Toll road paved with frustration

Ontario’s much-vaunted private toll highway — winner of the privateers’ gold medal of excellence — is failing to deliver the goods.

Highway 407, Ontario’s "Electronic Toll Route", has been nothing but an electronic troublemaker for many travellers. Touted as a way to ease congestion on provincial highways, the road has created a pileup of complaints. The gold medal from the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships is a mystery.

A sampling of the problems appeared recently in a London, Ont. newspaper. From travellers being billed many times for the same trip to one man who was billed for a trip while his car sat in the driveway, it appears the sophisticated toll-collecting technology needs a tuneup. As does the ETR Concession Group’s public relations. The common theme in all the complaints is the complete lack of response from ETR and Equifax, the collection agency ETR has contracted to collect from "deadbeat" drivers.

Compounding the problem is the fact that if drivers can’t square things away with Equifax, they can’t renew their licence. Which makes the non-communication all the more frustrating. As driver Paul Legge told the London newspaper, "I get these bills with dire warnings about what will happen when I try to renew my licence… it is not funny that these people have control over my Ontario licence, but have no responsibility to respond to an error on their part."

Opposition critics point out that by withholding licence renewal, the Ontario government has in effect become a collection agency for the private consortium. Drivers with unpaid toll charges must fork over a $30 administration fee on top of the charges. According to opposition critics, only $1 of that fee stays with government. The rest is handed to the consortium.

To add insult to injury, tolls on the road were hiked in September. Non-rush hour charges rose more than 14 per cent, and the rush hour peak period was extended by an hour, raising that charge by 25 per cent.

The consortium that paid $1.6 billion to buy the highway includes SNC-Lavalin, Grupo Ferrovial of Spain and Quebec’s pension fund manager, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. The $1.6 billion created a one-time cash windfall for the provincial coffers just in time for a provincial election.

Last October, Ontario’s minister of transportation announced the government was considering building a second private toll highway over the Niagara Peninsula. Experience with Highway 407 shows they should think again.