Mr. Speaker, businesses on the island of Newfoundland receiving goods from or exporting goods to Canada must run a gauntlet of toll gates on the Trans-Canada Highway in the maritimes. The one-way toll in Nova Scotia is $10 per truck and the one-way toll in New Brunswick will soon be $27.50 per truck.
Therefore, a truck making one round trip a day every day for a year would have to pay over $27,000 a year in tolls. This will drive up the cost of doing business in Newfoundland and will cause us to lose jobs and economic development.
I call on the federal government to exercise its constitutional responsibility and take action to ensure the free flow of goods and services in Canada. We do not have a railway in Newfoundland, so it is up to the federal government to allow us to keep on trucking.