Funding: Transportation minister says province won't be chipping in for repairs on Harbour Bridge

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Reid Southwick
Telegraph-Journal

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SAINT JOHN - The Liberal government has earmarked more than $180 million for repairing and building bridges across the province since 2007, but it has not - and will not - spend a penny on the Harbour Bridge, says Transportation Minister Denis Landry.

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Rodney Weston

David Smith

Denis Landry

The province is not responsible for the bridge and will not play any role in supporting much-needed upgrades that are estimated to cost up to $35 million, Landry said.

The Department of Transportation has merely agreed to send a letter to the federal government, supporting the Harbour Bridge Authority's request for assistance to replace the bridge's deck.

"One of our main concerns about this department is safety on our road network and bridges, but this bridge (the Harbour Bridge) is not ours," Landry said. "I don't want to be taken as being rude, but truly we're not going to spend a penny on that bridge."

The province's refusal now leaves the bridge authority's bank, Ottawa and possibly the city to fund the replacement of the bridge's deck, the biggest and most expensive upgrade in its history.

Saint John MP Rodney Weston said he was continuing to look for ways to support the renovation project, scrap the bridge's tolls and eliminate its debt. He said the province must also accept its responsibility to look after the bridge.

"The provincial government keeps referring to it as a federal bridge. It's not a federal bridge," Weston said before Landry revealed the province will not provide any financial support. "For them to suggest that they bear no responsibility is not accurate at all."

An official in Weston's office said the MP did not have anything more to add.

The Harbour Bridge Authority owns the bridge, not any one level of government, said Ken Anthony, general manager of the bridge authority. The federal government provided the initial loan to build the transportation link, but does not own any part of the asset, Anthony said.

"It's fine for people to say, it's not my problem, it's their problem," Anthony said. "But it's going to come to a point where it's everybody's problem, because we need to get the loan in place to get the work done that we need to do."

Coun. Bill Farren said the other two levels of government should recognize the bridge is part of a transportation network that is critical for the movement of goods and services across southern New Brunswick and into the United States.

The bridge sees an average of 30,000 vehicles a day, up to a high of about 43,000. Last month, nearly one million vehicles travelled across the bridge that connects Highway 1 on either side of the Saint John Harbour.

"You put that (volume of traffic) on the Reversing Falls Bridge and see what happens," said Farren, also a commissioner of the bridge authority. "The commerce of Atlantic Canada will slowly come to a standstill if anything happens to that bridge."

The bridge authority has warned it may have to reduce speeds and traffic lanes by as early as the summer to minimize the impact of vehicular traffic, if officials cannot secure any money from government or the bank.

Landry said he appreciated this concern but he insisted the bridge was not the province's responsibility.

Asked if he felt any duty to provide any degree of support for the repairs, Landry said, "We're trying to give the Harbour Bridge Authority moral support, plus we are ready to write a letter to our counterparts, the feds, to support their demands."

The provincial government has set aside about $182.4 million for bridge repair and construction since the 2007/2008 fiscal year. Of that amount, nearly $93 million was spent in previous years, while the remaining funds were budgeted for the 2009/2010 fiscal year.

Premier Shawn Graham has sent federal officials a formal pitch to take over the Harbour Bridge. Graham asked Ottawa to remove the bridge's tolls, forgive the $22-million bridge debt and pay $185 million for immediate repairs and future maintenance.

Graham wrote that if these and other conditions are met by April 2010, the province would take ownership and control of the bridge. The federal government has not yet responded.