How do we pay the $50 billion to $75 billion needed to fund transit improvements that will stall our descent into regional gridlock?

That’s the moneyball question dating back several decades in Toronto. The only thing that changes is the amount and the setting. The amount continues to climb; and the setting couldn’t be worse.

What a time to hold a critical conversation about one of the most pressing public policy issues of this generation.

Toronto’s mayor faces eviction. The provincial government is in self-imposed exile. And it might take all spring, summer and fall to calm the political turbulence at city hall and at Queen’s Park.

And that will land us nicely into the year-long debate on who to elect as Toronto mayor in October 2014.

Metrolinx, the provincial agency authorized to recommend the transit funding tools, starts public consultations in Oakville on Tuesday, with plans to touch down in several cities and towns before filing its report to the province by June 1.

This is what Metrolinx faces:

The Ontario government is in flux. A new premier will be chosen by the sitting party, the Liberals, but must go to the polls to secure a legitimate mandate. What chance is there that an insecure premier will want to act on controversial taxes?

Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak, early favourite to win such an election when called — likely this year — is less than friendly towards taxes or tolls to help pay the freight. In fact, his public utterances reflect those of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who believes no tax dollars are required as the private sector will build it all.

Toronto, whose transit accommodates more than 80 per cent of trips in the Toronto region, is less than unified. City council is inclined towards implementing some of the toxic tools, but councillors will be timorous in the face of a mayor campaigning against such funding. Ford is expected to ride that horse, using it as a wedge issue.

Metrolinx clearly needs allies. The Toronto Board of Trade is expected to launch an advertising campaign next month in support of transit funding. Former mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson is now running radio ads proposing a regional sales tax. And Hudak’s predecessor, John Tory, issued a challenge Monday on behalf of you, the anguished commuters who struggle daily to navigate congested and slow transportation networks to get to work and back home.

“Show the political courage to stand up this year and say, ‘There’s a need for transit and a need to pay for it,’” Tory said at a news conference Monday.

“Deferral, dodging and weaving are no options at all. A transit plan with no money (to pay for it) is almost worse than no plan at all. It creates false hope,” Tory said. “There is no free transit.”

He was wearing his hat as president of CivicAction, the alliance of business, labour and social agencies that has embraced the battle for transit funding as its raison d’être in 2013. The above view has some resonance on the streets. But its grasp is tenuous, its footing unsure.

Since starting a campaign called “What would you do with 32?” (that is, minutes of commuting time saved if Metrolinx gets the money to fund its $50-billion Big Move projects), CivicAction reports a small public shift towards swallowing taxes for transit.

Most want the money earmarked for transit projects; they want its scope to be regional; and they want it to be paid by as many citizens as possible.

Metrolinx’s toolbox will have a menu of funding options — almost all of them already debated. It will include tolls, taxes on gas, income, vehicle licences, payroll, retail sales and parking lots.

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Imagine that list in the hands of the election campaign spin doctors who convinced you two years ago there was so much waste at city hall we could save $3 billion over four years without cutting a single service.

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca

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