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Toronto Mayor John Tory blew past the political guardrails on tolls in a big speech Thursday, talking about charging drivers to use the city-owned Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway. They need major work and Toronto has no way to pay for it.

Pieces have started falling off the Gardiner where it’s an elevated highway along Lake Ontario. Rather than tear it down, Toronto city council wants to repair it: the latest estimate of the price for the full job is $3.6 billion. That’s a staggering amount of money even by Toronto standards and the problem is they don’t have it.

Like the 174, the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway are roads owned by a city government that are used by a whole lot of people who don’t live in the city, so Mayor Tory proposes charging tolls to offset the repair costs and eventually contribute to other transportation projects non-Torontonians use.

Maybe, says Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca. Come to me with a specific request and we’ll talk about it.

No way, says Progressive Conservative opposition leader Patrick Brown, who polls say could well be premier by the time Toronto is ready to make that formal approach. Tolls make life less affordable and that’s the last thing Ontario needs.

But a $3.6-billion repair bill, much of it charged to people who don’t use the roads? That’s fine.

Some drivers will complain that they already pay for roads through taxes on gasoline, which is not as true as they think. Last year, Toronto got about $320 million in gas-tax money from the federal and provincial governments. Real money, but nothing like enough to pay for the expressway projects let alone all Toronto’s other transportation needs.