Toronto finds itself in the embarrassing position of a famished restaurant patron who has ordered everything on the menu only to find he cannot pay.

The city is particularly hungry for public transit, but now faces an awkward choice of going without or submitting to a disagreeable alternative. What looms isn’t the prospect of washing dishes for an irate chef. Toronto needs to abandon its tax-averse ways and finally accept new “revenue tools” to pay for what it craves.

Dimensions of the challenge ahead were starkly served up in a report released last week showing the estimated cost of a sorely needed downtown subway “relief line” ballooning to $6.8 billion, from about $3 billion. And the price of sticking with plans to build a one-stop Scarborough subway extension has hit a staggering $3.16 billion.

This ill-judged project was pegged at only (only!) $2 billion earlier this year, with estimated costs revised to $2.9 billion at a June 17 news conference. Just four days later the bill was revealed to be $289 million beyond even that, counting the cost of extending the working life of Scarborough’s existing rapid transit line and then decommissioning the aging service. It’s impossible to justify spending so much for one subway stop.

Ironically, the Scarborough subway is one of this city’s few well-funded transit initiatives. According to a report to be presented to the city’s executive committee on Tuesday, the rest of a planned network of heavy-rail, subway, and light-rail lines would cost in excess of $11 billion — with no strategy in place to pay for this work.

Something’s got to give.

One obvious place to start would be to cancel the outrageously expensive Scarborough subway extension. It’s an inexcusable waste of precious transit dollars, driven more by political pandering than any desire to effectively serve the public. Switching to light-rail service wouldn’t just save money; it would provide readily accessible transit to tens of thousands more riders.

A necessary second step is to boost Toronto’s revenues. Another report released last week provides some solid ideas to that end, listing a dozen options including:

Revival of a motor vehicle registration tax. Similar to what was killed by former mayor Rob Ford, this could add as much as $94 million to the budget each year.

A form of tolling called https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2016/06/21/report-puts-congestion-tax-alcohol-tax-on-toronto-councils-radar.html cordon pricing END , requiring motorists to pay a fee to enter restricted parts of the city. It could generate up to $377 million annually.

A parking levy would produce between $171 million and $535 million, depending on whether the daily fee was set at 50 cents per spot, or up to $1.50.

Hitting tipplers with tax on booze could potentially pump more than $150 million into Toronto’s cob-webbed coffers.

City council has the power to enact any or all of the above measures. With provincial approval, it could also impose a per-room hotel tax delivering up to $126 million annually. This would carry the extra advantage of drawing money largely from people outside the city. Queen’s Park’s backing could also make possible a municipal sales tax and even a municipal income tax.

The message here is that city council has choices. It has been given a detailed menu of revenue options. What’s it must do now is to marshal political will in support of constructive action.

The report on revenue tools makes a particularly useful suggestion in urging that proceeds from this source be applied to specific capital projects — work that the public can see and appreciate. Much of the backlash against Toronto’s widely loathed motor vehicle fee came because it was imposed without any new service, or evident benefit, to taxpayers.

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By dedicating all revenue from new fees and taxes to building transit, city councillors could go a long way toward delivering badly needed public transportation while defusing people’s hostility to new taxes.

It’s called leadership, and it’s the right way to proceed.