Transportation and Public Works Minister Gail Shea today announced that a major expansion to the National Highway System (NHS) on Prince Edward Island has been agreed upon at a national transportation meetings being held in Calgary.
“Today’s agreement marks the end of a long road for Prince Edward Island,” said Shea. “Since 2003 we have been able to successfully negotiate with our federal, provincial and territorial partners to add an extra 247 kilometers of Island road to the National Highway System, including nearly the entire provincial arterial highway network. It’s taken many long hours of work to reach this point today but now that the exercise is done we can see real results and long-term benefits for Prince Edward Island. I’m very pleased.”
The current National Highway System consists of 27,608 km of highway across Canada. Today's additions will grow that figure to 38,021 km. The NHS on Prince Edward Island will grow by 188 kilometers to nearly 400 kilometers of road in total. Prince Edward Island’s NHS roads now include:
* All of Route 2 (Veterans Memorial Highway) from Tignish to Souris
* Route 1A from Albany to Travellers Rest
* All of Route 3
* Route 1 (Trans Canada Highway) from Borden-Carleton to Wood Islands
Classification as an NHS road is a requirement to be eligible for federal funding partnership opportunities. Prince Edward Island's arterial network plays a key role in the province's transportation infrastructure and supports ongoing economic and community development.
Premier Pat Binns welcomed news of the NHS expansion. “This is an issue that our government has been working on for some time now. This breakthrough helps strengthen the work underway by the Council of the Federation to seek larger reinvestment of fuel tax across Canada. Such a reinvestment would bring economic, environmental and safety benefits to many Island communities. This agreement will provide us with the flexibility to develop meaningful funding partnerships with the federal government to improve the safety and quality of strategic road infrastructure on Prince Edward Island,” said Premier Binns.
Shea also congratulated federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre for his continued leadership in helping develop a national framework to address road infrastructure issues in a timely and productive manner.