Ontario Treasurer Charles Sousa needs to think outside the box. He needs to be developing creative ideas to fund transit in the Toronto area and he needs to realize that Federal Treasurer Jim Flaherty is his friend. Flaherty is saving Charles from making a really stupid mistake.
Flaherty has said, in very clear language, that there is no way another one per cent on the Harmonized Sales Tax can be used to fund Toronto’s transit needs. And Sousa is hardly going to win any awards anywhere for arguing the case.
Sousa should be looking at the Metrolinx problem. While it is awkward to fire them, there is no question that the Metrolinx people have overstayed their usefulness. They need to be honoured in front of family and friends and sent packing. They were bereft of ideas and helpful suggestions. Their support of a higher HST to pay for transit needs in the GTA was never going to fly.
And the Metrolinx people and Sousa did not need to have Jim Flaherty point it out to them. The HST is a regressive tax that annoys everybody. It picks no favourites but it does impose less on the rich. The basic problem is that it does not reflect the infrastructure needs of the community where it is collected.
The greatest concern for community infrastructure is among business. Business pays a high price for gridlock. It needs to get its employees to work and home again. It needs to make and receive deliveries. Doing business in a large community can be very beneficial. It also needs to be more efficient.
What also reflects the infrastructure needs of the community are costs related to property. These include land transfer taxes, development fees, municipal taxes and transportation fees. Just because Toronto Mayor Rob Ford did not understand land transfer taxes, does not mean the province has to follow his lead.
Until the last election in Toronto, there was an unholy alliance between the East and West Toronto lefties and the smug rich of Rosedale and Lawrence Park. They worked together to keep down and screw those poor people who have to live in the suburbs. It is why there has been no action on the growing gridlock on Toronto’s roads. Rob Ford’s election was the first sign that maybe the deadlock in Toronto could be broken.
If the province is going to step into this mess, it has to be prepared for a tough fight. There has to be clearly earmarked funding for transit and an audit trail that shows the funds are being used for the purpose. Anything less will just continue to fuel the outrage over the hours spent trying to get to and from another ill-paying job.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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