Ask not for whom the road tolls; it could one day be you, London drivers.

While far from committing to it, Mayor Joe Fontana says road tolls in some parts of the city are among the options worth mulling as city hall faces an multi-million-dollar funding shortfall for roads, bridges and other transportation assets.

As part of a recent discussion with large-city Ontario mayors, Fontana said “new revenue tools” were raised, including a levy on business parking spots or a one-percentage-point hike in the HST to fund local transportation.

Tolls weren’t recommended, but Fontana isn’t ruling them out as part of “a basket” of options amid the transportation funding shortfall.

“Maybe users and not taxpayers have to start paying,” he said, as council’s civic works committee met Monday.

He offered as an example the looming revamp of Blackfriars Bridge, whose estimated $4-million overhaul could be recovered with tolls: “Maybe a 25-cent or 50-cent flat toll,” he suggested

Staff have outlined a shortfall, worth $34 million today, between what the city spends and what it needs to spend to maintain its transportation network.

That gap could widen to $270 million by 2022, broken down between roads ($200 million), bridges and structures ($30 million) and street lights/traffic signals ($30 million).

The numbers, in a report calling for a long-term financial strategy, grow larger when other costs are included. Beyond the projected $270-million shortfall are growth-related costs ($291 million) and a proposed bus-rapid transit system ($78 million), for a $640-million total.

“You have an idea of the magnitude of the issues we have to face,” said city treasuer Martin Hayward.

One option, relying on development charges to help close the gap, drew resistance from a consortium of local developers, led by London Development Institute president Jim Kennedy.

“It’s not fair to have new homeowners (who pay development charges) pay for a funding gap that already exists,” he said.

Fontana cited radio reports focusing on startling figures — 25% of city roads are in poor shape, for example — as needlessly “scaring the bejeezus” out of citizens.

“(It sounds like) the city is falling apart,” the mayor said. “The fact is 75% of our roads are in pretty darn good condition.”

Patrick.maloney@sunmedia.ca

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BY THE NUMBERS

$34M: Transportation network funding gap

$270M: Projected gap by 2022

$640M: Total tab, ­including growth and transit improvement costs