The Healthy Transportation Coalition and community partners are planning an important event on March 28, 2017, on the topic of Road User Fees: Key to Sustainable Urban Transportation. Featuring guest speakers
- Cherise Burda, Director, Ryerson University City Building Institute
- Dale Beugin, Research Director, Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission
- David Chernushenko, Chair, Environment and Climate Protection Committee, City of Ottawa
There is a steadily increasing interest in applying user-fees to city and provincial roads, both as a means of funding improved public transit options and at the same time covering spiralling road maintenance costs. In Toronto, City Council has recently proposed tolls on two major municipal highways: the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway.
This idea has been widely applauded by experts such as Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, Pembina Institute, Ryerson University City Building Institute, and the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. All see road pricing as a realistic solution to the increasing traffic congestion problems in Canada’s major cities, and as a more equitable way to pay for roads than the current ever-changing mix of municipal/provincial/federal funding.
Other Canadian cities, including Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, and Vancouver, are discussing similar ideas, and there is a wealth of international experience to draw on as well. There is no reason why Ottawa cannot move in this same direction, and that is why we have decided to facilitate an important dialogue on this topic.
This event is sponsored/supported by Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, The Council on Aging of Ottawa, Healthy Active Living and Obesity (HALO) Research Institute, Healthy Transportation Coalition, and Sandy Hill Community Health Centre.
Please click here for more details and to RSVP.
