New Brunswick Government Kills Road Toll

(Fredericton, N.B. – March 1, 2000) – The New Brunswick government has today killed plans to collect tolls on the new highway being constructed to link Moncton and Fredericton. Toll-collection on the short segment that has been completed to date and placed in service — just outside Moncton, and on which a toll of $1 was in place — has been terminated and the toll booths closed.

The decision to build this four-lane roadway as a toll road, made by the previous government, was widely unpopular, and a grassroots local organization called “Tollbusters” had been established to fight the plan. The planned rates for the entire 195-km length of the road would have meant one-way tolls of $6.75 for a private motorcar and $27.50 for a truck.

Now, of course, the $910.7-million construction cost for the project — down from the original $945.2-million figure since tolling will not have to be accommodated — will have to be picked up by the government, and paid for by all the taxpayers of the province.