WHEN IS A TOLL BRIDGE NOT A TOLL BRIDGE? IN QUEBEC

Politics clearly dictates who pays to cross

THERE IS NO TOLL ON THE CHAMPLAIN BRIDGE CURRENTLY — BUT THERE WAS, RIGHT UP UNTIL 1990.

Where and when is a toll bridge not a toll bridge? In Quebec, during a federal general election, of course.

Percy Downe, the senator from Prince Edward Island, is upset that islanders have to pay $46.50 to use the Confederation Bridge, yet commuters in Montreal will not have to pay anything to cross the new Champlain Bridge being built across the St. Lawrence.

Downe, who used to be chief of staff to Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien, quizzed Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi when he appeared before the Senate last week on whether the new $4.8-billion Gordie Howe Bridge between Windsor and Detroit will be paid for by tolls.

Sohi confirmed it will be, but the precise amount is not yet available because “you want to structure it in a way where there’s not too much burden on the immediate users.”

By any measure, $46.50 to leave Prince Edward Island is a burden. When Justin Trudeau was on his cross-country tour in January he visited Peterborough, Ont., where he was asked by a student from P.E.I. if there is anything the federal government can do to alleviate the cost for islanders.

“My family lives mostly in New Brunswick and when my grandfather fell ill, my dad was going over two or three times a week. There’s no discount or anything on the bridge for people who go a lot, so it puts an extra burden on my family.”

Trudeau replied that both the Champlain Bridge and Confederation Bridge provide an essential link for the economy of their respective provinces.

“You’re right, it (the Confederation Bridge) is an expensive bridge. It was an expensive bridge to build and it’s an expensive bridge to cross,” he said. But there’s a difference. “The Champlain Bridge is a replacement bridge. There’s an existing bridge that doesn’t have a toll on it,” he said.

The sunny ways doctrine required that the prime minister make the obligatory empathetic noises.

“We will look at what can be done to make sure that people are able to travel freely, travel efficiently and openly across this country at modest cost,” he said.

But Downe said he has not heard about any review of costs for islanders.

“Saturday marked five months since the prime minister made his public commitment. Prince Edward Islanders look forward to Prime Minister Trudeau’s announcement of what he is doing to ensure that they may travel, in the prime minister’s own words, ‘at modest costs’ over Confederation Bridge,” he said.

Downe is frank about the fact that when the $1.3-billion Confederation Bridge opened in 1997 there was general acceptance of the long-standing policy of user pay.

“We agreed to it — we’re happy to have the bridge. I have never said a word about it until the announcement that the Montreal bridge will be free. But you cannot have some people paying a toll and some people not,” he said.

The prime minister’s argument is disingenuous. It’s true there is no toll on the Champlain Bridge currently — but there was, right up until 1990.

A study into the new bridge recommended a toll of between $2.60 and $3.90 would be required to recover the $4 billion or so in construction costs.

But during the 2015 election the Liberals promised the new bridge would be toll-free for users, a pledge that helped turn the Montreal region from orange to red. Yet it is patently unfair. “All three bridges are owned by the government of Canada. So why are taxpayers paying the full construction and maintenance cost of the Champlain Bridge, while users of the other two bridges must pay a toll to cover the construction and maintenance expenses?” Downe asked.

Clearly consistency, not to mention fiscal restraint, means all three should be paid for by users at a level that doesn’t strangle the local economy.

When P.E.I. joined Confederation the government of Canada pledged it would maintain “continuous communications” between the mainland and the island, which it has done ever since through ice boats, ferries and now the bridge.

Nobody said it would be cheap, though — except perhaps Justin Trudeau.

The voters of the four island ridings, which between them have elected just one Conservative since 1988, might be forgiven if they feel they are being taken for granted.