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(Queen’s Park): “What projects is Queen’s Park cutting in order to double the gas tax money to municipalities?” asks Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner, in response to the Premier’s announcement of her opposition to road pricing.
“Magic money and fairy dust won’t fund transit,” says Schreiner. “We need political leadership at Queen’s Park that will be honest with people about how to fund transit.”
The GPO supports road pricing as a way to raise revenue to fund transit. And as a way to create market incentives to reduce gridlock in the GTA.
Schreiner also added that municipalities should have more control over major transit decisions.
“Local decision making is integral in deciding what is best for cities,” says Schreiner. “Thanks to the Mike Harris downloads of the ‘90s, the City of Toronto is the only municipality in Ontario that has to pay for highways. Right now they’re forced to pay for upkeep of the Gardiner and DVP from property taxes. This pulls badly needed funding away from transit, affordable housing and other essential services.”
“Why isn’t the Premier telling us what is going to be cut in order to pay for this?” asks Schreiner. “Or is she using magic money and fairy dust?”
The GPO support parking levies, congestion charges and land value taxes to pay for transit and transportation infrastructure.
Earlier this week, Mike Schreiner spoke to a Green Cities conference hosted by Transit Alliance that was attended by roughly 300 GTA transit advocates. From a show of hands, the vast majority supported the use of road tolls on the DVP and Gardiner.
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