Comment 99228

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted March 27, 2014 at 11:49:28 in reply to Comment 99217

Do fiscal conservatives support tolls the 400-series freeways ... or do they claim that "we already pay for the roads in our taxes"? Would they support tolls on city streets as well (easy to implement with gps technology, that could also adjust the charges based on congestion and time of day to ensure free-flowing traffic at all times)?

Do they believe in these market-based solutions to pay for and manage the limited road resources? Shifting the financial incentives from driving to cycling, walking and taking transit is part of this "market based" approach.

Can you point me to a good representative fiscal conservative organization?

The Canadian Taxpayer's Federation, which presents itself as fiscally conservative doesn't publicly support road tolls, time-of-use parking fees or other such market-based fiscally conservative measures. In fact, the CTF actually has a petition running opposing all new taxes and fees to fund the Big Move ...

https://www.taxpayer.com/resource-centre...

This petition calls on the government "to ensure all gasoline taxes are used for roadway spending" which conveniently ignores the fact that Federal Government and CAA sponsored Conference Board studies have shown that even counting every single source of revenue associated with driving doesn't the cover the cost of building and maintaining roads in Canada, let alone indirect costs due to pollution, deaths and injuries.

I can see why they oppose new taxes, but why aren't they advocating tolls? If the CTF doesn't support tolls, it is entirely reasonable to claim that actual fiscal conservatives as they exist now don't support them!

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2014-03-27 11:52:56

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