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Toronto isn’t the only city considering toll lanes on local highways. CHCH news has learned we could see them in Hamilton soon too if councillor Sam Merulla gets his way.

Toronto Mayor John Tory says its time for out of town commuters to start contributing to the city of Toronto by paying tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway.
“40% of the people who use those roads are from outside of the city of Toronto, have never and do not pay any of the cost of building and keeping them up and I think that fairness dictates that they should begin to do so.”

The proposal needs to pass in council and if approved, then it would need to be passed by Queen’s Park. Tory says a $2 toll would generate $200 million per year. That would be used to improve transit and infrastructure. Both local and out of town drivers would be charged.

In Hamilton, city councillor Sam Merulla is trying to work out a way to toll drivers from out of town who use the Red Hill and the Linc. He says advanced technology could make tolls on these roads a reality.
“We would require technology to be able to recognize whether someone is local or not local from the license plate.”

Merulla says there is still research required to access whether or not tolls on the Red Hill and the Linc would be worth it. As for the proposed tolls on the Gardiner and DVP, details on how the tolls would be implemented are still unclear. If passed Tory says the earliest it would be implemented would be in 2019.