Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford has said he will permanently cut taxes on gas and diesel and remove tolls on the publicly owned stretch of Highway 407 if he is re-elected as premier.
He will also pass legislation to ban congestion pricing on all provincial and municipal roadways in the province, he said, speaking in Pickering on Thursday.
“You deserve to keep more of what you earn every single day,” Ford said.
He said he will permanently cut the provincial tax on gas by 5.7 cents per litre and by 5.3 cents per litre on diesel.
His government first temporarily slashed the tax on fuel by those rates in July 2022 but have repeatedly extended the cuts since.
Removing tolls will save daily commuters $7,200 every year, the PC Party said in a news release Thursday.
Highway 407 East runs between Brock Road in Pickering and Highway 115 in Clarington.
Selling Highway 407 was ‘big mistake,’ Ford says
Ford said cost saving measures are needed in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to hit virtually all Canadian goods with 25 per cent tariffs.
Although those tariffs have been paused for a month, “none of us can breathe easy,” Ford said.
“The simple truth is, as long as Donald Trump is president, the risk of tariffs will never go away.”
Families’ budgets are already overstretched because of “inflation, interest rates and the Liberal carbon tax,” he said.
Doug Ford’s government is reigniting speculation that Ontario could buy back Highway 407. CBC’s Lane Harrison has more on what that would mean for drivers.
For several months, Ford has said he is considering buying back the privately-owned portion of the 407 – which tolls drivers at a higher rate than the government-owned stretch – to alleviate congestion on the 400 series highways.
The province sold the 407 in 1999 under then-premier Mike Harris’ PC government for $3.1 billion. That’s about $5.3 billion in 2024, according to the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator.
Speaking on Thursday, Ford said selling the highway “was a big mistake, many years ago from a previous government,” but he did not say whether he is planning to buy back the stretch.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles has said she would eliminate tolls on Highway 407 for all drivers within 100 days of forming government if they win the next election.
Last week, Stiles said she would open negotiations with 407 ETR, which owns the private stretch of the highway, to remove tolls for all vehicles on the 407.