Fredericton: The Union representing highway workers is asking the government to reconsider the use of a public private partnership for the twinning of the entire length of Route 1 from the United States border at St. Stephen.

“Studies have proven over and over again that the use of P3’s to build and maintain highways is not cheaper as politicians would lead us to believe, said Andrew Hardy, President of CUPE 1190.

The highway between Moncton and Fredericton – a P3 – is a good example of this. Each year, the province is paying MRDC, a private company, $10 million just to maintain the highway.

“The Minister of Finance stated that the private sector could do it quicker than the government can. We would like to know if the Minister asked his colleague, the Minister of Transportation, for input on how to build the new highway? We recently met with the Minister of Transportation, Denis Landry, who told us that they would not use the P3 model to build that road,” said Hardy.

The President of CUPE New Brunswick, Daniel Léger, believes the government is losing an opportunity to come out of the economic crisis well positioned by letting multinational corporations own and operate our transportation routes while the tax payer foots the bill.