Think provincially on transit

Re Transit plans are insufficient, Sept. 17

Your correspondent is right.

Toronto continues to demand transit funds from those of us in the rest of Ontario and Canada who cannot use Toronto’s transit systems.

Meanwhile, commuters from outlying areas must continue to drive cars into the city despite the traffic jams, collisions and polluting emissions.

Good passenger train service has always been subsidized by government in all nations where it is established. Toronto’s demands for our money to cover its costs of a huge council and expensively lavish mass transit would be better directed by provincial and federal governments to the kind of commuter service enjoyed in New York, Washington, D.C., and similar large urbansuburban areas.

Expanding that grid from a Toronto-centred web to one reaching from smaller cities directly to other smaller cities would help redistribute population and job growth to wherever space is available and housing is affordable, while reducing Toronto’s commuter traffic.

I advocate for an Ontario-wide readjustment of public transit. The insatiable Toronto black hole must stop consuming the income taxes of smaller communities with no compensating transit. Canada consists of more than just Toronto. Charles Hooker, East Garafraxa, Ont.