Having wrested the debate on transit taxes from Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee, Toronto city councillors now face a decision on which, if any, of a long list of potential fees and taxes the city should endorse.

Council could also decide, likely on Wednesday or Thursday, to make its approval of any provincial transit taxes conditional on that revenue being spent on a subway in Scarborough or a downtown relief subway.

Although TTC chair Karen Stintz welcomed the opportunity for council to debate revenue tools, she immediately signalled there’s at least one tax she doesn’t support.

“I think there are some revenue tools like parking taxes that are very detrimental to businesses in the city,” said Stintz, after Tuesday’s 27-13 vote giving council the right to seize the city manager Joe Pennachetti’s report on transit taxes from the executive.

Ford’s inner circle had deferred the report until May 28, a day after Metrolinx is set to release its recommendations to the province on how the region should raise $2 billion a year to pay for the Big Move regional transportation plan. But most councillors wanted a chance to make the city’s position known to Metrolinx.

Pennachetti’s report recommends the city endorse a sales tax, gas tax, development charges and a $1-a-day commercial parking levy.

Taking the matter out of the executive’s hands required a two-thirds vote from the councillors in the room.

In a speech at the Toronto Board of Trade, Stintz referred to a “season of miracles” given the difficulty of gathering two-thirds support on the fractious council.

Stintz, who described herself as a fiscal conservative, told the business crowd she doesn’t take new taxes lightly.

“I’m frugal when it comes to government spending but I know that transit and subways are not built for free,” said the councillor for Eglinton-Lawrence, who is rumoured to be mulling a run for mayor.

After the vote, Ford reiterated his stand that he will not support any revenue tools to build transit.

“I respect the will of council, if they want to debate it, go ahead. But, like I said, I’m going to name names and people are going to be held accountable. People can’t afford to pay another $1,000 a year, period.

“There’s enough money at the city, the provincial government, as you're seeing, that we can build transit. So you don't have to tax people more and more to build transit. The proof’s in the pudding. If there wasn’t all these boondoggles at Queen's Park, and down here at the city and in the federal government, we’d have more than enough money to build transit.”

Speaking to reporters, Stintz credited Ford’s leadership for making it possible to support new investments in transit.

“I believe that our city’s financial position is much more solid based on the work council has done over the last three under the leadership of Mayor Rob Ford and so now we’re in a better place to talk about investment,” she said.

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Stintz also said she would support transit taxes regardless of whether council agreed that the SRT should be converted to a subway instead of the current plan that calls for it to be an LRT.

“If council votes for the SRT into a subway and Metrolinx agrees we can make that scope change, the next question is how we’re going to pay for it. It’s not going to displace any other transit project because it’s already funded,” she said.

Downtown Councillor Adam Vaughan defended the discussion of subways in Scarborough.

“If you’re asking people to pay more for transit they want to know what that transit is going to be. It’s a fair question,” he said.

He also criticized Ford for rejecting any discussion of taxes to pay for the subways he has repeatedly promised to deliver.

“The one thing I know for certain, is you can’t have the debate if you’re not willing to fund transit. You can’t build subways by saying ‘no’ to everything all the time,” said Vaughan.

Because most councillors are willing to talk about taxes, doesn’t mean they will vote to introduce them, said Councillor Doug Ford.

“What they want the public to do is hand over a blank cheque to the most irresponsible government this province has ever seen and blindly raise taxes for the people of Ontario. It’s unacceptable,” said the mayor’s brother, who referred to Liberal “boondoggles” such as gas plant cancellations.

“This council has proven, this province has proven, there’s a two-tiered transportation system — one for everyone else in the city, and one for the people of Scarborough,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Metrolinx said, “We look forward to their input into our investment strategy.”

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