Megaton327
Senior Member
Is it also unreasonable to ask non-residents to help pay for infrastructure that they use but for which they don't pay their fair share towards maintaining?
Dan
Toronto, Ont.
No, that's very reasonable. If you read my post, you'd see I'm in favour of road tolls in general, but one of the conditions I think is critical in order to implement them is high-quality transit service that offers a reasonable alternative to a sizable majority of the people who would otherwise need to pay the toll. We are nowhere even remotely close to that.
However, as I said, I think there are a lot of further factors even beyond that which need to be taken into consideration. As @amnesiajune stated Toronto's residential property tax is laughably low compared with other GTA municipalities, and this is largely made possible by 905ers coming into the city for tourism and employment reasons. In addition to working transit, I wholeheartedly agree with you that everyone needs to pay their fair share, and Toronto residential property taxpayers are not presently doing so--before tolls are implemented, I'd like to see Toronto property taxes brought in line with other nearby cities. Once that is done, and there is quality transit, I'd like to see some detailed studies done on the need for, full effects of, and best implementation plan for tolling. Without either in place, the Premier's decision is the only "fair" one.