News release

Investment Pays Off with Jobs and Safer Highways, op-ed

Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (Oct. 2007 - Feb. 2021)

NOTE: The following is an op-ed piece from Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Minister Maurice Smith.


The province is repairing more roads and keeping more communities strong.

Since 2009, more than $1 billion has been invested in paving and repaving roads and highways across the province. It's record-breaking. The investment is generating jobs, helping to support economies and keeping our roads and highways safe.

This is a significant investment, particularly at a time when the province is committed to a balanced budget. That's why the province is working hard to make sure each and every dollar counts and generating savings where possible. The province is responsible for more than 23,000 kilometres of road and 4,100 bridges. There is a lot of maintenance work to do.

The chip seal operation saved $2 million last year. That money was reinvested in road work. The in-house chip seal work started last year, with one crew, to introduce competition to the industry and to maximize taxpayer dollars. In previous years, the province was paying private industry $91,000 per kilometre of double chip seal. In 2011, the province paid $40,000 per kilometre for tendered work. If the province had not started its own in-house crew, there would be no increased competition - no reason for industry to start reducing their prices. Taxpayers would still be paying top dollar.

The new mobile asphalt plant will start up next week in Victoria County. This initiative will also help get better prices in areas where there had been little competition. We're looking forward to seeing similar savings as we did with chip seal.

An important point that often gets lost is this. The total budget for highway work this year is $281 million. Of that, the chip seal crew will only do $6 million worth of the work. The mobile asphalt plant will do about $10 million. This represents a very small percentage of the overall capital program. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts are still awarded to private industry.

Since 2010, when the province introduced its first 5-Year Highway Improvement Plan, there have been 1,900 kilometres of roads paved and 400 kilometres of roads resurfaced. This year another 500 kilometres of paving is planned and another 200 kilometres of resurfacing. There is a lot of road work that needs to get done. And by paying less we will be paving more.