TORONTO - A government-appointed panel is recommending Ontario hike the gas tax by up to 10 cents a litre to help fund public transit expansion in the greater Toronto-Hamilton area.
They say the increase can be capped at five cents a litre if the government hikes the Harmonized Sales Tax by half a per cent.
But the panel says residents outside the GTHA won't be subsidizing transit in the metropolitan area because they'd get their share of both taxes to fund their transit projects.
Finance Minister Charles Sousa says the Liberal government has not decided if it will raise the gas tax and borrow more money, as the panel is recommending.
Sousa says the government has several options it will consider to raise the billions of dollars needed, and notes gridlock in the Toronto region is already costing the economy $6 billion a year.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says hiking the tax on gasoline will drive up the cost of everything and won't create any jobs.
