The province must do all it…

The province must do all it can to preserve and protect its farmland, wet lands and natural areas. To accomplish that, cities and municipalities should be given the power to tax underutilized hard surface areas (parking), not property. Rob Ford and our premier popularized the slogan ‘the war on cars’. But cars must be waged war on; adopting policies that encourage private automobile use is the reason our cities and provinces have been developed as they have and amending the green belt act, just like eliminating license sticker renewal fees, blocking Toronto’s plan to charge road tolls, and freezing provincially gas taxes, perpetuates this unsustainable development pattern. If cities and municipalities gradually shifted their revenue base from land used for accommodation to land used for parking, the market would disincentivize sprawl and incentivize densification. Ontarians living carfree lives, relying on public transit, cycling or their feet to get around shouldn’t pay municipal tax. Developers building housing with no parking supplied should pay no development charges. Tax the things we want to discourage. It’s as simple as that.