New Brunswick NDP leader calls for toll-removal cost study

FREDERICTON (Sept. 24, 1999) — A party rival of New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord said the provincial auditor-general should be ordered to report on how much it will cost the government to remove tolls on the highway that will link Fredericton and Moncton.

“How are we going to have a clear sense of what this promise will cost the citizens and taxpayers of New Brunswick?” New Democratic Party leader Elizabeth Weir asked Auditor-General Daryl Wilson on Wednesday.

Wilson, whose office produces an annual report on the government’s finances, replied that his department would not examine the cost of removing the tolls until it has actually taken place.

Led by Lord, the Conservatives promised to scrap the tolls within 200 days of taking office. The deadline is Jan. 6. Weir said an accounting should be taken before the tolls are removed.

During the campaign, the Liberals argued that the cost to fulfill the promise would be $225 million. The previous Liberal government struck a private-public partnership with the Maritime Road Development Corp. to build and operate the 195-kilometre four-lane toll highway.

“I don’t know how much this is really going to cost and I think citizens should be able to judge whether this was a rash promise made in the heat of the moment, where scarce dollars are being taken away from health care or education,” Weir said.