Securing a Sustainable Future

Improving Infrastructure

Mr. Speaker, investments in our information and communications technology network demonstrate that sound public expenditures can have a profoundly positive effect on the province’s private sector investment climate. This is hardly surprising. We have known for generations that strategic investments in infrastructure such as roads, wharves, and water and sewer can open up remote regions for unprecedented growth. Similarly, allowing public infrastructure to deteriorate can stymie investment and lead to decline. A failure to invest in our future betrays a failure to believe in our future, and unfortunately such pessimism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in 2003 and again in 2007 demonstrated their optimism in our province’s future by electing and re-electing a government that has proven it is prepared to invest in making our future brighter and more secure.

Investments in infrastructure not only improve the climate for investment and improve the quality of life of our citizens, but they also create jobs. Our investments in infrastructure this year will create an estimated 6,500 person-years of employment.

We have already announced an investment this year of $182 million in road improvements, the largest such funding in our province’s history. This includes a record $73 million for the Provincial Roads Improvement Program, an amount 10 per cent higher than last year’s figure, which set a record of its own. Initiatives this year also include an aggressive upgrading program for the national highway system in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Last year, we announced reductions of provincial ferry rates for non-commercial travelers to achieve road equivalency. This year, we are proceeding with Phase 2 of this policy by extending the rate reductions to include commercial travelers and freight. Construction of provincial ferries under our vessel replacement program will commence in 2008, and we are also investing to upgrade ferry terminals and wharves to improve the provincial service.

This year, we will develop a municipal infrastructure investment strategy that will help sustain our small rural municipalities while providing infrastructure support in our province’s growth centres. As we maintain support for basic water and sewer, we will also provide targeted funding for several key initiatives that warrant our attention. This will include $4 million to begin eliminating untreated sewage outfalls, $7 million for strategic projects such as the Corner Brook water treatment facility and the Happy Valley-Goose Bay sewage treatment facility, $5.5 million to proceed with implementation of the provincial solid waste management strategy, and another $1.7 million for fire fighting equipment. We will also leverage federal funding for municipalities over the next three years – $19 million under the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund and $16 million under the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund – and we will administer the $82.3 million federal gas tax rebate program and the $7.6 million federal public transit program that together will promote environmental sustainability.

We are proud of the progress we have made in recent years to improve the safety and quality of our public water supplies through the implementation of the Multi-Barrier Strategic Action Plan for Drinking Water Safety. A number of small rural communities throughout the province, however, remain under boil water advisories and have other issues with their drinking water supplies. Through our municipal infrastructure investment strategy, we are allocating $6 million in capital funding to purchase units required for the development of innovative methods of providing potable drinking water, particularly to small rural communities facing special challenges. Through the Action Plan for Drinking Water Safety, we are also allocating about $1 million this year and in subsequent years for the operation and maintenance of these systems, which will provide many more of our people with access to high quality drinking water.

We have made a commitment to review municipal fiscal policies in consultation with Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador. Historically, the province has absorbed about 65 per cent of infrastructure costs, but some municipalities struggling with declining population bases and dwindling tax bases find it difficult to participate in major capital projects or operate costly systems. This year, we are introducing new cost-sharing ratios for all municipalities for all types of infrastructure in order to enable more of them to invest in the infrastructure they need to grow.

With an investment of $1 million, we will help to eliminate certain barriers to merging such as disproportionate debt loads and special costs associated with regionalizing service delivery. We will also finance a five-year pilot project in regional governance to test the practicality of delivering municipal services over a broad geographic area.