DTI

PC MLAs and municipal leaders are slamming the Holt government for suspending sand services at Department of Transportation and Infrastructure garages.

Since Tuesday, several Progressive Conservative MLAs and municipal leaders, including Sussex-Three Rivers MLA Tammy Scott-Wallace, St. Croix MLA Kathy Bockus, Grand Bay-Westfield Mayor Brittany Merrifield and Fundy Shores Mayor Denny Cogswell, have taken to social media to oppose the province’s decision to phase out its free sand service, which has helped residents prevent slips and falls on icy surfaces for years.

They are calling on the province to reverse its decision, claiming it will affect low-income residents and rural communities.

As part of their efforts, the Opposition critic for DTI and Kings Centre MLA Bill Oliver sent a letter to Premier Holt and DTI Minister Chuck Chiasson on Tuesday.

In the letter, Oliver said the province’s decision is causing a “great deal of concern.”

He added that the program carries a minimal cost for the province, in the range of $200,000, which he said is only a fraction of DTI’s $680-million budget.

Oliver noted this was also the case during the previous government’s tenure, where the same idea was suggested to previous ministers to cut costs in the department’s budget.

“Based on common sense, logic, and reason, we rejected proposals, on more than one occasion, from DTI bureaucrats to cut this program,” he said.

Oliver ends the letter noting the cost of the service is “ridiculous” in comparison to the potential costs New Brunswick’s health-care system could accrue if a few people became hospitalized after slipping and falling on icy sidewalks.

In an interview with Acadia Broadcasting on Tuesday, Oliver said the Opposition decided to take the matter on its own hands after rumors of the service being phased out had been circulating for the past couple of weeks and the province had not made an official statement.

Oliver contacted DTI’s local regional manager for Saint John, who confirmed the department had stopped the service.

Oliver believes most residents will be affected by this decision, but said rural communities will be hit the hardest.

“Almost half of our province is made up of people who live in rural New Brunswick, and it becomes even more difficult for them to access this and they have to travel a ways to get it,” he said. “It was always convenient to go to the local garage and pick up a couple of buckets of sand.”

Oliver said the decision was unfortunate, noting the service cost the province relatively little while providing significant safety benefits for residents.

He added that it was disappointing to learn the government had moved forward with this decision without providing an official statement.

Oliver noted that this is not the first time DTI had made decisions without disclosing them.

“I know in my riding alone, they’ve been doing some on different projects that people didn’t know and all of a sudden, there is a detour or something has changed in the traffic pattern that they have to use,” he said. “It would be nice if the department had better communications with the public so that we don’t get into these situations where it’s a shock to the citizenry.”

Oliver is not aware of the government’s reasoning to phase out the service, but suspects it’s related to their efforts to make cuts amid an almost $1.7 billion budget deficit.

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However, Oliver, who also served as DTI minister from 2018 to 2020 under Blaine Higgs, argued the province already budgets for winter maintenance based on seasonal needs and stocks its salt and sand sheds in advance. He said keeping a few public-use sand trucks operating would add little cost to the province.

“We have to address every storm that comes along, so we never know how much we are going to spend,” he said.

Oliver said that as the new legislative session begins next week, the opposition plans to continue to question the government, demand answers on the costs, and push for a reversal of the decision.

Acadia Broadcasting reached out to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure for comment, but did not receive a response before the deadline.