I hope my fellow Torontonians filed their taxes by yesterdays deadline. How else could we fund and provide for our heroic public service providers. Services that are so often taken for granted like Toronto Fire Services. As much as everyone likes to grunt and grown during tax season it is a necessary evil. One only has to look at the outstanding work of the Fire Department and how the handled a dangerous roof fire in less than one hour. Your tax dollars at work indeed!

Earlier today Premier McGuinty and PM Stephen Harper announced that GO Transit will receive an additional $500 million in funding. This funding is to be split between the province and the federal government and targeted on station parking lots and upgrading rail lines to increase service reliabiliity.

It would be nice if local municipal transit could be better integrated into GO Transit (so many of these city systems work outside the realm of the big transit picture). Sadly few offer service that can meet up with evening trains let alone most rush hour trips. For now more spacious parking lots will have to be the incentive for car happy commuters connecting to Toronto via transit (rather than local buses). I’ve seen the huge surge in GO ridership over the last year first hand due to high gas prices. These are baby steps sure, but steps in the right direction.