$15M announced for more work on Saint John Harbour Bridge
Ottawa, N.B. each spending more that $7 million for final two phases, end of construction expected in 2026
The funding needed or the third phase of the Harbour Bridge improvement project in Saint John has been secured.
And with just three months of respite from traffic delays and lane closures for the bridge, construction is expected to start up again in April.
On Tuesday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said the federal government is contributing $7.3 million for the last two phases of the bridge project, which is expected to end in 2026.
He also announced up to $2.8 million to allow expansion of Canada Border Services Agency operations at the port to accommodate the number of container ships coming through the port.
Ship and truck traffic both increase
The volume of ships has tripled since 2016, which means the number of trucks and the volume of traffic on the bridge has also increased, Alghabra said, making its rehabilitation project that much more important.
"These improvements will extend the life of the bridge and ensure the steady flow of goods between Saint John, Halifax and the U.S. state of Maine," he said at a news conference in Saint John.
The bridge was built in 1968. Since 2021, lanes have been reduced, and the bridge sometimes totally closed, during the spring, summer and fall months while work continued.
Speaking at the announcement on behalf of Transportation Minister Jeff Carr was Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard, who said the province will also spend $7.7 million for the remaining two phases.
Shepherd said she understands the traffic difficulties.
"We want to thank everyone for their patience as the work that goes on the Harbour Bridge happens. It's not always convenient, but it's so necessary and it's vital to the life of the bridge."
The delays are made worse by drivers not zipper merging. Last year, the province added informational videos and graphics to increase awareness of the importance of the manoeuvre.
The $26.4-million project involves removing existing asphalt, eliminating several expansion joints by installing continuous link slabs, replacing remaining expansion joints, new waterproofing and new asphalt.
Each year, until 2024, the bridge will be reduced to two lanes from early April until late November.
Construction delays in 2022 meant repaving went on until the middle of December.
MP Wayne Long said it's up to the province to decide timelines and plan alternate routes. People can take the Reversing Falls Bridge if they want to avoid the construction, but that bridge needs work as well.
Port expansion continues
Port Saint John vice-president Paula Copeland said that since 2016, when the federal government announced the $205 million port modernization project, the port has gone from a "small" classification, to large.
"We jumped up to the big leagues," she said.
Port Saint John vice-president Paula Copeland says Saint John has the fastest-growing port on the eastern seaboard. (Roger Cosman/CBC)
Since volume is expected to continue to grow, more border officers are required to inspect the containers coming in, she said. To make room for a larger office for these operations, the Saint John Port Authority is spending $2.8 million.
That, as well as the other $2.8 million from the federal government, means the port will have $5.6 million to work with.
Copeland did not give a timeline for the port construction project. She said it will add construction and Border Services jobs to the city.
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Feds to give $12.5M to Port of Belledune for new conveyor system
Port CEO expects the work will be completed within 2 years
The $25 million project will create a "dry bulk conveyor loop," connecting the port's current conveyor systems with the deep-water terminal and the staging area, according to a news release from Transport Canada.
Caron said the rest of the $25 million required for the project will be split, with around $6 million coming from private sector investors and a combined $6-7 million from the port and the province.
He said these conveyor systems will be able to connect directly to large vessels and unload or load dry goods in a more efficient way.
This project is the second one for the port under the National Trade Corridors Fund in the last four years, said Caron. He said it is currently finishing up a $35 million expansion to be completed in the spring. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
While the systems will make the port more effective from an economic standpoint, said Caron, they will also reduce greenhouse gasses.
In the past, Caron said materials would need to be unloaded from the vessels, reloaded onto large trucks, dumped in a storage facility and then shipped out once more using that same equipment.
"So there's a lot of efficiencies in using these conveyor systems because they're able to handle a lot more material. But at the same time, you know, we're reducing our footprint, our carbon footprint, as well," said Caron.
Caron said the Port of Belledune currently handles around 27 different types of dry product, including silica sand, wood pellets and petroleum coke.
