"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 30 May 2016

GUEST POST


 

 

Read this, because this is more than likely going to be the same thing
that will happen with Ontario Hydro when the Liberals sell it off.



                           HISTORY OF HWY. 407


You can drive the 400 mile length of the New York Thruway (I-90), from
Buffalo to New York City, a toll road with fully staffed toll booths, 
for peanuts. Actually 2.1 cents per km. No accounting fee and no video fees.


Then there is the cost of driving across the top of Toronto on Hwy 407
everything is electronic and automated, drivers pay for the camera
operations and the billing costs in addition to the exorbitant toll
rates... and the Ontario Gov. acts as 'enforcer' in collecting the unpaid tolls!!

Even Al Capone and his crew never had it as good as this during the
bootleg liquor days of the 1920's and 1930's!!  It is very expensive
to travel this road!

I thought you might like to read this; it's a real eye opener, what a rip-off!!

In the early 1990's Ontario was almost bankrupt under Bob Rae's NDP
government.  But it desperately needed new roads, as it still does
today. So the Rae government built a toll road around Toronto and it
was a great success. It was a cash cow called the 407 ETR.

The Conservative government of Mike Harris then later foolishly leased
this road for 99 years to a Quebec-based company for a substantial
amount of money. This was in May 1999, and was done to reduce the
deficit and look good.

Before the Harris government could lease the road, however, they had
to pass new legislation to allow this, because never before had a
'public road' been sold to a private company. This very flawed
legislation was passed in November 1998. The new Quebec owners then
closed the deal and Ontario had 'sold' its first highway.

This Quebec company then sold the road at a profit to Spanish owners,
thus assuring that profits from the road would never be taxed in Canada.

As part of this deal, the Ontario government agreed that individual
license plate renewal would be denied if there were any outstanding
tolls against that plate and its owner. So this arrangement, in
practice, made our government a collection agency for a privately
held, for-profit foreign consortium. In addition, the terms of the
deal stated that there would be no statute of limitations on these
bills and that they would never go away even if the citizen went bankrupt.

Even your income tax has a statute of limitations.

The 407 ETR refuses now, as then, to produce any photographic or other
evidence, that what they bill is an accurate reflection of the
offending vehicles presence on their roadway. So there is no
accountability and OUR Government still collects the SPANISH bills for
them. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Spanish company decides on the
interest rate on these forever bills and currently it is 26.82 per
cent compounded monthly but it varies based on the whims of the Spanish owners.

And there is a definite problem with who gets billed. In very short
order after the sale of the highway, according to the media of that
time, 100,000 citizens who had never been on the road had been
incorrectly billed. The MPP's were deluged with complaints and so the
Conservatives under then transportation minister David Turnbull told
the private Spanish company to clean up their act. Until there was
evidence of that happening their collection deal was cancelled. This
was in 2000. But in 2005 the 407 ETR went to court to reinstate its
original sweetheart deal. The judge ruled in its favour even though
this company still showed no accountability and still did not produce
evidence of the legitimacy of its charges.

The government of Premier Dalton McGuinty should have appealed this
decision but did not.  Now the government is the collection agency for
the Spanish consortium... Now the agreement covers any vehicle that is
owned by the person who has an offending license plate. So if you own
six vehicles and one of them is alleged to have been on their road,
your government will not issue any license plates for any of your
vehicles until you pay the 'alleged bill' at your government license
office, whether it is correct or not.

The toll in 1999 was seven cents a kilometer, and now it is 19.85 cents a kilometre!

There is also a monthly accounting fee of $2.50 and a video charge of $3.25.

That is far beyond the rate of inflation and there is no control on
how much this foreign company can charge.

The tolls here are higher than anywhere that I travel. This road is
simply built through corn fields, whereas in Mexico or Italy there are
mountains, tunnels, bridges, etc., and still those countries have
tolls that are substantially lower.  You can travel from here to Los
Angeles for less toll than it costs to cross Toronto.

I believe the current toll in Mexico is 13 cents per kilometer, but
that includes automatic medical coverage for everyone in the vehicle.

With all the road tax that we Ontarian's pay, the last thing we ever
expected was a toll road.  We need to buy back this road and break the
deal with this consortium.

I find this whole arrangement both offensive and intimidating.

If any Canadian government is going to collect for any privately held
company, change the rules on the statute of limitations, etc., then it
had better collect for all private companies on the same terms. This
current arrangement discriminates against all other private companies.

STAY OFF THE 407 AND STARVE THEM OUT OF EXISTENCE!!!

SPREAD THIS INFO TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

 

 and ….companies can right-off the toll charges as the “Cost of Doing Business” and all Ontario taxpayers pay these deflected costs in their taxes for the “poor” companies and especially for the poor owners and executives who speed along in their $100,000.00 cars disregarding the normal folks who pay their way…..!.

 

 

 

 

 

 






6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have never and will never be on the 407. I've boycotted this highway since the sale. People will not only continue to use this highway but are willing to pay whatever it costs. They don't care! And that's why we continue to have all levels of government doing whatever they want with no consequences. Heck! We rewarded the Liberals with a majority government in the last election.

Anonymous said...

We moved into a place in which the previous owner had died. She owed 407 some money for use in the past. The bills started coming for her and we sent them to her estate. The bills kept coming and one day we opened one. What had started out as an already expensive bill had mushroomed with fees and interest. It was huuuuuuge. We phoned 407, we wrote 407. They hired a collection agency. We got a clipping of her death notice and sent That to 407. The bills kept coming, people came to the door and bothered the post office. It took more than 2 years for them to admit the lady was totally dead.
Be careful if you drive on the 407 - pay your bills

Anonymous said...

My neighbor had a similiar experience. The previous owner had a bill that apparently wasn't paid, and the bills keep coming. It's been 3 yrs, and they keep tossing them out. The provincial gov't are just jackasses for allowing this to go on. Another example of government lack of accountability. They couldn't have been that stupid. That "lease" was a gift handed over to some friends.

Anonymous said...

I use the 407 and this is why. I travel from Aurora to the west end of Mississauga everyday. I am to start work at 8am. I leave home at 7 and most days arrive at or slightly before 8. I take King Road to 400, 400 to 407 and 407 to highway 10. From there, I go through various back streets to my office building. This costs me about $8 each way. My salary equates to around $50/yr.

If I was to change my route to King Road to 400 to 401 to highway 10, I would have to leave at 6:30 at the latest. So, an additional 30 minutes = $25. So, the $16 round trip is well worth my time.

There are those that think that I am an "entitled" but that is not the case, I feel that my time is worth something and I could care less who owns it. I pay my bill every month and when I have had a problem with billing they were quick to fix it.

For those that have issues, I feel they are due to their own issues. Pay the bill and there will be no problems.

Anonymous said...

A man moved to Alta. He didn't know he owed 407. He came back and years later went to get his license renewed. They refused and said he owed an impossible amount of money. He actually had to go to court and even then had to pay too much because of his legal bills.

Anonymous said...

09:15
I hear these things all of the time. It is bogus. If you travel on the road, you owe them for the use. Do you think that this person drove on the road and thought that they would not charge him?

Sorry, not logical.