Canada: Torontonians approve road tolls on DVP and the Gardiner Expressway
2,280 Toronto voters were surveyed by the Mainstreet Research poll, which was conducted on behalf of the Transit Alliance, and respondents were asked to opt for one of the three possible revenue streams to help pay for transit and infrastructure projects, including road tolls, a property tax hike and an increase in Toronto sales tax.
When inquiring about tolls, the pollster wrote, “Proponents of road tolls for the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway say road tolls would force non-City of Toronto resident to pay their fair share, critics say road tolls are an unnecessary tax hike. Do you approve or disapprove of introducing tolls on the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway to pay for transit & infrastructure?”
70 percent of Toronto voters supported road tolls and only 25 percent did not support.
Downtown was able to get the strongest support with 77 percent, followed by 61 percent in Etobicoke and 68 percent in Scarborough.
Respondents were not in favour of other two possible tools of generating revenue.
Only 21 percent of those surveyed were in favour of sales tax increase, and 32 percent supported property tax hike to pay for transit and infrastructure.
Asked to select their preferred option between the three revenue streams, 65 percent preferred tolls, 13 percent preferred a property tax hike and just six percent chose a Toronto sales tax increase.
The poll was conducted on Nov 25 less than a week after Toronto Mayor John Tory announced his support for tolling the two major Toronto roadways and is considered accurate plus or minus 2.05 percent, 19 times out of 20, says the report.
Another poll conducted by Forum Research on Nov 24 found that Torontonians were more divided on the tolls on Gardiner and DVP.
Out of 730 respondents of this poll, 46 percent approved tolls on the busy highways to fund infrastructure while 45 percent disapproved and nine percent were without any opinion.
(Reported by Asha Bajaj)
(Image: Gardiner Expressway Wikipedia)
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