A transport advocacy group is recommending highway tolls as the most fair way to cover costs incurred by users.
Transport Action Atlantic president Ted Bartlett says in most examples of highway tolls, passenger vehicles are charged a flat fee, and transport trucks pay per axle.
“If you drive in the United States, you go from Moncton down to Florida, you’re probably going to pay $100 in tolls along the way, it’s the way things are done these days,” says Bartlett. “The user is paying a greater portion of the cost of providing the infrastructure, and that’s only fair. “
Bartlett adds New Brunswick already has unfair “shadow tolls”, because of the public-private partnership highway between Moncton and the Quebec border.
“The government is paying per vehicle a sum of money to the road operator for maintenance and snow clearing, and all those things that have to be done, so it’s being paid out of general revenues, “says Bartlett. “And the burden is not being absorbed fairly by those who are using it, people who don’t even own vehicles are paying a share of the upkeep of that infrastructure.
Bartlett says they will continue to advocate government to make the right decisions, as opposed to ones that are politically popular.
