A lot incorrect here, at least compared to the parking levy proposal that was recommended by Metrolinx.
That levy was not going to be applied to residential parking, only to commercial entities and institutions etc.
The property owner would see the charge, not the parker. Chances are, if a place had paid parking they'd just nudge up the rates to compensate. If a place had free parking, property owners could choose to keep parking free, bake the levy into their cost of doing business like any other tax, and pass it on to consumers. Ideally, it would motivate some more places with free parking to switch to paid parking, and also act as a financial drag on additional surface parking.
I went and re-checked all the gory details (still available
here). $1.5 billion was calculated out by KPMG as the total revenue assuming $1/space/day. Metrolinx recommended 25 cents/space/day, pulling in $350 million.