Road Pricing Leadership Summit

After decades of inaction, Ontario made erratic road pricing progress in late 2016 and early 2017. It began timidly on September 15 when the Liberal government commenced their High Occupancy Toll Lane pilot project. Then, on January 27, the province rejected Toronto Council’s bold request for authorization to toll the city-owned Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway. Ironically, Premier Kathleen Wynne made this announcement in York Region five days before the provincially-owned Highway 407 East and 412 started collecting tolls on February 1.

This type of inconsistency demonstrates that political leadership and coordination is essential to successful road pricing implementation – especially when traffic congestion is worsening, funding isn’t available to meet all infrastructure needs and elections are on the horizon. To keep Ontario moving forward, the Road Pricing Leadership agenda was designed so delegates…:

heard the latest GTHA road pricing research that is being conducted by government and academic researchers;
learned from US and BC elected officials who have a comprehensive understanding of tolls in their respective jurisdictions;
found out that Ontario politicians* couldn’t achieve a consensus on road pricing costs and benefits;
learned about proven communication techniques that gain public acceptance for tolling;
helped create a framework for a GTHA-based public education campaign. It will be designed to support political incumbents and candidates in advance of the 2018 provincial and municipal elections, keep current road pricing projects in place and get Toronto’s toll aspirations back on track.

* The Ontario Liberal Party was invited to participate.

Here are a few comments received from our 100 delegates:

“The Summit had insightful presentations that spurred thoughtful and animated discussion on the future of road pricing.”
“I gained knowledge and found the discussion interesting.”
“A variety of speakers focused on identifying both impediments and solutions.”
“The gap between how the politicians view road pricing and how academics perceive the issue is surprisingly wide. It seems to me that we need a massive educational and marketing push to close this gap and get the public onboard. The way you structured the agenda brought this need into stark relief!”
“Very informative. I did not realize how much transportation relies on the gas tax.”
“Interesting to understand history of tolling, learn about positive and negative impacts; how to manage congestion, impacts on infrastructure and society as a whole. The different choices for toll rates.”
“Thanks for organizing a great day! Lots to think about.”
“Great conference as usual! I always like the inclusion of different viewpoints — this time, the difficult political viewpoints.”
“It was a good day. Lots to learn on this interesting topic. Opens up dialogue for more ideas.”
“Well organized and educational. I truly enjoyed the Summit — and it stayed on time!”
“Excellent way to re-build momentum for road tolls. Professional, well run conference.”

It was with great sadness that we heard that Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan died a year after he spoke at Transport Futures. We were honoured to have him present at our second Road Pricing Leadership Summit. Having held office at the state and municipal level, he was certainly a leader and our sympathies go out to his family, friends and the electorate who knew him well. Rest in peace, Mayor Hogan.

Our second Road Pricing Leadership Summit was generously sponsored by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (Platinum), 407 ETR (Gold), ReNew Canada (Media Partner) and our Supporters: IBTTA, Sustainability Network and e-RegisterNow.