Council backs Tory’s move to impose road tolls
A staff report exploring how the tolls would be structured and what type of technology could be used is expected next year.

thestar.com
By Jennifer Pagliaro
Dec. 13, 2016

Toronto council has voted overwhelmingly to back Mayor John Tory’s move to impose road tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway. A final decision on imposing the tolls will not take place until next year.

The tolls are to pay for the cost of maintaining those routes and fund transit projects. Council voted 32 to 9 to approve exploring the option in a vote late Tuesday night.

“We are now, I think, on the verge, in the next few minutes, to at least begin to make a solid start on answering the question: How are we going to pay for the transit that we so badly need, to fix the traffic and to make sure the economy stays strong?” Tory said just ahead of the vote.

“I made an honest choice after careful consideration, an honest choice. Because the dishonest choice is to say, let’s just do nothing and hope for the best.”

Although staff recommended council consider a much broader range of tools to raise badly needed revenues, those options - including reintroducing the personal vehicle tax at up to $120 annually - were deleted by Tory’s executive committee.

Several councillors tried to revive those taxes and fees as part of the budget conversation. Many of those attempts failed without the mayor’s support, but some possibly large revenue generators were put back on the table.

Those included a motion from Councillor Josh Matlow to request that the province share a portion of the harmonized sales tax, which passed 30 to 12, with Tory’s support.

Both imposing tolls and allowing the city to benefit from a sales tax require provincial sign-off, which now puts the pressure on Premier Kathleen Wynne.

In addition, council will now consider a 4-per-cent tax on hotel accommodations; up to a 10-per-cent tax on short-term rentals such as Airbnb; and an increase in tax for third-party signs. Council also backed looking to harmonize the municipal and provincial land transfer taxes as well as cancelling a tax rebate for vacant businesses. Most of those also require provincial sign-off.

A majority of councillors rejected looking at a municipal income tax or increasing property taxes to be in line with the GTA average.

Tory faced criticism over tolls both from suburban councillors, wary their residents would roundly reject tolling, and from centrist and left-leaning councillors who said charging drivers doesn’t go nearly far enough toward solving the city’s long-term financial challenges.

Several councillors representing Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York, including Tory’s hand-picked deputy mayor, Denzil Minnan-Wong, spoke warily of tolls, saying their residents wouldn’t stand for it.

Councillor Stephen Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre) said he wore his Etobicoke pin on the lapel of his black blazer to remind him who voted him into office.

“I’m going to be voting against these tolls to protect their interests,” he said.

If the tolls are ultimately approved, staff have estimated they could be phased in starting in 2019 but would not be fully implemented until 2024.

Council has yet to debate how road tolls might be structured - whether there would be a flat fare of $2 or more, distance-based tolls like those on Hwy. 407, or tolls based on peak periods that are designed to reduce congestion.

A staff report exploring those options and what type of technology could be used is expected next year.

A $1.40 toll would be required to cover the cost of maintaining the Gardiner and DVP and pay for the cost of tolling over 30 years. The toll would need to be significantly higher to bring in substantial funding for transit.

Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) moved that the province push ahead with reforms needed to allow Toronto to share in a percentage of the harmonized sales tax, which council backed. If the province rejects that request, council has asked that a municipal sales tax be allowed.

“To look at tolling as the answer does not fully answer the question, which is: How do we fund the things that we want?” Matlow said.

Council rejected his request that those potential new revenues be dedicated to a fund for transit and housing projects.

With $33 billion in unfunded capital projects, including an estimated $6.8 billion needed to fund a relief line for the Yonge subway, Matlow said infrastructure projects funded with new revenues should be prioritized based on need - including ridership or user projections and future development potential.

“I believe we undercut our argument that we need new revenue tools when we make decisions that are not fact-based, that are politically driven,” he said.

That motion failed 19 to 23, with Tory voting against it.

After the vote, the mayor defended that decision, calling the motion a “Trojan Horse” to change council’s priorities on the fly.

Though Tory referenced his continued support of a relief line - which city and TTC staff have repeatedly identified as the top transit priority - that project remains unfunded, while Tory’s own plans for six new GO stations are eyed for funding approval in the upcoming budget. Those stations are what’s left of Tory’s much-revised “SmartTrack” plan that was the cornerstone of his campaign. Detailed ridership analysis for that plan has never been made public.

A motion from Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) to reintroduce the personal vehicle tax, which could raise $100 million annually, failed 11 to 31.

City manager Peter Wallace, who has told council it must raise new revenues or make significant cuts, was challenged by left-leaning councillors on why he was not recommending a significant property tax increase above a 2-per-cent inflationary increase.

“It would be useless for me right now to make that analysis and that argument,” Wallace said, acknowledging a council that has been historically averse to raising taxes. “Council has been crystal clear through almost its entire existence with its perspective on this.”

That council has taken a step toward new taxes and fees is a sea change from the last time council debated what are called “revenue tools” in 2013.

Under the Rob Ford administration, council spent two days discussing how to pay for new transit and ultimately did not back a single option.

Instead, council backed a motion from Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre) that saw a transit debate reopened against council procedure. That vote ultimately led to a flip-flop on the seven-stop Scarborough LRT line that was already fully funded by the province and saw council back a subway instead. What is now a single-stop subway extension is estimated to cost more than $3.2 billion.