New Brunswick gravel haulers plan protest

SALISBURY, N.B. (Feb. 7, 2001) — Owner-operators hauling gravel and asphalt for a section of new highway between Fredericton and River Glade, N.B., say they will stop work until they are paid the same rate as truck operators employed on provincial government road construction projects.

The stretch of road is part of a new four-lane highway linking Fredericton and Moncton being built by the Maritime Road Development Corporation under a private-public partnership with the provincial government.

The Tri-County Association of Gravel Truck Contractors, which claims to represent about 50 owner-operators, said since the highway has been paid for by the province, it is not a private construction project.

The MRDC planned to charge tolls to pay for highway construction and maintenance, but the government, responding to public backlash, decided to finance the highway through tax dollars.

The owner-operators are paid $1.37 a tonne compared to $2.08 a tonne on a provincial highway construction project, Willard Killam, an association leader, told the Moncton Times and Transcript.

Killem said the timing is right for a protest: MRDC wants to move about 75,000 metric tonnes of road material to the construction site before annual spring highway weight restrictions take effect next month.