3.10.07

Ontario: new car licensing fee?

All provincial candidates agree to move
to a differential car licensing fee


Toronto - All the provincial candidates agreed Ontario should switch to a differential car licensing fee, away from the current flat rate for every type of cars, during a Trinity-Spadina riding community meeting on Tuesday October 2nd.

The idea would be to charge less the smaller cars and more the larger, more polluting cars - as opposed to currently charging $ 74.00 yearly to every single cars in Ontario to renew their license plate, regardless of the engine size.

All the provincial candidates in the Trinity-Spadina riding, when asked about a differential car licensing scheme, answered unanimously. "It is a good idea", said incumbent MPP Rosario Marchese, NDP. "If I am elected, I will put forward a private member's bill" to move this idea forward, has declared Marchese.

All other candidates, from Liberal, to Progressive Conservative, to the Green Party and an independant candidate, all said they were in favour of such a tax change.

Currently, the City of Toronto is contemplating introducing a similar flat-rate car licensing fee, modelled after the Provincial scheme - even though this type of accross the board fee is sending out a contradictory message to the City of Toronto Climate Change reduction plan. Bigger polluting cars are taxed the same way as the smaller, less polluting vehicles.