Gas tax hike and toll roads wanted by southern professor

A new idea from a Trent University professor might not be the best thing for Northern Ontario.

Professor Harry Kitchen says to deal with a struggling economy, ease congestion in the South and help the environment, the Ontario government should boost the gas tax from 14.7 cents a litre to 23 cents.

He says this could boost the economy by $14-billion over seven years.

Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis says it’s not going to create a positive environmental impact in the North, considering people have to drive long distances anyway.

From a budget standpoint, he’s not sure what the rationale to this idea is.

“Really, the rationale to the deficit is you got to lower expenses and manage expenses, don’t keep trying to feed the other end of the equation by putting more revenue in, especially when the revenue you’re generating is coming at the expense of the economy.”

Another idea that was brought up was increasing the use of toll roads in southern cities.

Politis was open to that thought, especially if there’s a large industrial use and large vehicles continue to break down the condition of roads.

“There can be sense in that,” he said, adding he would only see that working down south, where there’s more population and the payback is available.

“What’s happened to us here (in Northern Ontario), is the money’s been cut back to provide more injection in Southern Ontario, as opposed to here.  That needs to be turned around before we start taxing people more and bringing tolls on roads and so on.”

Read the full story on Kitchen’s ideas HERE at our sister site 680 News.