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A Nova Scotia politician is urging the New Brunswick premier to reconsider newly announced plans to introduce a toll near the provincial boundary.
Premier Susan Holt’s government announced the toll in its provincial budget Tuesday, estimating it would bring in $10.4 million annually once in place in 2028. New Brunswick Finance Minister René Legacy said the toll would be imposed on out-of-province vehicles on the Trans-Canada Highway by Aulac, N.B.
Independent member of the Nova Scotia legislative assembly, Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, said going ahead with the toll will hurt many residents in her constituency of Cumberland North who travel across the provincial boundary regularly for work, shopping and medical appointments.
“This creates a serious fairness issue for Cumberland County residents, who rely on the Aulac corridor as part of everyday life,” Smith-McCrossin said in a letter to Holt that she shared on social media.
Smith-McCrossin said Nova Scotians and New Brunswickers who live near the provincial boundary represent a single connected community, and it does not make sense to create this proposed barrier at a time when Maritime provinces should be working together to prioritize economic growth.
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She said that if New Brunswick is unwilling to reconsider this toll, it should “at minimum” provide an exemption for the residents of Cumberland County, “whose connections to southeastern New Brunswick are long-standing, necessary, and deeply rooted in shared family, economic, and health care realities.”
Holt’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New Brunswick government officials said on Tuesday that the Aulac region was chosen because it’s the best catchment area for non-residential traffic. They said they are unable to introduce a toll close to a provincial boundary with Quebec, near Edmundston, N.B., due to an existing agreement with the federal government that does not allow tolls there.
Smith-McCrossin said, “whether intended or not, the decision gives the appearance that Nova Scotians, and especially residents of our border communities, are being singled out to bear a new burden without consultation.”
Megan Mitton, the Green Party member who represents the district of Memramcook-Tantramar where the toll would be located, also urged the Holt government to consult the public.
“We need to have a discussion about exactly what all of this means. This is kind of blindsiding to the region of Tantramar,” she told reporters, adding that Tantramar and the Amherst, N.S., region, on the other side of the boundary, are “like one big community.”
She said she was worried about how it would affect Nova Scotians who regularly frequent her area to shop and work.
“Many people travel across the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick (boundary) daily to work, to take care of relatives, to do lots of things, to spend money,” Mitton said on Tuesday.
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