chapter 4

Summary

The Greater Vancouver Regional District is considering putting tolls on drivers who use the roads and bridges in the Lower Mainland. By putting tolls on the drivers they are hoping that it will reduce the amount of drivers, which will then lower the amount of traffic and also reduce greenhouse emissions. In London, when the toll of $18 was placed into action, the traffic into downtown dropped by 20%. Drivers said that they would probably not drive to their destinations if the toll was put into place, instead they would take the bus or the SkyTrain.

Connection

The topics that connect this article to the textbook are direct tax and benefit-received approach to taxation. If the driver were to use a bridge and was forced to pay a toll that would represent direct tax since the tax is imposed on the person who is intended to pay. The benefit-received approach states that individuals should be taxed on the basis of the benefits that they receive from the government, so in this case the benefit the individuals receive from the bridge from paying a toll is that it saves them time by getting to their destination in a short amount of time.

Reflection

This would lower the traffic in The Greater Vancouver Regional District and also it would be great for the environment but what about the people? This creates a financial burden on citizens. The middle and lower class families will probably be affected the most but I guess that they can’t do anything about it unless they try avoid the bridges with the tolls but that will probably take them longer to get from point A to point B.

Link:http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=3110a796-7ccc-4363-8281-436a0bbcb44e&k=66306&p=2

*Comment @Calvin Dai's blog