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• Road tolls, a bitter pill that works [ Toronto Star ]
• Cyclists will commute if dedicated paths are there [ National Post ]
• Did someone say the R word? Not in Toronto [ Globe and Mail ]
• ‘Toronto still safe’ for visitors [ Toronto Sun ]
• The walk down Yonge Street: Finding some charm at Yonge and Finch [ National Post ]
• Renters wary of meters [ Toronto Star ]
• Day rejects gun ban [ Toronto Sun ]

7 comments

  1. Maybe Gord Perks could explain to the community why only 50 K of bike lanes will be installed ,maybe.Well short of the grand promises made by Miller &company.The bike community has been abandoned and Dan Leckie has been sent as a damage controller.Oh well considering all the promises made during the election and now broken is it any surprise.They bought the votes needed to attain the office.Dave Meslin speak up!!!!

    As for toll roads, I think we all remember the great NDP Bob Rae experiment that now is very profitable to a foreign company.Well why not, considering the developers building condominiums downtown don’t have to pay their fair share why not let the “suckers” er, I mean the public pay.

  2. Regarding road tolls, Royson James of the Star is an ass to present the argument that road tolls are good for us.

    Apparently Mr. James believes that the $6 billion a year raised from such tolls will be put toward public transit.

    But had he done any actual research, Mr. James would have cause to wonder what happens to the many billions of dollars a year currently raised by various levels of government through fuel taxes, license fees, plate fees, fines, tire levies, parking fees etc. etc. etc.

    All of that money was supposed to go to expanding public transit, building and maintaining roads and protecting the environment. In reality, all it does is fund new committees to develop new strategies and new recommendations which add up to the same thing: more of our money in the government’s pockets.

  4. Diane: It’s likely that road construction and maintenance are require more funds than the taxes and fees bring in.

  5. A.R.

    That comment would look just dashing with a soupcon on proof – which you obviously don’t have. On the other hand, the President of the CAA said this in March 2006:

    “Our Federal Government only spends between 2% and 7% of the fuel excise tax that it collects on highway improvement. The rest goes into general revenues.

    With the new cities agenda now endorsed by the Conservatives, half of the federal fuel tax will go to municipalities.

    This is good for the cities – They deserve a break. But that still leaves half the fuel excise tax that could be redirected towards roadway improvement. That’s 2.5 billion dollars per year.”

    I don’t have a problem with this per se, as long as the other 2.5 billion goes into areas like federal transit (VIA and freight rail) and environmental improvement but if it’s just a cash grab…

  6. George, why are you blaming the NDP for the Conservative party’s decision to sell off the 407?

  7. blarg> the way the “deal” was written up allowed the tories to sell off the system.It was clear that the contract was a private/public deal not unlike the soccer stadium at exibition place.With the option is made available it puts the public interest at a disadvantage.

    I just feel that if a toll road is established then extra scrutiny must be exercised to ensure that the private sector can’t just undermine public interest and funds.

    Now I also understand that the NDP government at the time used a private/public liason to expedite the contstuction and allow the road to be built quickly.But now the public has been drastically shortchanged.And believe me I was no supporter of Mike Harris.If you heard any of my calls to “talk radio” you would understand that I just couldn’t wait to see that bunch leave office.