March 30, 2016

Dear City Councillor and member of the Transportation Committee:

We understand that Transportation Committee members will soon consider a motion to
implement a study of user fees for Ottawas road system, and will vote on this motion at their
April meeting.
We would like to add our voice in support of this motion and explain our reasons for doing
so.
First, we recognize that many of the 6,000 kilometres of roads that the City is responsible for
operating and maintaining are in poor shape and, that the City is finding it difficult to find
money to pay for their timely maintenance and repair. The Canadian Infrastructure Report
Card found that roads in the nations capital are worse than roads in many other Canadian
cities, with only 20% of Ottawas roads deemed to be in Good to Very Good condition, and
this was further confirmed by the 2014 Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiatives
Infrastructure Report Card.
Second, we believe that introducing user fees (congestion charges) for certain City roads
will assist in meeting the high costs of maintenance and repair while also reducing
greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring that the costs of road transport are shared on a fair
and equitable basis. While we believe it is important that those who use roads should pay a
fair share of their costs, we also recognize the importance of providing access to those who
cannot afford to pay such charges. We suggest this can be achieved either by issuing credits
to low-income users, or by levying charges differentially, based either on size of vehicle or
amount of use, or both.
Road user fees can be designed so that they affect only vehicle users in peak periods and
do not penalise off-peak users; and they can also be set up to recoup some of costs related
to repair and maintenance of city roads caused by non-residents. Revenue collected through
road user fees can help to improve public transit and make public transit more affordable,
through the creation of a Low-Income Transit Pass, for example.
Third, there is a great deal of experience in the implementation of user fees for roads in
many jurisdictions around the world, including cities as diverse as Stockholm, Singapore,
London, Minneapolis and San Francisco. This experience has been summarised in a Nov.
2015 report from Canadas Ecofiscal Commission, http://ecofiscal.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2015/10/Ecofiscal-Commission-Pricing-Traffic-Congestion-ReportNovember-2015.pdf and we are also providing updated summaries of international and
domestic experience with road pricing on the Healthy Transportation Coalition blog:
http://www.healthytransportation.ca/apps/blog.
The proposed study will enable Council to see just how well these international and national
experiences fit with the Ottawa situation, and what lessons can be learned from them.
Fourth, the Ontario Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca has indicated that he is
willing to work with any municipality that wants to add tolls to existing roads under their
jurisdiction. We believe it is of critical importance to enlist Minister Del Ducas help, to ensure
that the City gets both technical and financial assistance in implementing user fees for roads.

Fifth, as demonstrated by the attached signatures, there is a significant amount of

community and organizational support for the City to proceed with this study.
Sincerely,
Kimberly Peterson, Chair,
Ottawa Seniors Transportation Committee,
Council on Aging of Ottawa

Clifford Maynes, Executive Director,

Green Communities Canada Canada
Walks

David Gibson, Executive Director,

Sandy Hill Community Health Centre

Graham Saul, Executive Director,

Ecology Ottawa

Gisle Bouvier, Board member,

Ottawa ACORN (Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now)

Suzanne Doerge, Director,

City for All Women Initiative

Mark Tremblay, Ph.D., D.Litt. (hons),

FACSM
Director, Healthy Active Living and Obesity
Research, Childrens Hospital of Eastern
Ontario Research Institute
Scientist and Professor, Department of
Pediatrics, University of Ottawa

David T. Sweanor J.D.

Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law, University
of Ottawa
Centre for Health Law, Policy & Ethics,
University of Ottawa
Honorary (Consultant) Assistant Professor,
University of Nottingham

Rosella Mac Neil, Vice-President,

Heron Park Community Association

Liz Bernstein, President,

Lowertown Community Association

Karen Wright, President,

Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association

Gareth Davies, President,

Citizens for Safe Cycling

Erwin Dreessen, Co-chair,

Greenspace Alliance of Canada's Capital

John Woodhouse, Chair of the Steering

Committee, Walk Ottawa

Shawn Menard, Public School Board

Trustee, Rideau-Vanier and Capital Wards

Trevor Hach, Board President,

Healthy Transportation Coalition