The NDP’s transportation and infrastructure renewal critic says the provincial Liberals blocked a request for a report on the cost of using a public-private partnership to twin Hwy. 104 between Antigonish and Sutherlands River.
Susan Leblanc says the Liberals should have released the information, but they rejected CUPE reps’ request for the data.
Leblanc tells The Hawk residents have a right to know what happens with their tax dollars.
“If the government is so bent of using P3s, we need to know why; it’s untenable that Nova Scotians don’t know why the government is choosing- or how they’re choosing- to spend millions and millions of dollars,” she says. “I would like to see the government offer evidence- their evidence- as to why P3s are so much better than traditional builds; so far, the government has refused to release any of those reports.”
Leblanc says she hasn’t seen any evidence the Hwy. 104 twinning project would be more cost effective as a P3.
She says she doesn’t believe arguments for using a P3 model hold up.
“I just don’t buy the premise that we can’t possibly do it because we don’t have the resources,” she says. “If we have the resources to spend on someone else doing it, we can do it.”
Leblanc says she doesn’t believe a private company is better suited to build infrastructure faster or more cheaply than provincial officials.