Ontario’s new Bill 60 was passed in November and is known for taking away tenants’ rights. However, what’s less well known is that the omnibus bill also strips municipal control over roads and pushes a pro-car agenda.
Not only will any future bike lanes need to be approved by Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, but the law also prohibits any “road reconfigurations” that would take lanes away from cars, including dedicated bus lanes.
This directly targets Toronto’s ambitious RapidTO project, which is implementing dedicated transit lanes on some of the city’s most congested streets, such as Dufferin and Bathurst. Although these two lanes have not been compromised by Bill 60, it is unclear if any dedicated transit lanes in the future will be impacted.
However, Toronto has begun taking steps to reclaim its roads. On Nov. 20, the city proposed a plan for 20 km of new bike infrastructure with a workaround of Bill 60. Rather than take away car lanes, which is now prohibited, vehicle lanes on sections of Kingston Road, Keele Street and other roads will be shrunk to fit new bike lanes. This will also have the effect of reducing car speeds while bringing road widths to municipal standards.
Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Sarkaria, stated that “if there is a way where you can have both the vehicle lane and a bike lane on the same street, then that is okay.”
City’s ability to tax cars eliminated
Earlier in 2025, premier Doug Ford also removed Toronto’s ability to raise taxes on cars. That taxation power had been granted to the city in 2006. An automobile registration tax was introduced in 2008, but was killed in 2011 following a city council vote led by former mayor Rob Ford. Prior to its removal, the tax raised approximately $48 million annually for the City of Toronto.
Although the tax was removed, there had been eight subsequent motions by city councilors to reinstate the tax. But any hopes for re-enactment have been dashed due to the province removing Toronto’s special taxation powers.
The automobile registration tax sparked much controversy, due in part to clatter raised by pro-automobile groups and businesses. Since 2008, The Motor Vehicle Retailers of Ontario (MVRO) advocated for the tax to be repealed, claiming that it “penalized motorists and motorcycle users by imposing a tax on Torontonians.” Since 2011, the group has lobbied the government on a variety of motor-related issues, including another similar automobile tax in York Region in 2018.
The car dealership sector that the MVRO represents has revenues of $14 billion per year, the industry says.
According to University of Toronto geography and planning professor Jason Hackworth, premier Doug Ford “is not just undermining municipal authority in general, but he’s undermining it for specific automobile-focused Ontarians and peoples.”
The years-long pushback against the automobile registration tax set the attitude toward most future plans to implement tolls and taxes on cars. In 2016, plans to implement tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway fell short, and in 2025, Premier Doug Ford actually removed tolls on part of Highway 407 East (the provincially-owned portion).
Aside from the interests of the car dealership industry, taking control of municipal planning also benefits real estate developers, who previously attempted to dismantle the Greenbelt to profit off of suburban development and housing. Although part of the Greenbelt selloff failed, stripping municipal control over road management paves the way for automobile-dependent development on the nearly 350 square kilometres of land outside of the Greenbelt already designated for suburban development, but sitting mostly unused.
Professor Hackworth explains that “in cities like New York which implemented congestion pricing [in 2025], there was evidence of reduced traffic and the city gets an extra revenue source. But in Toronto, they’ve been talking about ways of taxing cars for years. Back in 2016, John Tory also tried implementing a toll on the Gardiner [Expressway], but of course, the province shut that down.”