Taxes, taxes, taxes
A congestion tax is on its way
By Arthur Weinreb
Thursday, February 22, 2007
After being re-elected with new taxing powers given to him by the McGuinty government under the City of Toronto Act, Mayor David Miller pooh-poohed the idea of imposing a congestion tax on motorists entering the city. Miller had floated the idea before and it was not well received so as any good politician does, he dropped the idea until he was safely re-elected last November. But anyone who has been awake since Miller first came to power in 2003 on his trusty but unused broom knows, raising taxes is his and council's preferred method of solving the city's financial problems. The notion of reducing or even controlling spending is foreign to the city mothers.
Miller is still opposed to the imposition of a congestion tax if for no other reason than the fact that it might actually accomplish what it sets out to do. If people in Toronto and surrounding areas abandon their vehicles in favour of public transportation, it will become abundantly clear just how overcrowded and ineffective our public transit system is. As transit riders pay a larger percentage of the cost of public transit than almost every other major North American transit system, not all the blame for our transit woes in this city can be placed upon Toronto City Council. But this doesn't alter the fact that if too many people listened to this pro-transit council, the entire city would break down.
While Miller is still denying the fact that a congestion tax will be imposed on those who choose to drive into the downtown core, one of his sycophants (ie. one of those who were deserving of a front row seat in the class picture that never was), Brian Ashton, is off to Merry Olde England to study the matter. Meanwhile in London, that city's mayor, Red Ken Livingstone, has just extended the area in which drivers are subject to the tax. No doubt if the tax is implemented in Toronto it will start in the downtown core and gradually spread to the city limits. Now that will really become something to look forward to.
The timing of a congestion tax couldn't be better. With climate change being the number one issue where even Scary Steve is looking in the mirror and asking ‚"mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the greenest of them all?", there couldn't be a better opportunity to stick it to motorists. The congestion tax could even have its own slogan -- ‚"kill the city but save the planet".
And kill the city it will. It won't cause companies to flee the downtown core; it will merely accelerate the trend that has already begun. Not only is the downtown core awash with homeless sleeping on sidewalks but Toronto businesses are overtaxed in order to keep successive left wing councils spending in the manner to which they have become accustomed. The downward trend of the city will be accelerated.
Retail businesses will suffer the most. There is no valid reason for people in Toronto's burgeoning 'burbs to come to the downtown core to shop when they can do so at outlying malls and shopping centres. The tax, estimated to be $20 is a good deterrent to avoid the downtown core except when absolutely necessary.
When you add it all up, the combination of protecting the environment, getting rid of the hated automobile and imposing a new tax will be too enticing for this council to ever pass up. It's only a matter of time before a congestion tax is implemented. Get those 20s ready.
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