OTTAWA – It is time for a multi-billion dollar upgrade of Canada’s aging national highway system, says the House of Commons transport committee.
But how to pay for it is yet to be determined.
Committee chair, Winnipeg Liberal MP Reg Alcock, told a news conference Dec. 17 one possibility is a deal between private operators and the government.
It would allow private investors to own and invest in roads while receiving annual payments from the government, based on the amount of traffic.
The idea is one of several to be debated during a Jan. 22 Ottawa meeting between the transport committee and transportation and financial players.
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The committee hopes to make its recommendations to the finance minister in early February, before his winter budget.
“Our economy can’t afford bad roads and governments can’t afford to do the extensive work by themselves,” said Alcock, who told reporters he was speaking for all political parties represented on the committee. “How do we resolve this problem?”
Toll roads unacceptable
He said the committee has concluded that user-pay toll roads would not be acceptable to Canadians.
And MPs are reluctant to agree that a portion of federal fuel tax revenues be dedicated to paying for road improvements.
“If you start down the path of dedicated revenues, why stop at roads?” he said.
The Commons transport committee has been holding hearings on the transportation system and its importance for trade and tourism industries.
Alcock said MPs realized that while the federal government has been dealing with the rail, airline and marine sectors, the nation’s highway system has been languishing.
“The one thing that became apparent is that if there is one sector that is falling into disrepair, it is our road system,” he told reporters.
He said most tourism traffic and at least 40 percent of the trade with the United States and Mexico depends on roads.
Yet in many cases, the 25,000-kilometre national highway system, which is a federal-provincial responsibility, has been deteriorating and as many as 790 of the 3,354 bridges which are part of the system need repair.
The work to bring that system up to required standards would cost an estimated $13 billion over 10 years.
Alcock said private sector investors are willing to become involved if governments agreed to provide guaranteed funding based on traffic volumes. He said it is a model of “shadow tolls” developed in Britain.
However, the committee recommendation does not affect deteriorating secondary roads on the Prairies, now subject to increased grain truck traffic because of rail-line abandonment.
That remains a problem for provinces and rural municipalities.
“Let’s figure out a way to fix the national system and then we can look at the secondary system,” said the Winnipeg MP.
