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Is the Big Move really the Big Lie?: Burton By Tess Kalinowski TORONTO STAR Is the Big Move really the Big Lie? Oakville Mayor Rob Burton doesn't know. But he fears it's a setup for 905-area residents if Toronto doesn't step up to the plate. Burton worries regional commuters could be asked to shoulder a disproportionate burden for Metrolinx's $2 billion annual regional transit expansion. Before they're asked to pay what Burton estimates could be about $1,000 per year per household in taxes, tolls and user fees, he wants to know: Is Toronto in or out? And why aren't leaders publicly challenging Mayor Rob Ford's refusal to discuss transit taxes and tolls? Are the champions of dedicated transit taxes at the Toronto Region Board of Trade and CivicAction guilty of "gumflap" -- a lot of talk that has done nothing to persuade Ford? Burton also wants to know if Metrolinx's Big Move really is the best plan the region could come up with to battle gridlock. Maybe it is, he says. But given the cost, it's not a particularly tantalizing proposition to put before residents. It won't fix the region's soul-sucking, productivity-sapping congestion. It merely promises to prevent it from getting worse as the region prepares to grow by a population the size of Montreal. "Before we marry this thing, I really would like somebody to prove to me that's really the very best we can do and it costs $50 billion," Burton said in a wide-ranging interview. His questions aren't even on the agenda at the dozens of roundtables, public forums and panel discussions aimed at rallying public and political support for tolls, taxes and user fees that would be dedicated to building the Big Move. So, he planned to set the cat among the pigeons yesterday as he joined Oshawa Mayor John Henry and other regional politicians at a Mayors' Roundtable transit forum organized by former Toronto mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson. She's pushing a one per cent regional sales tax that would raise about half the funds provincial agency Metrolinx prescribes. Ford declined Thomson's invitation. She says Toronto will be represented by CivicAction chair John Tory, who has also run for mayor. Tory, along with Toronto Board of Trade CEO Carol Wilding has talked a good game. But they haven't delivered Ford, says Burton. "Somebody's got to pay something or this is all gumflap," he said. Burton cites a CivicAction 3 · Friday, March 1, 2013 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com "Somebody's got to pay something or this is all gumflap." Mayor Rob Burton, Oakville meeting of politicians near the airport. Although he won't repeat what was said at the closed meeting, Burton will say Ford made it plain he won't support transit taxes or tolls. Burton says he was rendered "speechless" when nobody at the meeting challenged Toronto's mayor. A former TV executive who has lived in Toronto, Burton says he takes his cues from Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. "I take her to be saying, over and over, that there's got to be some dedicated tax. And I agree with her," he said. But if Toronto doesn't pay up, could Oakville residents find themselves paying for a downtown relief subway? Can Toronto's city council be counted on to trounce Ford's no-tax position, as it has his other transit policies? Will the Province force Toronto to pay its share? Burton says most property-tax payers in the surrounding regions have been paying more than Toronto for years. "When you remind Toronto that you've been subsidizing them, they are: A) blissfully unaware that they've been enjoying a lower tax rate on the backs of the 905, and B) they're singularly ungrateful. This does not encourage us to want to help them," he said. If you're going to have "an adult conversation" about how to pay for transit, Burton suggests residents need to be told how much money they're really looking at. His estimate of $1,000 annually per household is based on about two million households in the Toronto region -- about half of them in Toronto. (There are about 2.3 million households in the Toronto census metropolitan area.) Burton thinks it's a reasonable calculation, given there's no information to the contrary. Metrolinx is vague about how its menu of "revenue tools" breaks down for the average commuter. At a recent open house in Richmond Hill, GO Transit president Gary McNeil cited the cost of transit expansion at about $1 a day per person -- roughly the cost of a cup of coffee, albeit a small one. When a Star reporter tweeted that figure, a Metrolinx spokeswoman issued a clarification saying it was based on the number of adults over 20 in the region. Asked for more details, the same spokeswoman said McNeil's remark was a casual comment, and that no specifics were available. However you slice $2 billion, it's a lot of money to ask of taxpayers, says Burton, given what the plan offers. And here he puts on a mock TV announcer's voice: "Good news, everybody. If you'll spend $50 billion over the next 25 years, I promise traffic congestion and transit won't get any worse." Burton chuckles softly: "It's intolerable now. "I'm not saying (the Big Move) is not the best we can do. I'm asking: Is this all there is? Can we really not make it better?" he said. Oakville residents aren't talking about the Big Move, according to their mayor. GO service to Oakville is popular and frequent. Traffic poses little difficulty within the affluent lakeside town. "The electrification of the Lakeshore West GO line would be so good," Burton said. 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