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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

PinkLucy said:
Oh look, it’s an election year. https://www.thestar.com/politics/pr...-renewal-fees-for-ontario-licence-plates.html
Click to expand...

From the point-of-view of it being overt election pandering; as well as an expensive hit to the treasury and there being far better uses for the money, I can't endorse the above........

Yet......

I'll confess this somewhat appeals to me; the issue in my mind is not the financial break to drivers, but rather the costs associated with administering a de facto tax; with a procedure that doesn't
really produce any other value (not tied to whether a car is road-worthy etc.); and where failure to pay said tax can also be a pretense for lots of police action, historically, at least some of which
has the tinge of racial prejudice.

The clear knocks on this move are the revenue hit, and, in effect, encouraging driving.

But those moves could be made-up for, and then some, by tolling provincial highways. Therein lies the problem, one doesn't suspect that's the plan here from Ford; and even were it so, that won't
be announced between now and election day.

That said, from the point-of-view of administrative streamlining; and reducing questionable use of police resources, I'd be inclined to support this; if only we can get those intelligent revenue off-sets into place.
Regrettably, that will probably be left to a successor regime.

Needless to say, I won't be supporting the current government at the polls, for this or any other reason.......however, my own thoughts on the merits aside, I expect it may well prove politically astute.
 
This trial balloon smacks of vote buying. I highly doubt the cost of the program is anywhere near 1Bn. Unless we have entered some kind of Star Trek post-money world, most regulated activities have fees to play. I suspect there would be a second shoe hovering to make up the money that we won't know about until after the election.
 
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lenaitch said:
This trial balloon smacks of vote buying. I highly doubt the cost of the program is anywhere near 1Bn. Unless we have entered some kind of Star Trek post-money world, most regulated have fees to play. I suspect there would be a second shoe hovering to make up the money that we won't know about until after the election.
Click to expand...
Massive expansion of online gambling? Opening up liquor sales to third parties? Pay-for-play development fees for the greenbelt?
 
lenaitch said:
This trial balloon smacks of vote buying. I highly doubt the cost of the program is anywhere near 1Bn. Unless we have entered some kind of Star Trek post-money world, most regulated have fees to play. I suspect there would be a second shoe hovering to make up the money that we won't know about until after the election.
Click to expand...
Does Doug ever employ any tactic other than demand that the federal government make up the shortfall?
 
Northern Light said:
From the point-of-view of it being overt election pandering; as well as an expensive hit to the treasury and there being far better uses for the money, I can't endorse the above........

Yet......

I'll confess this somewhat appeals to me; the issue in my mind is not the financial break to drivers, but rather the costs associated with administering a de facto tax; with a procedure that doesn't
really produce any other value (not tied to whether a car is road-worthy etc.); and where failure to pay said tax can also be a pretense for lots of police action, historically, at least some of which
has the tinge of racial prejudice.

The clear knocks on this move are the revenue hit, and, in effect, encouraging driving.

But those moves could be made-up for, and then some, by tolling provincial highways. Therein lies the problem, one doesn't suspect that's the plan here from Ford; and even were it so, that won't
be announced between now and election day.

That said, from the point-of-view of administrative streamlining; and reducing questionable use of police resources, I'd be inclined to support this; if only we can get those intelligent revenue off-sets into place.
Regrettably, that will probably be left to a successor regime.

Needless to say, I won't be supporting the current government at the polls, for this or any other reason.......however, my own thoughts on the merits aside, I expect it may well prove politically astute.
Click to expand...
Kind of moving in the wrong direction if we expect a road tax to be implemented with the rise of EVs to compensate for declining fuel tax revenues.
 
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