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evandyk said:
LOL. The NDP plans to become popular and win the election by promising to spend billions to gridlock the 407 like the 401 currently is?

globalnews.ca

Ontario election: NDP says it would initiate purchase of Hwy. 407, remove tolls | Globalnews.ca

Ontario’s NDP is promising to remove tolls from the privately owned Highway 407 and initiate a potential purchase of the highway in a pre-election pitch to voters.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca

Honestly, I'd love it if someone actually did this, because it would open up people's eyes and guarantee a path to eventually tolling all 400 series highways, plus congestion relief charges in downtown Toronto.
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I think it's just as likely people will ask for a 407 tunnel, too. People are incredibly stupid when their wallet motivates them to be.
 
evandyk said:
LOL. The NDP plans to become popular and win the election by promising to spend billions to gridlock the 407 like the 401 currently is?
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I mean yes. The 407 being tolled is extremely unpopular. Even the conservatives are floating buying or getting rid of tolls somehow.
 
picard102 said:
I mean yes. The 407 being tolled is extremely unpopular. Even the conservatives are floating buying or getting rid of tolls somehow.
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Buying out the 407 lease would cost upwards of $35B. That is $3000 for every man, woman and child in Ontario. $12k for a family of four. Multiply that figure by 3 to make it the cost for families in the GTA that are actually proximate to the 407. The case to be made for not spending that kind of money on buying out the lease should not be that difficult. Especially when you consider that buying out the lease does not actually add a single lane of capacity to the region. It will just degrade level of service on 407. I don't know if people are really this stupid, but everyone should understand that you don't get the experience of driving on the 407 (lack of congestion) without tolling.
 
afransen said:
Buying out the 407 lease would cost upwards of $35B. That is $3000 for every man, woman and child in Ontario. $12k for a family of four. Multiply that figure by 3 to make it the cost for families in the GTA that are actually proximate to the 407. The case to be made for not spending that kind of money on buying out the lease should not be that difficult. Especially when you consider that buying out the lease does not actually add a single lane of capacity to the region. It will just degrade level of service on 407. I don't know if people are really this stupid, but everyone should understand that you don't get the experience of driving on the 407 (lack of congestion) without tolling.
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I'm not sure anyone but people who can afford to drive on the 407 care about maintaining the "experience".
 
picard102 said:
I'm not sure anyone but people who can afford to drive on the 407 care about maintaining the "experience".
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I think many foolish people think that if you drop the tolls, they can hop on the 407 for their morning commutes or to get the cottage on the weekend and get similar travel times as they do today.

I'm not a daily 407 user. I use it occasionally for personal purposes and a bit more for business (not an out of pocket expense for me). I would wager that most people who can't afford to drive on the 407 daily have experienced it a few times or have at least heard about how convenient it is.

Like I have said previously, it would be quite convenient for me if the 407 were not tolled, as I live in the area of Mississauga whose highway network is a disjointed mash of tolled and untolled highway segments. I'm not sure it is worth losing the ability to get across the region in a reasonable amount of time. I could get behind dropping tolls to minimal levels off-peak when the highway is below capacity. Most of the times I would like to use it are off-peak, but it's not $0.36/km to save a few minutes over taking arterial streets.
 
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afransen said:
Buying out the 407 lease would cost upwards of $35B. That is $3000 for every man, woman and child in Ontario. $12k for a family of four. Multiply that figure by 3 to make it the cost for families in the GTA that are actually proximate to the 407. The case to be made for not spending that kind of money on buying out the lease should not be that difficult. Especially when you consider that buying out the lease does not actually add a single lane of capacity to the region. It will just degrade level of service on 407. I don't know if people are really this stupid, but everyone should understand that you don't get the experience of driving on the 407 (lack of congestion) without tolling.
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It's still cheaper than Ford's tunnel, which will also just create more congestion.
 

Ford government rebate cheques aren't clearing for some Ontarians

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-cheques-bouncing-1.7443572​

Some Ontarians have run into roadblocks when cashing their $200 cheques from Premier Doug Ford's government.

The "taxpayer rebate" cheques, as the government calls them, have been on their way to millions of Ontarians over the past few weeks.

But after receiving their cheques in the mail, some Ontarians had trouble depositing their cheques and seeing the money show up in their accounts.

A Toronto woman posted publicly on Facebook about her experience, saying her cheque "bounced" and warning others that their cheques might not clear either.

Kristine Newton told CBC News she received her cheque on Jan. 21. She banks with Simplii Financial and deposited the cheque through its mobile app by uploading a photo of it.

There appeared to be no problems, until two days later when she checked her bank account and noticed it was in overdraft, and that her $200 cheque hadn't been processed.
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Government says RBC to blame​

Newton said she called the bank and was told payment on the cheque had been stopped.

Next, she said she called Ontario's ministry of finance, her personal information was taken down and she was told someone would get back to her. She said she has yet to receive a follow-up phone call.

A spokesperson for Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy told CBC News the department is aware of problems with some cheques, and that the issue can be traced to RBC.
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In an emailed statement, RBC spokesperson Andrew Block acknowledged that a "handful" of Ontarians saw their cheques "returned" after they were deposited.

Block said that the bank undertakes several steps to authenticate cheques to ensure they are legitimate and received by the intended recipient.

"On very rare occasions, our protocols may result in a cheque being returned when it should have been processed, which is what occurred in this instance with a handful of cheques," he said, adding that the bank has now resolved the issue and that impacted customers have received their $200.

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience it's caused," the statement said.
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'It was a big deal for me'​

Newton said the experience was inconvenient. "It was a big deal for me," she said. "To say I needed the $200 is an understatement."

Newton says the money finally showed up in her account on Tuesday, along with a refund for the charge she incurred for the invalid cheque.

RBC is among the financial institutions that were used to issue the cheques on behalf of the government, Block told CBC. That means some people, like Newton, were impacted even though they are not RBC customers.

RBC didn't provide a precise number of how many people were impacted but said it is between 150 and 200 — and it doesn't anticipate any further problems.
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Cheques still being mailed out​

The Ford government announced in October that it planned on sending $200 cheques to every Ontarian over the age of 18 to help with the cost of living. Parents are also getting an extra $200 per child.

On Jan. 17, it said the cheques were in the mail.

Opposition leaders have criticized the government's choice to send the cheques to every Ontarian, regardless of their income level.

To be eligible to receive the money, Ontarians had to have filed their income tax return for 2023, not be incarcerated in 2024, and not be bankrupt.
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An estimated 12.5 million adults and 2.5 million children will be getting the money, with the program costing the treasury an estimated $3 billion.

There will be added administrative costs on top of that, including for mailing the cheques, but the ministry of finance says those costs are still being finalized and will be publicly available later in the year.
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afransen said:
I think blatant vote buying right before an election is outrageous. We're not some tin pot banana republic.
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Precisely, it's insulting. Hence why I'll happily take the money and then vote against the PC's for assuming my vote can be bought.
 
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