NLIS 5
December 5, 2005
(Transportation and Works)
 

Minister clarifies National Highway System designation

Transportation and Works Minister Trevor Taylor said Cartwright L�Anse Au Clair MHA Yvonne Jones is clearly ignoring the facts in suggesting that a piece of highway in Labrador was traded off in exchange for having a road in the former minister�s district of Lewisporte included in the National Highway System.

"The criteria for inclusion in the National Highway System is very clear and Route 340 between the Trans-Canada Highway and Lewisporte qualifies and Route 516 from Cartwright to Goose Bay Junction does not," Minister Taylor said. "Those are the facts. Route 340 has the volume of traffic required to qualify under the National Highway System and that stretch of road in Labrador does not."

Minister Taylor is calling on Ms. Jones to stand in the House of Assembly today and withdraw her accusation against former transportation minister Tom Rideout.

"Despite the criteria being clearly laid out in black and white in the National Highway System Review Task Force Report, Ms. Jones publicly accused the former transportation minister of using political influence to have certain roads included," Minister Taylor said. "She was clearly given the facts inside the House of Assembly on Thursday after raising it in Question Period, and then she turned around and issued a press release casting the same aspersions the following day."

The National Highway System Task Force Report was accepted in September. As a result of the report, the National Highway System in this province more than doubled, from 955 kilometres to 2,469 kilometres. A 15-kilometre stretch of Route 340 from the Trans-Canada Highway to the marine terminal in Lewisporte was included under the criteria for a core route network. The province is committed to having as much of the main trunk roads in the province as possible included under the National Highway System to increase the province�s share of federal funding for highways.

Media contact: Tracy Barron, Communications, (709) 729-3015, 691-3577

BACKGROUNDER

Canada�s National Highway System was established in 1988 as a result of a federal-provincial-territorial cooperative study of the investment needs of key interprovincial and international highway linkages.

In 2004, Transport Canada reviewed the criteria used to identify the National Highway System, which resulted in a proposal to add additional routes. The Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety approved the additions in September 2004, and directed that further review be done on a two-tiered system, using a criteria-based approach.

A two-tiered National Highway System was developed comprising of three category routes:

  • Core Routes: Key interprovincial and international corridor routes, including links to key intermodal facilities (a section of road connecting a core route to another form of transportation ie: marine or rail) and major border crossings that connect with core routes.
  • Feeder Routes: Key links to core routes from population and economic centres.
  • Northern and Remote Routes: Key links to core and feeder routes that provide the primary means of access to northern and remote area, economic activities and resources
  • Eligibility criteria and thresholds were developed for each of these categories, and were used to evaluate candidate routes proposed by the provinces and territories. As a result, Newfoundland and Labrador now has 2,469 kilometres of road designated as part of the National Highway System.

    Route 340 between the Trans-Canada Highway and the marine terminal in Lewisporte was included as part of the National Highway System under the Core Route Network Criteria. Specifically, Route 340 qualified under the category of intermodel links (a short section of highway connecting a core route to a marine facility) in having a minimum of 100 trucks per day in each direction or facilitating a certain volume of container traffic. Route 516 between Cartwright and Goose Bay Junction does not meet the same criteria, or the criteria for inclusion under the other two categories.

    The National Highway System Task Force Report can be found on the Web at //www.comt.ca/english/NHS-Report-English.pdf

    See criteria for core routes, feeder routes and northern remote routes on pages 24-27.

    2005 12 05                     1:30 p.m.


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