The upcoming annual meeting of the Transportation Association of Canada will provide an opportunity for the federal government to demonstrate its commitment to strengthening the country's crumbling road network by investing in a National Highways Program, says Transportation and Public Works Minister Don MacKinnon.
Minister MacKinnon will be leading a delegation of officials from the Department of Transportation and Public Works to the annual Transportation Association of Canada meetings in Edmonton, Alberta. While there, delegates from the provincial, territorial, and federal government as well as industry will discuss pressing issues in transportation. Chief among them is the need for a National Highways Program.
"For a number of years, the Province of Prince Edward Island has reinvested every penny of fuel tax collected and more back into highway maintenance. This is the result of years of cuts to federal highways funding which has forced the Province to assume an ever increasing portion of the cost to keep our roads up to standard for the safe, efficient movement of people, goods, and services," noted Minister MacKinnon.
Given the ever expanding federal surplus, Minister MacKinnon feels the timing is ideal for the federal government to live up to its responsibility to partner with the provinces to maintain and strengthen the national road network. "The cost of maintaining our national road infrastructure is supposed to be shared equally between the Province and the federal government. Presently, the Government of Canada contributes no money towards that cost and we're hopeful that Minister Collenette will be able to convince his Cabinet colleagues, in light of the ballooning federal surplus, of the importance of restoring funding to the provinces through a National Highways Program," observed Minister MacKinnon.