Madam Speaker, I rise in response to the reply provided by the Minister of Transport on February 24 to my question on the toll highway in New Brunswick.
The Trans-Canada Highway between Moncton and Fredericton was built with Canadian taxpayers' money. The federal government joined New Brunswick to fund the construction of that highway.
But at the last minute, the New Brunswick government played behind the back of the residents of that province and reached an agreement with Maritime Road Development Corporation. This agreement creates a number of problems. First, New Brunswick residents have already paid for the highway, through taxes. To collect a toll from those who travel from one city to another violates people's right to move freely.
The tolls collected may not be a problem for someone like Doug Young, but they represent several hundreds of dollars every year for those who travel from Moncton to Fredericton a number of times every week.
The agreement also poses a problem in that the negotiations with Maritime Road Development Corporation were conducted behind closed doors. I realize it is common practice for the Liberals to do things behind the back of Canadians, but this must stop.
Let us not forget that the person behind these negotiations is Doug Young, the former Liberal Minister of Transport. Mr. Young is now getting rich at the expense of the residents of New Brunswick.
Enough is enough. Canadians are sick and tired of seeing patronage everywhere they look. They are sick and tired of seeing that their elected officials are only looking after their friends' interests instead of protecting the interests of Canadians. Awarding a contract to a former minister of one's own party and helping him get rich is not only deplorable, but is clearly a conflict of interest.
Canada's highways should never be subject to tolls, particularly not to help private contractors get rich. The situation was best described by the mayor of Salisbury, Ruth Jackson, who said “Setting tolls on any section of the Trans-Canada Highway is an abuse of the trust of Canadians, because it deprives them of a unified transportation network from coast to coast. Any toll road, whether provincial or private, must be completely separate from the Trans-Canada Highway. If such tolls are set up, any commercial haulage in the region east of Moncton will be deprived of the access to the national highway network”.
Let us listen to Canadians and do away with the idea of toll highways.