Today, TEA and some of our allies (including the Pembina Institute, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, the City Building Institute, Ryerson University and Evergreen) sent a letter to Mayor Tory and City Council urging them to adopt the revenue tools recommended by the City Manager. 

Read the letter below or click here.

December 12, 2016

Dear Mayor Tory and Toronto City Councillors,

We support your efforts to find new revenue sources to pay for the many important environmental and social initiatives our city needs to build a healthy, green, prosperous and equitable city.

As you deliberate on what new revenue sources to rely on, we urge you to adopt all of the recommendations put forward by the City Manager in his November 16, 2016 report entitled “The City of Toronto’s Immediate and Longer-term Revenue Strategy Direction.”

We are glad to see that the Executive Committee has recommended proceeding with road tolls. However, City Council must do more. Road tolls alone will not allow City Council to meet its many financial obligations nor address the even greater financial challenges facing the city.

That is why we ask you to support all of the City Manager’s November 16 recommendations. Together, the City Manager’s recommendations will build a secure financial foundation for the city by:

• taking sound short term actions that will help finance existing city priorities in 2017 and onwards;
• exploring sound medium and long term actions that will help create the financial capacity the city needs for new, additional investments in transit and climate change actions

We are very encouraged to see that City Council is finally having this important discussion about new revenue tools. But we urge you to adopt all of the City Manager’s recommendations and help secure the financial and environmental future of our city.

Regards,

Franz Hartmann, PhD, Executive Director | Toronto Environmental Alliance

Gideon Forman, Climate Change and Transportation Policy Analyst | David Suzuki Foundation

Dianne Zimmerman, Policy Director, Transportation and Urban Solutions | The Pembina Institute

Doris Grinspun, RN, MSN, PhD, LLD(hon), O.ONT. Chief Executive Officer | Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario

Executive Director, City Building Institute | Ryerson University

Geoff Cape, Chief Executive Officer | Evergreen