in recent years. Plus, every dollar
that gets switched to roads means less for other societal priorities
such as health and education.
What about
making transit riders pay for new lines through higher fares? One
major drawback: Substantial price hikes will drive “choice”
commuters back onto the roads, and that won’t help traffic
conditions.
Raising taxes
for the general population may be another alternative -- but if you
think tolls are politically difficult, try getting elected on a
tax-hike pledge. Or perhaps our governments should just borrow more,
but eventually the principal and interest has to come from
taxpayers. Alternate financing? Get started convincing Bay Street.
Those who hate
tolls may even push the privatization of transit as a way of
removing the tax burden, but experience elsewhere has shown that too
often government subsidy goes up -- not down -- when companies run
subways and buses. And once you start talking about the private
sector buying transport infrastructure, why shouldn’t highways be up
for grabs too? In that case, tolls are nigh inevitable.
Opposition to
road-pricing schemes may scare elected officials into postponing
their arrival, but if crowding on roads and trains continues to grow
-- not to mention overall concern about the climate -- then popular
opinion will inexorably shift toward charging for the use of
pavement.