海角社区官网

Fulfilling a promise from the Progressive Conservatives鈥� Feb. 27 re-election campaign, Premier Doug Ford and Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy are permanently lowering the gas tax and eliminating tolls on the provincially operated part of the Highway 407 expressway.

As of June 1, the levies, which can be up to $20, will be lifted on the 43-kilometre portion of Highway 407 from Brock Road in Pickering east to Highway 35/115 north of Clarington, which will cost the treasury around $72 million annually.

But tolls that can cost $86 depending on the time of day will remain on the privately operated 108-kilometre section of Highway 407 from the Queen Elizabeth Way in Burlington to Brock Road.

In Thursday鈥檚 budget, Bethlenfalvy will also finally make permanent the temporary 5.7 cents a litre reduction in the gas tax he introduced in 2022 and has extended annually since. The tax will remain at 9 cents a litre, down from 14.7 cents three years ago.

Read more from the Star’s Robert Benzie

Ontario is set to table its budget today, and Premier Doug Ford is signalling it will include a lot of infrastructure spending and measures to stimulate the economy, saying U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 tariffs will be a major factor.

鈥淲e have to look at it through a different lens now, since these tariffs have been put on us,鈥� he said Wednesday.

鈥淵ou have two options in a budget. You start cutting and slashing, which I鈥檝e never believed (in). In tougher times, you go out there, you put money into infrastructure, keep building the hospitals that we鈥檙e doing, and the highways and the bridges and the roads and the schools and long-term care homes and really building the infrastructure. We can always balance (in) a year or two.鈥�

Read the full story from the Canadian Press

Premier Doug Ford is gearing up to remove even more 海角社区官网bike lanes, the Star has learned.

Sources say Thursday鈥檚 provincial budget legislation will include the removal of the bike lanes on Queen鈥檚 Park Crescent, around the legislative precinct, and on Avenue Road south of Davenport Road.

That鈥檚 on top of the bikeways slated for demolition on University Avenue, Yonge Street and Bloor Street West.

Read Queen’s Park Bureau Chief Robert Benzie’s story from Wednesday