Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Transport stated to the hon. member in question period on September 26, under the Constitution of Canada responsibility for highways, including highway 104 in Nova Scotia, falls under provincial jurisdiction.
For the clarification of the member opposite, I would like to explain it a little further.
Transport Canada's only involvement in highway 104 is to match dollar for dollar $55 million with the province. That amounts to $27.5 million each.
The highway 104 western alignment project is one of a few projects funded through the Transport Canada/Nova Scotia strategic highway improvement program agreement signed in 1993. This agreement makes provisions for both the federal government and the province to each set aside about $70 million, for a total of $140 million, for highway improvements in Nova Scotia.
It is important for the hon. member to note that Transport Canada's involvement in the highway 104 project ends right there. The province of Nova Scotia is the responsible authority for the project. It is the province that decides on the alignment, design, construction standards, tendering process and how to finance the construction costs of the provincial highway system.
The province of Nova Scotia chose to use a public-private partnership concept as a means to construct and finance highway 104. Nova Scotia decided the developer would be allowed to charge tolls as a means of recuperating costs directly from the users of the new highway.
The federal government is neither party to nor responsible for Nova Scotia's public-private agreement with the developer. As the minister has stated to the member, the government's only involvement is to match the funding provided by the province.
The hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester also expressed an interest in the tendering process for the highway. According to the officials in Transport Canada, the province of Nova Scotia went through an extensive selection and tendering process for highway 104.