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Saw this the other day while I was out, surprised no one else posted it first:

NDP vows to block taxes, tolls to fund public transit

TORONTO – Ontario’s New Democrats warned Wednesday they would not support any new tax on consumers to pay for billions of dollars worth of public transit expansion in the Toronto-Hamilton area.

“I don’t want to see new taxes and (road) tolls that are going to hit household budgets hard,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.


Premier Kathleen Wynne wants to find new “revenue tools” to fund badly needed upgrades to public transit and other infrastructure projects, but the idea could trigger a contentious debate when the legislature returns Sept. 9.

“I’ve talked about the need for a new revenue stream in the context of the greater Toronto-Hamilton area, and that’s the first front we’re moving on,” Wynne told the Association of Municipalities of Ontario meeting in Ottawa Monday.

Share your opinion: What do you think of revenue tools? Should they be used to fund public transit?

The minority Liberals need the NDP’s support to stay in power – the Progressive Conservatives vow to defeat the government at the earliest opportunity – but the New Democrats made it clear they don’t like the revenue tools under discussion.

“We acknowledge and recognize and, in fact, believe wholeheartedly that there needs to be significant investment in moving people around in and about the greater Toronto-Hamilton area, as well as other infrastructure needs across the province that need to be addressed,” said Horwath.

“Any successful attempt to do that will require the buy-in and the commitment and support of the people of this province, otherwise it will be a fleeting dream.”

Horwath said the NDP want the minority Parliament to work, but they also want the government to drop plans for corporate tax breaks and to maintain the extra levy on incomes over $500,000 to help fund the transit upgrades.

“We need to have these projects funded, absolutely, but we need to find a fair way of tackling the challenges that we all face as a province,” she said.

“People are already very hard pressed in terms of their household budget, and so we don’t want to see any particular initiatives that put a bigger burden on them.”

Horwath made her comments as she stood beside two freshly minted New Democrats, Percy Hatfield from Windsor-Tecumseh and Peggy Sattler of London West, who were sworn-in Wednesday after winning byelections Aug. 1.

Hatfield said raising taxes across Ontario to fund transit upgrades in the Toronto region wouldn’t go over well in his community.

“Increasing taxes on working families in Windsor, if they’re not going to get a benefit out of it, to see other families in the province make a gain, I’m not sure that’s going to be something we can sell back home,” said Hatfield.

“People expect value for money and if they don’t travel to Toronto or Hamilton on the roads, then why are they going to be taking money out of their pocket to support that?”

Wynne plans to push ahead with the search for new revenue streams this fall to fund transit in the Toronto-Hamilton area, but rejected the idea of raising property taxes.

“There’s a whole range of other options in terms of ways to raise revenue,” she said.

“I acknowledge it’s not an easy discussion…but it’s not something that we can wait another generation for. We have to make those investments.”

The two winners of the Aug. 1 byelections in Toronto – Progressive Conservative Doug Holyday and Liberal Mitzie Hunter – will be sworn-in Thursday. The fifth byelection winner, Liberal John Fraser in Dalton McGuinty’s old riding of Ottawa South, will take the oath of office Friday.
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http://globalnews.ca/news/793929/ndp-vows-to-block-liberal-revenue-tools-to-fund-public-transit/
 
Who needs these revenue tools? There's plenty of money available through cutting waste and government efficiency.
 
Adjei said:
Who needs these revenue tools? There's plenty of money available through cutting waste and government efficiency.
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sure lets just find $2 billion on top of $11 billion that already needs to be found.. and just hope it never gets tampered with considering it comes out of general revenues.

I maintain my prediction that the HST hike will get replaced with a corporate tax hike (or rather the cancellation of corporate tax cuts) and the tax will be passed.
 
It's times like this that I ask who the hell would vote NDP.

I mean, transit is only the most pressing issue in the region and the NDP plans to do nothing to fix it.
 
Look at what happened to the NDP. They are not the progressive political party they used to be. What happened to their progressive stance? Did they abandon it in hopes of broadening its voter base?
 
Johnny Au said:
Look at what happened to the NDP. They are not the progressive political party they used to be. What happened to their progressive stance? Did they abandon it in hopes of broadening its voter base?
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NDP screwed over Toronto on transit the last time they were elected as well. They even cut some of the existing GO services!

Not sure when they used to be so progressive ...
 
nfitz said:
NDP screwed over Toronto on transit the last time they were elected as well. They even cut some of the existing GO services!

Not sure when they used to be so progressive ...
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...and Bob Rae is not a true NDPer (after all, he later led the federal Liberals).
 
NDP and PCs need to merge. I'm not joking. They'd get along great. They're both vote farming, populist shills who don't give a damn about fixing actual issues.
 
Bitch about the Conservatives all you like but but federally Harper and friends have done more for urban transit in their 6 years in power than the Liberals ever did.
 
ssiguy2 said:
Bitch about the Conservatives all you like but but federally Harper and friends have done more for urban transit in their 6 years in power than the Liberals ever did.
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Urban or suburban?

Generally transit is a provincial responsibility. At the same time, compare what the Conservatives have done for inter-city rail, for which they do have responsibility - not only during the current government, but previous ones.

It seems to be more about buying votes than any actual philosophy.
 
The cons did sink $923 million into VIA for upgrades. (The largest in VIAs history) the work includes new trains, cabins, track replacement to allow for higher speeds, 3 tracking portions of the route between Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal to provide more reliable and faster service, and increased service levels. (they are doubling service levels between Toronto and Ottawa)

regardless, to say the Feds have been better for transit in the last couple of years than the Province is crazy. The Province has sunk $16 billion into Toronto transit, is funding the Ottawa LRT, and the Kitchener LRT. they are also funding several major highway expansion projects such as the 407 extension, 400 extension, 404 extension, 427 extension, 406 extension, 410 extension, highway 7 twinning, completion of the highway 11 twinning, multiple dual carriageway projects in the north, the 401 widening, the W-E Parkway, etc. (though the Feds are paying for the bridge of that project, which does cost more, but also has toll revenues)

edit: I just realized that you might be talking about the Federal Liberals, and you are correct.
 
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innsertnamehere said:
The cons did sink $923 million into VIA for upgrades. (The largest in VIAs history) the work includes new trains, cabins, track replacement to allow for higher speeds, 3 tracking portions of the route between Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal to provide more reliable and faster service, and increased service levels. (they are doubling service levels between Toronto and Ottawa)
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Kinda. Either they put $923M into VIA or they put a negative amount into VIA. The projects they cancelled when taking office were larger than the portion they eventually, half a decade later, funded.
 
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