Bridge debt a 'mortgage you can never repay': Saint John MP

Saint John MP Paul Zed is asking Ottawa to cancel the debt on the Harbour Bridge less than one week after the federal government approved a plan to double its toll.

In a letter to Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon,Zed says Saint John residents have more than paid for the bridge.

He says that when the bridge was built four decades ago, it costabout $18 million. Since then, he adds, residents have paid about $23 million through tolls. Despite that, $23 million remains on the span's debt.

"There's something flawed with this model," says Zed."It's basically a mortgage that you can never repay."

Healso has asked the transport minister to suspend the toll increase due to take effect Jan. 1.

The cost of crossing the Harbour Bridge has not changed since 1968, the same year Pierre Trudeau won the Liberal leadership and NASA prepared for a moon landing.

Commuters pay just 15 cents with a token or pass. Otherwise, it's a quarter per crossing. The price goes up to 50 cents next month, and another increase has been promised within five years.

The bridge is the only toll road in New Brunswick, and Saint John residents don't like having to pay.

But they don't have a choice, according to Ken Anthony, general manager of the Saint John Harbour Bridge Authority, who says 15 cents doesn't go as far as it used to.

A tale of two bridges

Anthony says the authority had to double the toll to pay for a 10-year plan tocut the debt andgive the spana much needed facelift.

"Once our plan is complete, then we'll have a completely refurbished bridge and we'll have paid our debt off."

That is, if people keep using it.

Reversing Falls bridge also connects uptown to the rest of Saint John, but for free. Long the choiceof drivers who don't like paying tolls, it may soon have a lot more traffic.

Mary Boyce is one resident who says her days of taking the Harbour Bridge are over.

"I will be taking the Reversing Falls bridge a lot more just to save some money and in some ways to put a snub to the government, or whoever put the increase in," she said. "Saying 'No, I'm not taking your bridge. I'm going to go another way. They're not going to get my money."