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Edmonton began the toll-road debate Friday, saying congestion is caused by drivers getting subsidized and limitless access to the road network.

Should there be a fee? Should Edmonton charge a toll for road use? “Is levying user fees on transit users but not roadway users justified if both derive clear private benefits?” asks a new discussion paper, which proposes a set of policy statements to guide how Edmonton sets future user fee.

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The discussion goes to a public hearing April 12. It’s available at edmonton.ca/TheWayWeFinance.

“If you tax roads, you wouldn’t necessarily have to subsidize buses,” said Todd Burge, Edmonton’s chief financial officer. He said the example is mostly meant to spark debate. It would be difficult to set up traditional toll roads on Edmonton’s current road network because there are so many ways to get from A to B. “We already have short-cutting issues,” he said.

“It may not be (a user fee) we’ll ever implement here. But who knows where the future might be.”

Edmonton’s discussion paper calls municipal roadway infrastructure a “perfect example” of government oversupply. Because there is no cost to use them, roads are heavily used, which means there is more scarce government dollars going to build and maintain them than can be justified based on their benefits.