Toll highways not needed
Toll highways are just another tax on people, and we already pay for highways. The residents of Nova Scotia deserve to have good highways that are publicly owned and operated.
At the end of the day, this isn’t a question of road safety. It’s a question on accountability for tax dollars and getting the best value for those dollars. Government can borrow money to build infrastructure. We built this country by doing just that including the railway, the TransCanada highway and other public infrastructure.
No matter the process used to complete the job at hand, whether a highway or a hospital, the taxpayers pay the bill. The question is, do we need toll highways and/or the privatization of our roads or other infrastructure? The answer is no.
The evidence on the privatization of a highway close to us is a good example where taxpayers ended up paying far more than the actual cost. In Sept., 2014, a report about the private toll road at the Cobequid Pass was prepared for the premier’s office by Peter Vaughan, Deputy Minister of Health and Wellness. That report told us that the private company provided only $66 million for the Cobequid Pass, a P3 (Public Private Partnership) project, while we have paid more than $300 million in tolls.
The Liberals built 39 private schools which cost us the taxpayers in Nova Scotia almost a billion dollars. Now we need to decide if we must buy them back from the private corporation. We have already paid almost a billion dollars for the 39 schools, and we own nothing today. In fact, will have to buy them back from the private corporation or build more schools if we don’t repurchase them. It just doesn’t make sense. We actually will pay for those schools twice.
It’s all about choice and Nova Scotia needs to make those choices. The government is using sound bites to make it look like we can’t afford to build infrastructure unless it’s private and that is wrong. The province can borrow money more cheaply, build the highways and pay them off over time. We will pay anyway so why pay twice? Why line the pockets of corporations with our money and not own the road?
Where is the study on this? Is it feasible? Will it be transparent? How much will be hidden? Who is accountable? And the big question is; who exactly holds the most risk?
Financial accountability must be independently reviewed before committing more public dollars to privatization plans. Danny Cavanagh President, Nova Scotia Federation of Labour