Panel sees public appetite to pay for change

[CHIMO]

Already feeling the sting of soaring gasoline prices, GTA residents may someday be facing the prospect of digging deep for everything from road tolls and a regional sales tax to parking at the mall or their suburban office lot.

And, while clearly "very controversial," the consensus at a forum on regional transit infrastructure today was that such initiatives are something politicians and the public must at least be ready to ponder in an effort to ease gridlock.

"These are the kinds of things that are on the menu that we are going to have to seriously talk about," said Paul Bedford, former chief planner of the City of Toronto and current board member of Metrolinx, the regional transit planning body.

While stressing that he was not talking on behalf of Metrolinx, Bedford nonetheless told 150 people at The National Club on Bay St. that he was "setting the table" for public discussion this fall after the agency releases its plan for regional transit projects and how to pay for them.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/461596

Coming to your neighbourhood. Wonder when we will start paying parking while we pump our gas?