Ridings with government MLAs got more money for road, bridge work: N.B. Greens

The New Brunswick Green Party says it has proof more money goes to roadwork for ridings with MLAs in the government.

Green Party MLA Megan Mitton says she’s received data through a right-to-information (RTI) request that shows politics may have played a role in how roadwork funding was allocated in the past.

It’s a long-standing rumour that government MLAs could get more money for local transportation work in their ridings, versus the MLAs in opposition.

Mitton shared in the New Brunswick legislature Wednesday that, after requesting the information several times from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, she’s found several ridings where funds increased after the government of the day changed from Brian Gallant’s Liberals to Blaine Higgs’ Progressive Conservatives.

“My right-to-information request also uncovered that there has been an additional top-up for the minister of Transportation and Infrastructure of the day. For example, in the 2024 budget, the riding of Carleton-York received a 120 per cent increase and accounted for 15 per cent of the total fund that year. The numbers are clear. The ridings with government MLAs got more money to spend on roads, bridges,” she said.

The Green Party provided reporters with the data included in the RTI.

It doesn’t appear to be the case in all ridings, but there are dramatic increases in some.

According to the documents, in 2019-20, the riding of Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou (now known as Shippagan-Les-Îles) was represented by PC MLA Robert Gauvin. That year, the riding received $200,500 in district project funding.

Gauvin sat as an independent the following year, after resigning from Blaine Higgs’ cabinet over proposed health-care reforms. That year, the riding saw $50,000.

“I’m not the only New Brunswick group that had a feeling that things weren’t fair, but now that we have the numbers, it’s quite upsetting to see politics being played with people’s safety,” Mitton told reporters.

The current Minister of Transportation Chuck Chiasson said he’s already made changes to ensure funding is equitable.

“Imagine my shock when I see that my predecessor, the minister before me, actually had $1 million, over $1 million, in his county project money. And, I mean, that was just ridiculous to me. And it stood out like a sore thumb. And so I talked to staff and I said, ‘We need to do something because this is going to come out,’” he said.

Chiasson told reporters there’s now a formula in place.

Now, any MLA who represents a riding that has provincial roads receives a ‘base amount.’ The rest is divided up, based on the percentage of provincial roads they have in their riding.

“If they have one per cent of the provincial roads, they get one per cent of the pot,” he said.

To questions from reporters on the numbers, PC opposition leader Glen Savoie says some of the increases or decreases could be due to “asset management requirements” within a riding that saw it need more money.

“I do know that back in the Shawn Graham years, there was a system put in place called asset management. Asset management was meant to make sure that roads got the upgrades that they needed, when they needed, and tried to eliminate political interference. To my knowledge, that system is still in place,” he said.

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