The project will also see the renovation of existing storage and the building a new warehouse and transfer tower, said the release.
This project is the second one for Belledune under the National Trade Corridors Fund in the last four years, said Caron.
He said it is currently finishing up a $35 million expansion to be completed in the spring, which is when the planning process for the conveyor project will begin.
Caron said he hopes to be "breaking ground" by fall and he expects the work to be done within two years.
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With files from Shift and Harry Forestell
4 N.B. federal ridings to watch in the 2015 election
Saint John, Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe, Acadie-Bathurst and Madawaska-Restigouche are offering interesting races
The Conservatives won eight of New Brunswick's 10 seats in the last federal election, at the expense of crumbling Liberal support and a stronger-than-normal NDP vote.
While Harper's Tories can still reap some of the benefits that come with incumbency, the party is also dealing with the fallout from unpopular decisions, such as reforms to the Employment Insurance program, a moribund economy and national polls that are showing a tight three-way race.
With roughly six weeks to go before Canadians head to the polls on Oct. 19, there are several races that could swing in favour of any of the three main political parties.
Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe
A car drives by campaign signs for Conservative Robert Goguen and NDP candidate Luc LeBlanc in the riding of Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe. (Denis Calnan/CBC)Goguen, who was a virtual political unknown at the time, squeaked out a win, earning 35.7 per cent of the vote. But the story behind Goguen's victory wasn't as much the strength of the Tory vote, which held roughly the same from the 2008 election.
The Liberal vote in the riding evaporated and the NDP saw a surge in support.
Murphy, a former Moncton mayor, earned 31.2 per cent of the vote, a drop of nearly eight per cent from 2008.
The NDP finished closely behind Murphy with 28.8 per cent of the vote, a rise of 12.5 per cent from the previous campaign.
Moncton had been a safe Liberal seat after electing the party reliably for nearly 20 years, starting in 1993.
Goguen kept a relatively low profile after the election but he found himself facing tough questions in the last two years. The Tory MP ducked questions about the Harper government's controversial EI reforms in 2013 and then downplayed their potential impact.
He also sparked a national controversy when he asked an awkward question during a committee hearing that compared a woman's gang rape to the importance of freedom of expression. Goguen also seemed out of step from the Conservative government on the funding for the new downtown sports and entertainment centre when cabinet ministers refused to confirm the federal assistance.
Goguen's re-election campaign will hinge on trying to cling to the 35 per cent of Tory vote the riding has held in the last two elections and hope the Liberals and NDP continue to fracture the vote.
The Liberals are running Ginette Petitpas Taylor, a former chair of the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women, in the riding. Petitpas Taylor easily defeated Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc for the Liberal nomination in March.
After her victory, Petitpas Taylor said she wanted to be a "people-oriented" MP, a similar refrain to the riding's former, long-time Liberal MP Claudette Bradshaw.
The NDP is hoping Luc LeBlanc will be able to build on the party's progress and wrestle the seat away from the Conservatives.
LeBlanc is a university professor in Moncton.
The Greens are running Luc Melanson.
Madawaska-Restigouche
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair campaigned with the party's northern New Brunswick candidates prior to the election being called. (Bridget Yard/CBC)Valcourt, who represented the northwestern for Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives between 1984 and 1993, won the riding with 40.6 per cent of the vote, an increase of 7.4 per cent based on the Tory support in 2008.
Jean-Claude D'Amours, the incumbent Liberal, earned 35.1 per cent of the vote, but his share of the plummeted by 12.2 per cent.
The NDP finished a distant third with 18.7 per cent in 2011.
Valcourt has lived up to some of the hype that came with his campaign. He was elevated to cabinet and is the minister of aboriginal affairs.
That high profile in the Harper government could backfire on Valcourt, who may have to answer questions about contentious policies, particularly the changes to the EI program.
Valcourt's re-election campaign will also hinge on whether he can hold onto his support in the face of a strong NDP presence and the potential of a renewed Liberal vote.
In the 2014 provincial election, the Liberals won all but one of the ridings in what constitutes the federal Madawaska-Restigouche riding.
