Photography by John Lehmann
The MLA for Kamloops South, and a former Transportation minister, says two highway expansion projects announced this week by the NDP government are anything but new.
Todd Stone says he is very familiar with the highway project announced in the Premier’s Sooke riding as well as the major expansion of highway one from Langley to Aldergrove.
“This was a project that we announced back on March 28th, 2017. It is much needed. It was actually part of a four phase plan that we announced two years prior to that to six lane all the way to Whatcom Road in Abbotsford. Frankly you need to six lane all the way to Chilliwack these days. It is bumper to bumper pretty much seven days a week.”
While Stone applauds the province for finally moving ahead with the work he says that is anything but the case for long promised four laning of the Trans-Canada east of Kamloops.
He says packaged together stretches of highway improvements that would have seen the highway expanded to four lanes from Hoffmans Bluff to the other side of Chase is now two years behind schedule and counting.
“The funding was all secured with the federal government and funding was secured with the Treasury Board here in British Columbia. It was shovel ready to get on with the first project in the fall of 2017. We are a full two years behind this project actually moving forward and they haven’t even awarded a tender yet. They are still in the RFP stage we hear.”
Stone says the NDP government’s Community Benefits Agreement, the requirement for labour from specific unions only is “probably central for the delay.”
He also questions why Community Benefits Agreement does not apply to the work to expand the Trans-Canada from Langley to Aldergrove.
