The Wynne government has turned down a request from the City of Toronto to toll the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway — and the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association (TADA) couldn’t be happier. The plan to put a minimum $2 toll to use the highways would have cost families an estimated $1,000 per year, according to TADA.
“Support for the auto sector must include promoting the value of vehicle ownership,” says Frank Notte, TADA’s director of government relations. “The family car is a necessity for the overwhelming majority of Ontario families and governments should lessen the cost of vehicle ownership to make everyday life affordable.”
The City of Toronto will, however, benefit from another provincial government decision announced the same day. A plan to double the municipal share of provincial gas taxes from two cents per litre to four cents per litre by 2021 is expected to benefit Toronto to the tune of $170 million more each year when fully implemented.
The use of existing provincial funds through gas taxes collected at the pumps is a better way to fund transit, one that “stops unnecessarily pitting drivers against transit users, and 416-ers against 905-ers,” says Notte.