The NDP is hoping its popularity in Quebec could spread across the border in northwestern New Brunswick. The party has also lured Rosaire L'Italien, a former Radio-Canada journalist, to run in the riding as a star candidate.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair made a pre-campaign appearance in northern New Brunswick, lending his support to his candidates and in the hope of seeing NDP inroads in the area.
Acadie-Bathurst
Jason Godin (right) puts up a campaign sign with retiring NDP MP Yvon Godin. (Jason Godin/Twitter)Godin's departure meant the northeastern riding that has been a rock solid NDP seat since 1997, when he knocked off high-profile Liberal cabinet minister Doug Young, was put into play.
The question immediately became: was Acadie-Bathurst a NDP riding or simply an Yvon Godin riding?
The Liberals would be the most obvious beneficiary of Godin's retirement.
Until Godin won the riding in 1997, the Liberals had lost the riding only twice (1952-53 and 1984-1988) since 1900.
The Liberals also hold every provincial seat that the federal Acadie-Bathurst riding touches, including cabinet ministers such as Serge Rousselle, Denis Landry and Brian Kenny.
The Liberals are running Serge Cormier in the riding. Cormier's path to unseating the NDP is steep.
Godin won the riding with 69.6 per cent of the vote in 2008 and roughly 25,000 votes ahead of the second-place finisher, Conservative Louis Robichaud.
Robichaud is running again for the Conservatives.
The NDP, meanwhile, are hoping to replace the experience of Yvon Godin with the youth of Jason Godin.
Godin is the mayor of the small northeastern community of Maisonnette. He won the mayor's job in the 2012 municipal election when he was 19 years old.
Now he has his sights set on a seat in the House of Commons and holding the New Brunswick beachhead for the NDP.
Saint John-Rothesay
Liberal candidate Wayne Long is trying to win back support that the Liberals lost in 2011. (CBC)The riding has elected Rodney Weston, a former provincial cabinet minister, in the last two elections but there are signs of NDP strength in the southern New Brunswick riding.
Weston first won the riding since 2008, when he narrowly defeated Liberal Paul Zed by fewer than 500 votes.
Since getting elected, Weston has been involved in negotiating an agreement to have the tolls removed from the Harbour Bridge and, more recently, a $68-million federal investment in the local port.
Despite those major federal investments, Weston has kept a relatively low profile in federal politics.
Weston easily carried the southern New Brunswick riding in 2011 with 49.7 per cent of the vote, as he managed to grow his share of the popular vote by 10 per cent. But the results also exposed a potential liability for the party.
The Liberal vote was decimated. The party only managed to win 16 per cent of the vote and finished a distant third.
NDP candidate Rob Moir, a professor at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, finished in second place with 30.6 per cent of the vote, an increase of 14.7 per cent of the vote from 2008.
The NDP campaign benefited from an appearance from then federal leader Jack Layton.
This time around, the Liberals have nominated Wayne Long, a well-known businessperson and the president of the Saint John Sea Dogs.
However, the Liberals have continued to struggle in Saint John. The provincial Liberals hold only one seat in the city and another on the city's periphery.
Provincially, the Liberal stance against shale gas did not play well in southern New Brunswick. And federally, Long had to distance himself from comments made by his federal leader, Justin Trudeau, about the proposed Energy East pipeline project, which is very popular in the area.
While the NDP had a strong showing in 2011, the party has been slow out of the gate in 2015.
AJ Griffin was acclaimed as the NDP's candidate in mid-August, months after the Liberals had Long in place. Griffin ran provincially in Quispamsis, placing in third position.
The 2011 results in Saint John show the riding is willing to vote for the NDP and recent national polls have indicated the party is popular.
Saint John will be one of the races to watch on Oct. 19 to see if the party can breakthrough in southern New Brunswick.
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He called them interesting is what he did, and he took from different parts the province. What's your gripe with that? Is it that he focused on the ones where Cons are going to sweat?
Now I will sit back and wait for the fun comments.