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Tolls coming

Record traffic rough on roads

Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 25/01) - While crews start fixing highways battered by a record number of trucks over winter, bureaucrats are polishing off a toll road proposal that could collect $100 million over the next four years.

This toll will result in a cost to each Yellowknife household of $275 per year in the form of higher-priced goods, Finance Minister Joe Handley said.

Highways Superintendent Mike Elgie said last week record truck numbers are damaging roads. The Ingraham Trail supported the burden of almost 8,000 truck loads hauling 240,000 tons of mining gear over the winter, and even more weight was hauled across Highway 3, linking Rae- Edzo and Yellowknife.

It will be another week before most repairs can begin.

"There's still frost in the ground now. For now we're just grading and applying gravel," Elgie said.

Assistant deputy Transportation minister Doug Howard admits "we're having difficulty keeping up with the maintenance requirements on the highway system."

That's why the GNWT came up with a highway investment strategy -- a plan to raise money through tolls to "bring roads up to a better standard and to deal with some of the damage caused by all the heavy trucking," Howard said.

A law allowing road charges is set to be tabled in June's legislative session. Next month the toll plan will be unveiled to the public. The GNWT spends $20 million a year on highways, but the amount is less than half what road maintenance supervisors would like to see.

Highway toll money will be put into a special trust fund that can't be touched by other departments, Howard said.

"The likelihood of a toll booth is pretty remote. We're not stopping every truck and asking them to put 50 cents in a box," Howard said. Toll systems used in other parts of Canada are being studied, but Howard would not say which type of collection system the government will likely impose.

The toll will be levied on all loaded commercial vehicles based on weight and distance travelled, Howard said.

"We're just working on the details. We're trying to keep it as simple as possible."

The government hopes to start its highway spending spree later this year.