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Index of Subjects Thanks to sust-mar subscribers who let NDP campaign staff know that Marcus Garnett:'s letter had been posted to this list. For your further information, here is the follow-up letter I sent him. It turns out he had difficulty accessing the NDP platform on the web. He has offered further useful suggestions on priorities for transportation spending, in his last e-mail today. He wrote, in part: >>> "Marcus Garnet" <garnetm@region.halifax.ns.ca> 07/02/99 09:29AM >>> I am not opposed to strategic investment in better roads, but this NDP announcement sounds too much like the old Liberals and Tories trying to bribe us with our own money, without an overall strategy for integrated, balanced and sustainable transportation for Nova Scotia. By now, the complete platform paper should be up on our web site [www.robertchisholm.net], but for your information, I'm including a fairly extensive excerpt below to show that the platform acknowledges the relationship among various transportation modes, and calls for a comprehensive transportation policy. As you may know, the NDP platform focuses on a limited number of specific spending commitments, not to the exclusion of other priorities, but to avoid the pitfall of making 243+ promises and actually telegraphing that we don't intend to do any of them. Your points about public transit are well taken. Public transit, the role of rail and the future of the major ports are just some of the issues that must be addressed by a comprehensive transportation policy. It can't be done properly overnight, and in the meantime, an NDP government would proceed with the specific commitments outlined. I hope this and the excerpt below help answer the concerns you have raised. Dan O'Connor Chief of Staff Access to jobs, education and health care for communities is dependent on a safe and reliable transportation network. The deterioration of rail transport has put more pressure on roads. Rather than increasing spending on roads to respond to increased demand, both federal and provincial governments have been cutting back. The last two budgets of the MacLellan Liberals slashed over $50 million from road construction and improvement. Federal spending on roads in Nova Scotia dropped 80 per cent this year. . The impact of Liberal neglect of roads can be seen almost anywhere in the province, but it's most noticeable on secondary rural roads. Some communities find themselves virtually cut off from health and education services by bad roads, while poor transportation links hamper economic development. At the same time as these communities are looking desperately for improvements to their transportation lifeline, other communities are justifiably urging completion of the twinning of the 100 series highways. The Liberal and Tory response to these legitimate needs has been to slash spending while letting partisan politics rather than planning guide their actions. Much needed paving was done on the road going past the Highway Minister's home, but most other urgently needed paving was left undone. Within one year an NDP government will act to ensure good roads and safer roads, as part of a larger plan to invest in the economic lifelines to Nova Scotia communities. An NDP government will: * enact a Road Improvements Act based on one already introduced in the Legislature, to replace the Liberals' secretive and politically-motivated approach to setting highway priorities with an open system that establishes priorities based on legislated criteria, and keeps the priority list on the public record; * establish a Road Improvement Fund that in its first year will have $21 million to: invest $10 million to upgrade the secondary roads most in need of repaving or paving; in consultation with affected communities, decide which stretch of Highway 101 is most dangerous and twin it next year; * within the framework of a comprehensive transportation strategy, develop a ten-year plan for highway investment; * mount a concerted campaign to pressure the Federal government into accepting its responsibility to contribute to 100 series highways. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- You received this because you are subscribed to "sust-mar", the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list. To unsubscribe, send email to <majordomo@chebucto.ns.ca> with "unsubscribe sust-mar" (without quotes) as the body of your message. To post a message to sust-mar subscribers, send it to <sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca> Posts that are off-topic or excessive length (10K) will be rejected. For help contact <sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
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