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Roads: GTA West Corridor—Highway 413

How can a person call themselves a person who cares about working people if they want to tax people to use any highways in a province with insanely high taxes.

I know in the USA they have a ton of tolls but taxes are low.
 
Jasmine18 said:
How can a person call themselves a person who cares about working people if they want to tax people to use any highways in a province with insanely high taxes.

I know in the USA they have a ton of tolls but taxes are low.
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Jasmine you are very prone to making emphatic statements for which you present no evidence, or where you don't present things in a larger context.

As has been explained at some length in other threads you partake in, taxes in Ontario are not high be OECD standards.

That is objective, and factual.

Your statement is therefore incorrect.

IF you wish to narrow its scope and suggest that personal income and sales taxes collectively are lower in most U.S. States than in Canada you would be on far safer ground.

But if you failed to note that corporate taxes are lower here; that you get substantial rebate on HST when you file your taxes if you are anything less than a middle income earner, that property taxes are often lower here, and that in the U.S. you likely have to pay all or a portion of your health insurance costs, in addition to deductible and co-pays, you would be rather unfair and misleading.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/calculator-compare-taxes-might-pay-u-s-developed-nations/

This link illustrates that after (Federal) tax deductions, an average $50,000 per year earner in the US takes home $725. In Canada that number is $743

While they do get a mortgage interest deduction we do not; we have TFSAs, RESPs and a host of other deductions.

While our provincial income taxes can be higher; we don't have municipal income or sales taxes which many U.S. cities do.

NYC for instance has a roughly 3.5% income tax, there is also a sales tax there, beyond the State one.
 
Jasmine18 said:
How can a person call themselves a person who cares about working people if they want to tax people to use any highways in a province with insanely high taxes. I know in the USA they have a ton of tolls but taxes are low.
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I've heard no proposals to tax people to use highways.

I've heard proposals to toll people who use highways - but that's just paying to use. How is this different than paying for parking on a public street, paying to use public transit, or paying to drink public water? Or my favourite, paying to walk into a local park?

Though the entire discussion is hypotheical, given that we are not in this hypothetical province with insanely high taxes.

Neither personally (2014 rates, but rates haven't increased at these levels in Ontario):
TaxesByIncomeLevel(1).png


nor corporately (2016 rates):
chart1-4.jpg


Perhaps you were referring to PEI and the Confederation Bridge? I think there is a better thread for that somewhere ...
 
Latest article here.
It could be 2018 before fate of 400-series highway through Vaughan is known

The three-person advisory panel looking at alternatives to the proposed GTA-West Corridor has seen its term extended until April, 2018

Those anxious to learn the fate of the proposed 400-series highway linking Vaughan to the Milton area could be waiting a lot longer than originally expected.

The province has extended the term of the three-person advisory panel looking at alternatives to the future highway — known variously as the GTA West Corridor and Hwy. 413 — until next spring, yorkregion.com has confirmed.

"The GTA West Corridor EA is a complex project, and it’s important that we get it right,” Ministry of Transportation (MTO) officials wrote in an email Monday, June 12.

“On March 29, 2017, an order-in-council extended the three-person GTA West Advisory Panel term by up to a year (April 20, 2018). This extension is providing the panel some additional time to complete the report.”

MTO officials say an update on the project will be provided once the panel’s report and recommendations have been reviewed.

After two years of environmental assessments and public consultations to identify a preferred route between Hwy. 400 in Vaughan and the Hwy. 401/Hwy. 407 interchange near Milton, the province suspended work on the project in December 2015.

Months later, the province posted on the project’s website that a panel had been formed and was being “tasked with conducting a strategic assessment of the alternatives to meeting future transportation demand and other transportation infrastructure needs for passenger and goods movement in the GTA West corridor.”

Several municipalities — including Vaughan, York Region, King Township, Caledon and Peel Region — have been urging Queen’s Park to complete the environmental assessment and choose a preferred route quickly.

Those municipalities have argued the highway is needed to reduce congestion on local road networks and to provide a connection between employment lands and the provincial highway system.

Affected developers also want the studies completed and a final route determined so they can get on with development plans.

Local environmentalists, however, oppose the highway and are calling on Queen’s Park to invest in public transit instead.

They argue, among other things, the highway will cut through protected Greenbelt lands in Vaughan and pave over prime farmland in other areas while doing little to relieve traffic congestion.
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Allandale25 said:
Latest article here.
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Aren't we expecting that the writ will be dropped just after the Liberals table the budget in March 2018? 1/2 of her potential voters want it killed (environmentalists and 416-ers) and the other 1/2 demand it (suburbia). Just like them to never have to make a real decision.

They either have 27 announcements for transit projects and never actually put shovels in the ground or study something to death so their consultant friends can gouge the taxpayers.
 
muller877 said:
Aren't we expecting that the writ will be dropped just after the Liberals table the budget in March 2018? .
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Actually it may be sooner. In 2014 the Liberals plus their friends (unions) spent around $15M. The PC's around $9M.

In 2018 with the fixed election date for the election period plus the pre-election period the friends of the Liberals have strict spending limits ($700k each). With the money in the bank that the PC's have ($10M more raised in 2016 than the Liberals) the PC party will likely outspend the Liberals in the months leading up to the election (and then they will both spend the max during the election period). Basically the rolls are reversed from 2014. $10M for the Liberals and $15M for the PC's

To stop this from happening Wynne may prorogue parliament early but still have the election in April. This would mean that all parties are subject to the same spending limits (about $2 per voter if you include both the provincial and local levels).

So my guess is that the day before the Christmas Break (Dec 10-ish) the legislature will stop and no decisions can be made for 5 months until the election happens. This is just after the mid-year financials are out (which are easier to fudge than at year-end) and they can do a mini-budget with grand promises for all.
 
Update posted today:

November 27, 2017 Update
In December 2015, the Ministry of Transportation suspended its work on the Environmental Assessment of the Greater Toronto Area West Highway Corridor (GTA West). An advisory panel was appointed to assist the ministry in reviewing the GTA West project. The panel was tasked with providing advice on the need for the GTA West corridor, in light of recent changes in government policy and transportation technology that could impact the demand for travel.

The panel has completed its advice and has submitted a report to the Minister of Transportation. The Minister is reviewing the panel's advice and is committed to providing an update on the future of the GTA West Corridor within 60 days.

While the government is developing its response, lands in the GTA West focused analysis area will continue to be protected.
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innsertnamehere said:
At least we know it'll be in the next 2 months. Compared to the last 2 years, that is lightning fast.
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Unless, of course, it makes a recommendation other than highway, in which case Brown/PCs will likely commit to revisiting the issue. There wouldn't be time between February and the election to do much else w/the land already in the corridor land assembly or to sell much of it off.

Personally, I wish they would ditch the urban-sprawl inducing highway idea, add appropriate lands to existing conservation areas, but hold enough to add a new railway corridor for freight and limited passenger, IF it made economic sense over the medium to long-term.
 
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