Ontario Tories urge Premier Wynne to block Toronto highway toll plan
by The Canadian Press
PC Leader Patrick Brown says Kathleen Wynne should reject any suggestion to impose tolls on existing roads and highways in the province
TORONTO—Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives are urging the Liberal government to reject a proposal to impose road tolls on two major highways into downtown Toronto.
PC Leader Patrick Brown says the province should reject Toronto Mayor John Tory’s request to put tolls on the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway to help fund transit projects.
Brown says Premier Kathleen Wynne should reject any suggestion to impose tolls on existing roads and highways in the province, an idea he put into a motion that will be debated Thursday in the legislature.
He says the Liberal government’s policies forced the city of Toronto to consider road tolls and other revenue tools to pay for transit repairs and upgrades.
Mayor Tory says a roughly $2 toll per car trip would split the financial burden of transit funding between all those who use the DVP and Gardiner Expressway, not just Toronto taxpayers, raising about $200 million a year.
The Ontario government is currently testing a pilot project that lets drivers without passengers pay to use the high occupancy vehicle lane on a section of the Queen Elizabeth Way between Oakville and Burlington. It plans to expand high occupancy toll lanes to other highways in the Greater Toronto Area.
