The February briefing note was prepared weeks before the Trudeau government signaled its intention to engage institutional investors, such as pension funds, to help raise money for public infrastructure projects.
Senior pension plan officials have said they are looking to invest in infrastructure projects with reliable, predictable returns that could include user fees ai??i?? like road tolls.
The Finance Department memo says user fees ensure that those who benefit most from infrastructure are the ones who pay for it.
But a case study contained in the secret briefing package warns that when it comes to road tolls, a significant proportion of lower-income Canadians could be forced to dig into their wallets.
The document says 77 per cent of taxpayers in the bottom fifth of all income earners commute to work in private vehicles.
For Whom The Toll Tolls
Not surprised at all about this as a similar issue arose in children sports.
Last year my child’s sports team saw a dramatic drop in players, from what was about 50 to less than 15. The team manager, upon inquiries, soon found the answer.
Because of the new toll on the Port Mann Bridge, was costing families upwards of $1,500 a year, many kids had to forgo joining a sports team because there was not the money to pay fees etc.!
It seems those advocating more and more taxes, seem to be either in politics or academia, all handsomely rewarded by the taxpayer, did not even think of the consequences of their actions on poor families, especially children.
Zwei is not against “Road pricing” per se, but, there must be an affordable public transportation alternative for those driving.
The region does not, nor even planning for one and all road pricing and/or road or bridge tolls will do is further burden the poor with more and more taxes.
Amid talk of road tolls, federal memo says poorer commuters rely heavily on cars
by The Canadian Press
Posted Jul 6, 2016
OTTAWA ai??i?? An internal federal analysis says lower income Canadians are highly dependent on cars to get to work ai??i?? a finding that surfaces as Ottawa considers infrastructure investment models that could put more toll booths on the countryai??i??s roads.
“Truth” and “Lie” go swimming one day. While “Truth” has his back turned, “Lie” jumps out of the water, puts on “Truth’s” clothes and runs down the street. “Truth” sees this, hops out of the water and chases “Lie” down the street. What we have is the naked “Truth” trying to catch the well dressed “Lie”.
In Metro Vancouver, TransLink pretending to be the answer to road congestion and stealing money from drivers paying nearly $500 million annually in gas taxes to TransLink is the well dressed “lie”. TransLink doesn’t have a funding problem. TransLink has a spending problem.
TransLink doesn’t require carbon taxes, mobility pricing taxes or any other new taxes. TransLink already imposes mobility pricing. It is called the gas tax which is so high that raising it is too risky so TransLink is trying to replace it with another mobility pricing scheme – tolls on roads and bridges.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tolls-road-pricing-translinkceo-1.3622441
Systemic corruption pervades the culture at TransLink. All positions at TransLink have been created by politicians appointing friends, stooges or family to high paying jobs. Appointees at TransLink keep their jobs as long as they support concrete subways and viaducts for Lafarge, SNC Lavalin and Bombardier to profit. I saw the wife of a TransLink big shot recently. She was loading her Mercedes up with groceries at the Safeway, right beside the 99 B-Line stop. What was wrong with the 99 B-Line? It is “fast”. It was nearly empty and going her way, also, to her million dollar home paid by gas taxes. I guess; reporters don’t want to cover these sort of stories here where TransLink spending millions of dollars on “advertising” in the newspapers has muzzled the mainstream media.
Here’s another great story about TransLink suing a student. At least the CBC which isn’t on the advertising dole of TransLink reported on it:
“Weeks after TransLink was accused of misusing “scarce judicial resources” to fight a student who mistakenly boarded a bus with her boyfriend’s U-Pass, the transit authority is responding — with a lawsuit.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/translink-court-ticket-upass-1.3669360