The City of Toronto recently passed a motion requesting that all City departments and agencies reduce budgets by 2.6 per cent in order to balance the 2017 budget.
On the transportation side, the Toronto Transportation Commission is facing a large budget gap and to date City Council has approved multiple capital projects to the tune of $29 billion without a budget currently assigned to them. The Gardiner Expressway improvements, supported by OTA, are slated to cost one billion or more. The bottom line is the City of Toronto is developing a growing list of infrastructure projects with no funds to pay for them.
The issue of tolls and tolling options will be raised in the upcoming report and will focus on the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway (DVP). The report will not recommend the use of tolls, but will act as a discussion paper for council and stakeholders.
OTA has been invited to a meeting in late September (date to be confirmed) which will be hosted by the City for a select group of stakeholders to provide input and discuss the pros and cons of the various options currently on the table. In advance, OTA wants to hear from its members regarding their attitudes towards toll options on the Gardiner and DVP.
The following OTA will take less than 5 minutes, so please take a brief moment to make your voice heard. To take the survey click here.
