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May 17, 1999
(Works, Services and Transportation)


The following statement was issued today by Lloyd Matthews, Acting Minister of Works, Services and Transportation. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

It was my pleasure to attend a meeting in Ottawa on May 14, with the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety and, I thought I would take a moment to inform honourable members of the important initiatives discussed, particularly as they relate to the province.

The major topic was the need for a partnership of the provinces and territories with the federal government on a long-term, sustainable highway financing program. Along with provincial counterparts, I endeavoured to impress upon the federal government that a National Highway Program in urgently required. It is required if we are to preserve the current infrastructure; to help the growing economy support social programs; to improve domestic productivity and, to enhance international competitiveness.

I informed Mr. Collenette that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador fully supports a National Highway Program. I advised him that there are a number of highway projects that are vital to the economy of our province including the completion of the Trans Labrador Highway, further upgrading of the Trans Canada Highway in our province and the rehabilitation of the many of our regional trunk highways.

I am pleased to say that the majority of ministers called for the Trans Canada Highway to be free from road tolls. I went to great lengths to stress that tolls on highways in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are having a negative effect on businesses and tourism for our province and that we want them discontinued.

I was also happy to inform the federal minister that the provincial transportation systems for Newfoundland and Labrador are essentially all in compliance with the year 2000 requirements.

MARINE ATLANTIC

At a separate meeting with Mr. Collenette, I did have an opportunity to discuss our serious concerns regarding the gulf ferry service. Mr. Kelvin Parsons, MHA for Burgeo-LaPoile, which includes Port aux Basques joined in for these important discussions. I am pleased to say that Mr. Collenette displayed a significant understanding of the concerns that have been raised by all key stakeholders including independent truckers, Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador, the Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Port aux Basques. Mr. Collennette indicated that Marine Atlantic has both the obligation and mandate to meet traffic offering.

Mr. Collennette indicated that senior management at Marine Atlantic has the opportunity to take appropriate decisions to ensure the capacity during the summer of 1999 and for the foreseeable future is sufficient to meet anticipated demands from truckers and tourists alike.

Our main concern is the need to replace the Atlantic Freighter with a vessel capable of providing the appropriate capacity to meet the traffic offering. We want a multi-purpose vessel that can handle freight demands while also providing quality supplemental passenger services.

Both Mr. Parsons and I informed Mr. Collenette that this government looks forward to an immediate and proactive approach by the senior management of Marine Atlantic to provide this essential additional capacity. Together we advised the minister that the time for action is now and that we can not and will not tolerate the types of problems that we experienced in the past. We want the federal government to live up to the commitments they made under the Terms of Union.

I am delighted to be able to say that the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Municipalities have now joined us in our campaign to display our dissatisfaction with Gulf Ferry Services. The federation represents the majority of our municipalities and we do indeed appreciate the fact that they, along with the many other stakeholders are supportive of our attempt to ensure that we get the type of services to which we are entitled.

I, along with my colleague the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, will be writing a detailed letter to Mr. Collenette to apprise him of our concerns and the action we expect Marine Atlantic to take in this important matter. We will not rest until this issue is resolved to the satisfaction of our stakeholders.

Mr. Collenette did make a commitment to have a new president and chief executive officer for Marine Atlantic in place by the end of the summer of this year.

1999 05 17                              2:50 p.m.


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