October 11.

One could drive from Victoria to St. John’s without incurring highway tolls. That is changing.

One of the blessings of being a Canadian has been the largely unfettered ability to use much of the common goods of the country without additional cost. The Trans-Canada Highway was one of them. One could drive from Victoria to St. John’s without incurring highway tolls. That is changing. Last year, a private Nova Scotia company opened up the Wentworth Valley bypass, a stretch of road that is vastly superior to the old, hilly, winding road it replaced. Unfortunately, this road also came with tolls. Now, the New Brunswick government is planning to replace the badly outdated road between Moncton and Fredericton with a toll road of its own. In the past, The Telegram has argued placing tolls on the Trans-Canada Highway backs away from the basic principle that all Canadians should be able to use the highway without paying special levies to individual provinces. Placing tolls on the roads through the Maritimes increases the cost of trucking in goods to Newfoundland, along with the cost for tourists coming to the island. From Newfoundland’s perspective tolls are a bad idea. There is, however, an argument for them and it goes something like this: if the old highways are dangerous and inefficient, and toll roads can cut down on the length of the trip and its duration, the toll road should be allowed to charge the equivalent of the savings in gas and the wear and tear on trucks. This is especially true if the province does not have the funds to upgrade the road without tolls. Truckers who use the New Brunswick road say it will save them about $16 in gas per trip. If the toll road is to be priced fairly, it should have a toll of roughly that amount until the road is paid for. But this will not be the case. The toll will be $27.50 per truck, which is more than the amount most truckers will save by using the new road. Of course, truckers with additional time could take the old road, but the government has thought of that and has decided to bar truckers from the old road. Barring truckers from choosing which road to take makes the toll mandatory; it is little more than money grab.

Barring truckers from choosing which road to take makes the toll mandatory; it is little more than money grab.

The Newfoundland government is justifiably concerned that the trucks that bring goods to this province will have to pay these and other additional tolls in future. The government argues that if federal money is put into the Trans-Canada Highway there should be a ban on user fees on the highway. This is a good idea, though it fails to help much if the roads are built with provincial funds or funds provided by bondholders. The Tobin government is right in demanding the entire question of tolls on federally financed roads be re-examined. If New Brunswick and Nova Scotia can put in tolls, Ontario and Quebec are not far behind, and the cost of being a Canadian in this end of the country will be much too high. Now is the time to bring this toll practice to an end.

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