Panel suggests 10 cent per liter gas hike to fund transit.

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Seems like a never ending issue. Don't have enough money to pay for infrastructure? Raise the taxes!, yet they still don't accumulate the money they need, and instead piss of the "peasants".

Toronto is a time bomb just waiting to happen. The infrastructure is beyond fixable. The population of the city increases much faster than anything can be implemented. I don't understand how anyone can sit in those traffic jams everyday, I can barely sit for 5 mins at a traffic light.
 
Mongrel said:
For the record, we gave Harris two terms and ended up the same thing: Higher deficts (hidden, even!), almost all infrastructure projects cancelled or delayed. The tax cuts were crap because we couldn't afford them, so McGuinty was left to raise them in fits and spurts of ******** here and there.

I'm not really defending McGuinty - the libs found tons of new ways to squander money under him - but let's not pretend that this province has had a really decent leader since maybe Bill Davis.

I just don't know what we have to do to get a functional human being to run for office in this damned province.
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I too am not big on any party leadership in ON for years. But Harris wasn't near as bad as McGuinty when one looks at the debt #'s. Funny too, since Harris is hated by many still, even compared to the libs.

Harris cut taxes too much and/or services not enough as you mentioned. Still in their two terms they increased the total debt by 20 billion, mostly due to the Ontario Hydro disaster. And that was with much much lower taxes. McGuinty and the liberals were another order of magnitude higher in putting the people of ON into deb, they doubled the debt roughly, or added $140 billion in just over two terms. That amount is mind boggling. And the deficit is about $10 billion a year still. In 2011 (worse now), it represented about $18,000 for every man, woman and child in the province.

Here is an easy to read source that has a table with the debt numbers by year. Look at how the program spending by mcguinty has doubled over those years as well. http://www.taxpayer.com/media/OntarioDebt_Backgrounder.pdf
 
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I'm willing to give the libs PARTIAL credit for having to spend due to the 2008 meltdown (no matter the arguments over it, the agreement is pretty universal that it was the worst financial crisis since the 30's) and the rustbelt mess that started in Ontario a generation ago, but god knows they wasted enough money being fooled by con-artists every 10 minutes and the green power subsidy disaster showed they had a very shallow understanding of a much deeper problem.
 
Mongrel said:
I'm willing to give the libs PARTIAL credit for having to spend due to the 2008 meltdown (no matter the arguments over it, the agreement is pretty universal that it was the worst financial crisis since the 30's) and the rustbelt mess that started in Ontario a generation ago, but god knows they wasted enough money being fooled by con-artists every 10 minutes and the green power subsidy disaster showed they had a very shallow understanding of a much deeper problem.
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250R-ICE said:
I think a lot of people are forgetting that the proposed subway expansions aren't the only solutions being recommended. The proposed funding should go to improvements to infrastructure as a whole. It should be a combination of transit improvements and new highways (roads). Not just in Toronto but throughout the GTA. Most of the Traffic congestion created within Toronto is from people who live outside and are commuting to downtown. I am in the minority. I actually commute the opposite way. I can't believe what these people go through every day gridlock along the 401 every morning.

Something has to be done and soon.
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The issue is the amount of funding and proposed funding being funneled into Toronto (or the GTA as you say) is disproportionate to the rest of the province. The "well you pay for us cause we pay for you" is incorrect. ALL the GTA tax money+more from well outside the GTA will be funneled into that project and Gen. Revenue. That's preposterous and as someone said, pandering for votes.

rmemedic said:
People live outside of the GTA. I'm about 4 or 5 hours from the GTA. I have no interest in that area of the province. At 30, I've been on public transit in the GTA 3 times.
For me, if I want to go out and get something from a store that isnt the basics, I have to get in my truck and drive over 90 minutes ONE WAY to the nearest city. Paying an extra 10c/ liter for your public transit will do nothing to help the millions of others that live, work and play outside of the center of the universe.
All this will do is make people less likely to do driving that isn't mandatory. Less tourism, less sales on recreational vehicles etc. prices of goods will increase, reducing people's extra income even further, reducing the chance of people spending money on leisure even more.

The public outside of the GTA doesn't give a damn about the GTA and why should we? Add toll roads to get down town, it wouldn't bother me for the 1 or 2 times a year I go down there and you can generate your own damn revenue. You choose to live in the city, you deal with the city. I'll always be rural, I hate the city, and cant stand the typical citiot or "torontard".

With this proposal, and the new energy increases coming, I'm planning to build the smallest, most efficient house possible and basically being as off the grid as possible. It's sad that even making nearly $60,000 a year I am worried about my future and living somewhat comfortably.
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rmemedic for Premier.

To the above comments: Harris was bad, sure. But there's no way anyone who has seen what's been happening can HONESTLY think ANOTHER Liberal term is what we need under Wynne. Right????? And the Ont NDP is in no place to led a province, so who's left?
 
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nfq said:
No need for a tax hike. Get KPMG/Deloitte/whoever to do a full audit of the TTC. There's the money. Redundancies, silly contracts, union heavy agreements, etc. I know some folks that worked there and it boggles their mind that the buses even run half the time, let alone service Toronto.
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+1, the TTC haemorrhages money on its own operations. Might be better for construction/expansion, but for the day to day stuff it is out of control.
 
Compared to other transit systems in north america?
I would understand if it was one of the more heavily subsidized systems but I have found nothing to suggest that.
 
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Bruin said:
Compared to other transit systems in north america?
I would understand if it was one of the more heavily subsidized systems but I have found nothing to suggest that.
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You'll never find anything directly outside of their walls.
If they opened up all of their books and all of their contracts, it'd be a whole different ball game.

Eglinton bus yard. Not enough to house all the buses during winter, and it would take too long of a process to start every bus. Solution? Idle all the buses overnight until the morning rush hour. Every day. All winter.

Good thing we have short winters in Canada....
 
Im sure that would apply to every organization to some degree as you would always find room for improvement.

Your example with the buses raises a good point, they could build something to accomodate the buses but that would require tax money and no one wants to pay
 
murf said:
Not sure if many people who suggest this realize the amount in severance pay that would be paid out......at least a months pay per year of service adds up quite fast!
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Yes, I do realize that. I hope they think thrice before refilling those positions, but that too is wishful thinking.
 
CruisnGrrl said:
They want me to subsidize public transit? Then they better give me access to public transit. I expect not to have to walk more than a kilometre to get on public transit. Otherwise they are punishing me unfairly.
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BOOM goes the dynamite!
Residents of Toronto need to start paying property tax appropriate to the services they receive.
 
I find it amusing (no, I really don't.. I find it odd) how government folk seem to think we all have extra cash laying around to pay for their fees and tax increases.

There's only X number of dollars in our budgets, if the price of an item we need goes up but X doesn't change we all have fewer dollars for other things. If I have to spend $50 more on gas every month, that just means I have $50 less to spend on other things. That means the wife and I don't go out for dinner, that means the $50 doesn't get cycled through the local economy, that means the $50 just gets funneled into some tax money chest where incompetent government employees can mismanage the **** out of it.

Ontario Gov't tells me hydro rates will go up considerably in the next few years.. I went and used all my coupons and CT money and gift cards to buy LED light bulbs for my home.
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