How to get the 905 to love road tolls

Would those of us in the 905 ante up $5 for the privilege of sitting on the Gardiner Expressway two hours a day? Particularly if the five bucks was going to expand the Toronto subway system? The short answer, if the poll was strictly 905, is absolutely not!

If the question was slightly different the answer may be the reverse.

I avoid driving into Toronto. The last time I was forced into daily trips for work was five winters ago while restoring a house in Rosedale. Toronto is not particularly truck friendly, parking is restricted and the Green Hornets seem to stake out residential construction sites.

The trip, from home in south east Mississauga was 1 to 1 ½ hours each way, gas was about $120 a week, parking tickets $25 to $50 weekly. Any fiscally responsible contractor has to build this cost into the contract, so in this situation the extra $10 daily would be born by a Toronto resident.

Therefore, if the funding from tolls goes to the Toronto Transit Commission, that’s fine. Personally, I chose to work closer to home. Most people who make this daily pilgrimage do not have the luxury of a choice.

As chair of the Legacy Foundation, I often go to Toronto for meetings and I always take the GO train.

Herein lies the problem for a 905er with the funding going to subway expansions.

The Long Branch GO station is a mile and a half from my house at Cawthra and Lakeshore. The GO parking lot is continually full and street parking is impossible, which leaves Mississauga Transit the only option.

Here is how the trip plays out. I dutifully wait for Mississauga Transit, until I get bored, which takes five minutes, and then I walk east towards Long Branch. The Mississauga Transit bus usually passes me when I am within 200 metres of the GO station. Clearly an improved subway system in Toronto is not going to alleviate the challenge of getting people in the 905 out of cars and into transit. Toll fees directed to that end will not engender buy-in from anyone outside of Toronto.

From a 905 perspective, if the funding were going to Metrolinx to harmonize public transportation on a regional basis, I believe there would be wide support for tolls.

Transit in the GTA has traditionally taken a fortress mentality, there have been pitched battles in the past over the use of bus stops, and municipal schedules rarely connect. The problem is not so much public transit in Toronto; the problem for us is getting to it. Metrolinx was established to solve this dilemma and they have an expansive plan, “The Big Move”, to resolve this disparity.

Use the toll money for regionally improved, frequent service and I might occasionally take the car downtown just so I can contribute my $5.

About Jim Tovey

The view from 905

Jim Tovey.

Good morning Toronto, this is really going to be fun. Asking a citizen of Mississauga to Blog on Toronto is akin to appointing a Canadian as the White House critic for CNN, and if you remember we did burn that little house down in 1812. Today is not a day for playing with matches though; today is a day for just playing.

Toronto has many wonderful attributes that its citizens are inclined to criticize and those of us living in the 905 flock to adore. The recent alterations to the Art Gallery and the ROM are two perfect examples. Some people hate them; some people love them, but isn’t that what interesting architecture is about, creating a conversation. Your good fortune is that you have a real art gallery and a real museum and you now have an opportunity that no other city in Canada will have for years to come. Intrigued, read on.

On March 31, 2011 the federal government is going to shut off the tap for infrastructure funding, the province will follow suit, and as we have been forewarned, get ready to make sacrifices. Ironically, on April Fools Day 2011, we will all wake up with a collective hangover that will make the day after the U.S.-Canada Gold medal game seem like a very minor headache.

Everyone that is except for Toronto.

You will all be basking in the glow of an additional $3 billion in committed funding leading up to the Pan Am games in 2015. Toronto will receive $765 million for the Seneca subway extension, $1 billion for the West Donlands project, and an additional $1.4 billion for legacy infrastructure.

History has demonstrated repeatedly that every host city for the Pan Am or Olympic Games has always, with only two exceptions, gone over budget and generally by a large margin. The total federal, provincial and municipal investment coming to your city may be as high as $4.5 billion, all at a time when every other municipality is being forced to reduce spending. Please don’t blow it. As one of my friends rather crudely pointed out “they’re going to be the only pig at the trough.”

This is why this election matters to you and why you need to get out and vote, and why you need to convince your friends and neighbours to vote.

Toronto has a rare opportunity to re-imagine its legacy infrastructure in a truly exciting and far more sustainable way than at any time in memory. The key to realizing this opportunity will be who leads the ship and how hard the deck hands work. Go to the debates, find out what the candidates will do to change the culture at city hall, ask them what their plan is to create more efficiency in governance, and most importantly, listen to their vision for the future of Toronto.

If you do all of that, Toronto will become the great city we all, in our hearts, believe it to be.

About Jim Tovey