Ontario’s road transportation network underpins our economy and quality of life by enabling 14.6 million citizens to travel to their jobs, do their shopping, visit family and friends, and participate in leisure and recreation activities. However, since Ontarians are driving over 91 billion kilometres annually, this travel results in several environmental, economic and social challenges (e.g., climate change/GHGs, air quality problems, congestion, stormwater contamination, infrastructure issues, urban sprawl, safety and health impacts). Despite growing public awareness of these intertwined quality-of-life issues, the demand for road infrastructure to accommodate single occupancy vehicles and trucks is projected to increase in lockstep with the economy and population growth. As a result, all levels of government are grappling with new transportation policies and techniques to manage the challenges. Until June 2018, some progress had been made in developing sustainable transportation policies that:

• balance transit, walking and cycling with road building and automobile/truck use through research, infrastructure investments, and commuter programs;
• promote road geometrics and streetscapes designed to slow down traffic so that communities are safer, healthier and more equitable for all ages and physical abilities;
• protect air, water and agriculture through better land use planning (e.g. intensification, preservation of green space/farmland);
• promote intelligent transportation systems and “green” vehicles of all types;
• consider new fiscal tools that finance infrastructure (e.g. Tax Increment Financing) and are related to emissions (e.g. carbon tax).

But these measures can only go so far in solving the environmental, social and economic impacts that come with increasing growth in automotive and goods movement trips. Therefore, progressive governments around the world have suggested that properly structured transportation user fees — commonly associated with transportation demand management (TDM) — can reduce congestion by helping to motivate sustainable modal choices while ensuring that road users pay their fair share of multibillion dollar transportation plans and infrastructure.

Learning from global experience, Metrolinx “Green Paper #6” suggested in 2008 that user fees are one way to positively motivate sustainable transportation choices amongst road users in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Parking fees, road pricing and other mobility pricing measures would help pay more directly for the implementation of The Big Move, Metrolinx’s $50 billion regional transportation plan (a plan that includes maintaining existing infrastructure, constructing new multi-modal facilities and supporting TDM programs). The Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO) commissioned expert reports in 2008 and 2013 that outlined several fiscal instruments that could reduce gridlock, lower GHG emissions and encourage greater transit use.

With Metrolinx delaying its long-term investment strategy until 2013, Transport Futures was founded in 2008 to facilitate Ontario’s only mobility pricing dialogue. Despite our best attempts for wholesome debate with experts from around the world, Metrolinx’s feeble investment strategy was rejected by the province in favour of hidden taxes in mid-2014 and a timid HOT Lanes pilot project in September 2016. Things got better when Mayor John Tory’s bold proposal to toll Toronto’s Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway was unanimously approved by Toronto Council and provided the Government of Ontario with an opportunity to expand its HOT Lanes pilot project around Toronto (and link in with the existing 407 Electronic Toll Route) to create a GTHA toll network. Unfortunately, on January 27, 2017, the Liberal provincial government rejected Council’s tolling regulation request under the City of Toronto Act. This decision, along with the new Progressive Conservative government’s pledge to cut gas taxes and support the NDP’s demand to remove tolls from Highway 412 and 418, has major ramifications for the comprehensive mobility pricing measures that are needed to reduce congestion and raise revenue for The Big Move as well as other provincial transportation plans (e.g. Toronto/York Region subway expansion). They may never become a reality “on the ground” by 2031 – especially now that COVID-19 has changed life and transportation demand as we knew it. Indeed, the pandemic has set the stage for being more bold than ever before.