The minister of transportation and infrastructure says he’s playing catchup on roadwork in PC districts because many of them have been ignored by the Liberal government for the past ten years.
Barry Petten delivered the roads budget last week, reducing the amount allocated to $250-million from $340-million.
Petten told VOCM Open Line that he was taken by surprise when he approached officials in his department to fill him in on where the worst spots in the province are. To his dismay, they told him that the greatest need – by far – is in PC districts.
“Six or seven of them were PC districts. I figured maybe three or four but, no, six or seven. So they have been neglected for the last ten years so a lot of work has to be done just to get them to acceptable levels,” says Petten.
Opposition member and former minister Elvis Loveless is concerned by that approach. The Bay d’Espoir Highway, the gateway to his district of Fortune Bay Cape La Hune, is a busy road but Loveless says no money in the budget was allocated to his district, other than what was committed by the Liberal administration in last year’s budget.
“It’s unfortunate, and I believe it’s an attack on rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Again, overpromising and not being able to deliver.”
