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During the federal election campaign, promises have recently been made about federal funding for infrastructure projects. However, there is a feasible funding option readily available to the Ontario government to help fund their planned investment in transportation infrastructure: Higher gasoline taxes.

A regional gasoline tax for the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area could reduce traffic congestion, air pollution, and accidents, while raising revenue that could be used to reduce other taxes, fund transit infrastructure, or reduce the provincial debt.

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Most economists have long been in favour of taxing products like gasoline for two reasons. First, in the short run consumers respond only slightly to a change in the price of gas relative to how they respond to changes in the prices of other goods or services. This means that a gasoline tax is less intrusive than other taxes. Second, although drivers respond slightly to gasoline taxes, they still respond by buying less gas (e.g., driving less). By incentivizing people to drive less, a gasoline tax reduces the negative effects that drivers impose on others. Driving leads to costly effects on third parties such as traffic congestion, carbon dioxide emissions, smog and accidents.