By james art The City of Ajax yesterday joined calls from Oshawa, Whitby, Pickering and Durham councils to remove the toll from the provincially owned portion of Highway 407.
Highway 407, from Brock Road in Pickering to Highway 35/115, is owned by the province and tolls are set by the province.
An Ajax City Council resolution notes that Ontario has passed legislation, Bill 162, the Get It Done Act 2024, to ban new tolls on provincially owned highways.
It also notes that Highway 413, a time-saving highway running through York, Peel and Halton regions, is being built at an estimated cost of $10 billion and is included in the legislation to ban new tolls.
“The provincially owned portion of Highway 407, which is almost exclusively in Durham Region, is excluded from the legislation and is the only toll provincial highway in Ontario, resulting in unfair economic impacts on Durham Region residents and businesses,” the resolution said.
He pointed out that the province of Ontario had previously eliminated tolls on Highways 4112 and 418 located in Durham, “demonstrating its desire to eliminate existing unfair tolls on provincially owned highways, and therefore should include the provincial 407 as part of the proposed legislation.”
The city council’s resolution says eliminating tolls on the 407 will lower the cost of living for Durham Region residents and spur economic growth, while ensuring fair and equitable treatment of all 400 series highways .
“Ajax Council requests that the Province of Ontario remove tolls from the provincially owned portion of Highway 407,” the resolution reads.
Council directed that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Ontario Minister of Transportation, all local MPPs in Durham and all local municipalities in Durham.
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