Transit Subsidies, Taxes and Tolls to fund Transportation Infrastructure Divide GTA from Rest of Province

Toronto, ON, June 4, 2018 — While all three major party leaders have promised to invest more in transit and transportation infrastructure, a new Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News finds a good deal of support in the GTA for TTC subsidies, tolls or higher taxes to pay for infrastructure outside, but support is much lower outside of the GTA.

When provided a list of possible ideas to tackle transit and transportation in Ontario, GTA residents give stronger support for a wide range of potential solutions compared to non-GTA residents (Central, East, North, and Southwest):

• 67% of GTA residents vs. 28% of non-GTA residents support a provincial subsidy for the TTC – the Toronto Transit Commission (47% of Ontarians, overall)
• 49% of GTA residents vs. 37% of non-GTA residents support building more toll roads in Ontario to help pay for more roads and transit (43% of Ontarians, overall)
• 44% of GTA residents vs. 40% of non-GTA residents support paying more in taxes in order for the province to invest in more roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure within my community (42% of Ontarians, overall)
• 46% of GTA residents vs. 34% of non- GTA residents support paying more taxes in order for the province to invest in more public transit within my community (40% of Ontarians, overall)

However, it is the 416 residents that are mainly driving the support, as their views contrast from the rest of the province, even those in the 905-area of the GTA. When it comes transit, the 416 strongly supports the idea of a provincial subsidy for the TTC, while nearly six in ten (55%) indicate they would support more toll roads in Ontario, and half (51%) would support paying more taxes if it meant the province would invest in more transit within their community. Significantly fewer in the 416 (41%) support paying more taxes in order for the province to invest in roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure within their community. When compared to the rest of Ontarians, 416 residents are more invested in transit plans for their community, while the lack of support from the rest of the province suggests that many don’t want to directly pay for improvements to transit and other transportation infrastructure.

The issue is most salient among Liberal voters (underscoring the Toronto-centric base of current Liberal Party support), as they are more likely to support transit and transportation investment, whereas PC voters are more likely to oppose:

• 68% of Liberal voter’s support a provincial subsidy of the TTC, followed by NDP voters (49%) and PC voters (36%)
• 58% of Liberal voter’s support paying more taxes in order for the province to invest in more public transit, followed by 47% NDP voters and 25% PC voters
• 57% of Liberal voter’s support building more toll roads in Ontario, followed by NDP voters (35%), and PC voters (42%)
• 52% of Liberal voter’s support paying more taxes in order for the province to invest in more roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure, followed by 46% NDP voters and 34% PC voters

Four in Ten (41%) Employed Ontarians Commute More than Half an Hour Each Day

Four in ten (41%) employed Ontarians have more than a half an hour commute each day to work. One in four (24%) indicate that they spend more than 30 minutes but less than an hour each day, while 14% spend an hour to 2 hours each day, and only 3% spend more than 2 hours each day commuting. A minority (43%) of Ontarians spend less than 30 minutes each day commuting to work, and only 16% indicate that they do not have to commute at all. One in four (26%) of GTA residents (vs. 22 % of non-GTA residents) spend more than half an hour commuting to work each day, whereas a majority (55%) of non-GTA residents spend less than 30 minutes each day commuting compared to 34% of GTA residents.

For most commuters (70%) driving to work is the most common method, followed by two in ten (19%) who say they take public transit. Relatively few commuters bike (5%), walk (4%), or carpool (3%) to work every day.

© 2018, Ipsos Limited Partnership
This polling release and the data contained in it are the sole and exclusive property of Ipsos. They are NOT designed to support any election outcome or prediction model and no license to use the polling release or the data is either granted or implied by their publication. Ipsos does not endorse, and has no responsibility for the accuracy of, the result of any predictive model that incorporates this polling data. Furthermore, any use of this information to produce polling aggregations or election models without Ipsos’ written permission will be considered a violation of our intellectual property, and Ipsos reserves the right to take appropriate legal action.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between May 25 and 27, 2018, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 841 Ontario eligible voters was interviewed online (Ontarian eligible voters aged 18+ from Ipsos' online panel were interviewed online, supplemented by river-based sampling). Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ±3.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all eligible Ontario voters been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Darrell Bricker, CEO
Ipsos Global Public Affairs
+1 416 324 2001
[email protected]

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