The New Brunswick government should consider bringing back tolls on the Fredericton-Moncton Highway as a way to help dig the province out of its sizeable deficit, according to a former Liberal Transportation minister.

Sheldon Lee served as the province’s Transportation minister from 1987 to 1999 and was responsible for pushing forward with the plan to twin the Trans-Canada Highway between Fredericton and Moncton.

Lee said the highway was desperately needed to help save lives but so too are the highway tolls to save the provincial government from its financial problems.

"I don’t know if we’d find a government from either party that has the stomach to put the tolls back on. But I think they should be back on," Lee said in an interview on Thursday.

"The financial situation of the province now, they need that money."

The New Brunswick government announced last week the province’s projected deficit is now projected to be $514 million, an increase of $65.5 million from the estimate last March.

The Frank McKenna government began discussing the idea of using tolls to pay for the highway project in the early 1990s.

Before McKenna left office in 1997, he started the process that led to a public-private partnership used to build the four-lane highway between Moncton and Fredericton.

The provincial government started collecting tolls in 1998 on a section of highway in River Glade, near Moncton, to start paying for the project.

With the benefit of hindsight, Lee said he believes that early toll booth was a bad idea.

"I personally had a real problem with that but it was a cabinet decision. Anyway, it was done. I think it was a bit of a mistake but the bigger mistake is taking and removing the tolls all together. I think it was a big, big mistake," Lee said.

The former transportation minister said he blames the trucking lobby for the downfall of the tolls.

After the provincial government announced plans to toll the four-lane highway, Lee said reaction from the trucking industry was swift and strong.

He said he believes that group was eventually responsible for having the tolls removed under Bernard Lord's Progressive Conservative government.

"They met with me, and told me they were not going to tolerate it, and they were successful in convincing Mr. Lord to remove the tolls," he said.

Lord’s Tories won a landslide government in June 1999 and by December they had struck a tentative agreement to have the tolls removed.

The 195-kilometre, four-lane highway was opened on Oct. 23, 2001 without any tolls.

The tolls have remained a source of controversy even in the last decade.

Lee said he believes the tolls are still the most fair way to pay for the highway, which cost almost $1 billion to construct.

"Everybody's paying, you and I are paying for the big trucking firms from central Canada, Atlantic Canada and the United States," he said.

Despite the toll controversy, Lee said he’s very proud that the highway started under his watch.

The former transportation minister said the highway was critical for saving lives of people driving along the highway.

"We have saved dozens and dozens of lives based on the stats from before the highway was open," he said.