B.C. Liberals scrap Coquihalla privatization plan

VICTORIA, (July 24, 2003) — Vocal opposition from motorists and trucking groups has forced the B.C. Liberal government to halt its plans to privatize the province’s only toll highway.

Premier Gordon Campbell said public outcry outweighed the potential business dividends of leasing the operation and maintenance of the Coquihalla Highway to a private company for 55 years.

Part of the privatization plan allowed the company to earn money by continuing to charge tolls, which were expected to rise to $13 one-way from its current one-way charge of $10. Regular toll increases were also part of the proposed deal. The Coquihalla is the major highway transportation route linking the Kamloops and Okanagan areas with the Lower Mainland.

“There are times, I think, when you have to take a second look,” the Canadian Press reported Campbell as saying. “I’ve listened to our MLAs who listened to the public. We’ve taken their advice. We will not be proceeding with the lease of the Coquihalla.”

British Columbia Trucking Association President Paul Landry, who believes the BCTA was instrumental in overturning the plan, applauded the announcement. “Obviously we are pleased the government has pulled back from this proposition,” he told Today’s Trucking. “Our concern has always been with rising tolls.”

Although the government has often stated commercial vehicles would not be subjected to toll increases, Landry clarified that promise would only include the first year of the 55-year contract, and trucks would have faced increases any time after.

Landry says that during ongoing talks with the government, the BCTA made progress by deliberately choosing not to militarize its members or publicly align itself with other vocal opponents of the plan. “Our position all along was to present or information professionally, but somehow fall below the radar,” he said. “We engaged in what might be appropriately called quiet diplomacy.”