Nov. 28 - Liberal MP

Nov. 28 - Liberal MP and former Toronto mayor Art Eggleton seems to make sense: Use gas tax for transit:

There's an "urban transit crisis" and a fuel tax should be used to fund improvements, former mayor and current Liberal MP Art Eggleton said yesterday. Eggleton, chairman of the federal Grits' GTA caucus, was speaking at the release of a union-funded report on subway expansion.

"There is an urban transit crisis and, in part, that's because there is a road crisis," Eggleton said. "I think the fuel tax should be used (to fund public transit)."

So is he talking about the fuel tax, or only part of the fuel tax? Or, worse, increasing the existing fuel tax?

[...]

Last week, the Toronto Transit Commission voted to approve a budget with no service cuts or fare hike in 2004 -- pending senior levels of government making up a $62-million shortfall.

The provincial Liberals promised 2 cents of the provincial gas tax for public transit in the fall campaign. But expanding the Sheppard subway to Scarborough Town Centre and the Spadina line to York University would require the equivalent funding of 5 cents a litre to cover the $3-billion cost over 16 years, the report said.

The subway report was prepared for the Universal Workers Union Local 183, which represents skilled workers across the GTA by Acres Management Consulting Ltd.

There is a letter to the editor in today's Toronto Sun from Paul Collett of Pickering who asks a very basic but as yet unanswered question:

THE LIBERALS plan on giving public transit a shot in arm with 2c from every litre of gas sold. Will this 2c come from the taxes already collected on every litre of gas, or will they increase the taxes by 2c to pay for this project?

Posted by: Debbye at 10:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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