Torontonians ready to pay more for transit, chief planner says

Jennifer Keesmaat says she expects council to endorse some form of revenue tools before this term ends in 2018.

Thestar.com
May 10, 2016
By Ben Spurr

Toronto’s chief planner says the city needs to “bite the bullet” and embrace revenue tools to pay for transit projects, and she believes councillors could do so in the next two years.

In a speech to the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Tuesday, Jennifer Keesmaat outlined a 15-year plan to develop the city’s transit network. The plan, which Keesmaat presented to Mayor John Tory’s executive committee in March, calls for about a dozen new rapid transit lines and extensions to be built by 2031, including the downtown relief line, Scarborough subway and the SmartTrack rail project Tory campaigned on. Council endorsed the blueprint last month.

Keesmaat said the network is badly needed to keep up with Toronto’s growth, but it would be impossible to build in such a short time without continuous transit construction backed by a stable source of funding.

“The new normal is going to be recognizing that we’re going to need to open up our pocketbooks in a variety of different ways in order to pay for that transit investment that is required to make a livable city,” she said, adding that cities that “have got this right” have instituted sales taxes, road tolls, vehicle excise taxes, property tax increases or other levies to fund transit infrastructure.

Asked after her speech whether she believed Toronto councillors would endorse some form of revenue tools before this term ends in 2018, Keesmaat said yes, noting that council already voted in April to include the 15-year transit network in the city’s long-term fiscal plan.

“That is approved by council, that is being advanced by (the city’s finance department),” she said.

Although transit revenue tools have been hugely controversial in recent years, Keesmaat said Torontonians are ready to pay more if they see the results in a better network. In 2013, council approved a 1.6-per-cent property tax increase and hiked development charges to pay for the Scarborough subway.

“In the analysis that we undertook around various revenue tools, it became very clear that residents in the city of Toronto were prepared to pay for transit as long as there was clarity (about) what the money was going to,” she said.

While she wouldn’t say which revenue tools she would prefer, she told the small audience of business professionals that the city would need a “suite” of funding mechanisms to meet its transit needs.

She said the best options would be those that not only provide revenue but are also linked to a desired policy outcome, like decreasing gridlock. She cited London’s congestion charge, which sees drivers pay for entering the city centre and has raised more than $2.25 billion for transportation projects since its implementation in 2003.

As the Star reported in March, the city is studying road tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway to help pay for transportation infrastructure.