Will Quebec bridge become a B.C. election issue?
With NDP, Liberals pushing for a new Montreal span to be toll-free, Conservatives see a wedge issue
OTTAWA — A debate over tolling a replacement for a crumbling Montreal bridge could be a wedge issue used to attack Tom Mulcair’s New Democratic Party and perhaps Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in B.C. in the upcoming federal election, senior Conservatives say.
Mulcair, who calls the Champlain Bridge Canada’s “most important” crossing, has criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s position that tolls should cover the $3-billion-to$5-billion cost to replace the federal government-owned structure that has eroded prematurely since opening in 1962.
Trudeau warned last year of “monstrous traffic jams” on other bridges if there’s a toll, though he hasn’t taken a firm position against tolling.
Two Tory cabinet ministers claim — unfairly and divisively, according to opposition parties — that these party positions won’t sit well with those in the Lower Mainland who pay a toll to use the B.C. government-owned Port Mann Bridge.
“Fair is fair,” Industry Minister James Moore told The Vancouver Sun. “In British Columbia, we have a toll on the Port Mann Bridge. We have a referendum this spring on new revenue to pay for more infrastructure needs.
“Meanwhile, the Liberals and NDP think we shouldn’t have a toll in Montreal to help pay for replacing the Champlain Bridge.”
Chief government whip John Duncan said the bridge is a powerful symbol of the NDP’s priorities given that 54 of its 95 seats are in Quebec.
“The NDP is catering to Quebec voters,” said Duncan, the MP for Vancouver Island North.
The NDP shot back that it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison, pointing out that Ottawa owns the Quebec bridge, while bridges in B.C. and the vast majority of bridges in the rest of the country are owned by the provinces, in accordance with the 1867 Constitution Act.
The federal government only built the Champlain Bridge unilaterally after the Quebec government reneged in the 1950s on an agreement to jointly fund the span. It is one of three federally owned bridges and one tunnel in the region, which Ottawa considered critical to national shipping interests and the St. Lawrence Seaway.
But the federal governmentrun construction project used low-cost materials that eroded prematurely as a result of Montreal’s brutal winters and intense road salting, according to a report last year in the National Post.
The Champlain Bridge was tolled until 1990.
“It’s disappointing to see the Conservatives pitting one region of the country against another,” said the NDP’s Jinny Sims, who represents the Newton-North Delta riding.
She noted that the tolls for the Port Mann Bridge are the responsibility of the B.C. government.
Another B.C. New Democrat tried to turn the tables on the federal Conservative and B.C. Liberal governments, which are expected to cost-share construction of the proposed new Pattullo Bridge over the Fraser River.
Jasbir Sandhu said the feds should be pressuring Victoria to ensure there are no tolls on that proposed crossing, given that his Surrey North constituents already face the Port Mann toll.
“My community is boxed in,” he said. “The federal and provincial governments need to step up to the plate and provide relief to the people in my community.”
The debate over the Montreal bridge has been a hot-button issue there.
The ridings linked to the city of Montreal by the bridge over the St. Lawrence Seaway are held by MPs who were part of the NDP wave under the late Jack Layton. The Liberals’ hope to return to power rests on taking many of the NDP’s Montreal-area seats.
The Conservatives have only five Quebec seats.
Liberal transportation critic David McGuinty, an Ottawa MP, said Harper will display poor leadership if he lets his B.C. MPs exploit the issue to win votes.
“If he’s playing this sort of game to curry favour in one part of the country over another … that’s very unfortunate because it’s very divisive,” he said.
Transport Canada describes the Champlain Bridge as “the busiest bridge in Canada, with estimated annual totals of 11 million public transit commuters, 60 million trips and $20 billion of international trade crossing the bridge.”