Premier Campbell Axes Coquihalla Road Tolls

Friday, September 26, 2008 12:07 PM

Premier Gordon Campbell has announced that the Tolls on the Coquihalla highway between Vancouver and Kamloops will be eliminated effective 1pm. today. The tolls had been put in place to pay for the cost of the road. Travellers had paid $10 for each car or small truck and $5 dollars for a motorcycle.

Premier Gordon Campbell has pledged $5.2 million dollars over the next three years to improve internet service to remote areas. Campbell said we must provide the service to the last mile, those people who are on the fringe of the service in BC.

At the same time speaking to the Union of BC Municipalities convention he pledged a further $ 10 million dollars to the “towns for Tomorrow Program”. Communities under 5,000 will receive 80% funding while communities over 5,000 to 15,000 will receive 75% funding towards projects such as water upgrades, or construction of tourist facilities.

The Premier also said that included in the 2009 budget will be funds available for the fresh vegetable program in the province. Campbell said that in the urban areas people take fresh vegetables for granted while in rural areas they may only have them once a week and he said he aims to change that.

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Friday, September 26, 2008 12:07 PM in News by 250 News

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: acrider54 on September 26 2008 1:11 PM

Election coming up. This is the same guy who was going to privitize the highway so rates could be raised.

Posted by: RUEZ on September 26 2008 1:13 PM

Well this is good for trucking companies. Doesn't do much for the rest of us.

Posted by: palomino on September 26 2008 1:26 PM

AWESOME MOVE !! This will not only benefit every citizen in BC monetarily, but will save lives as well ! This means that a lot of big semis that were using the canyon as a detour to save the fifty bucks it used to cost them EACH way, will be out there on the four lane where they belong, not backing up traffic on that winding, narrow canyon road, and duking it out with the tourists rubbernecking the scenery.

This will save many lives over the coming years, and make the canyon drive a world class tourist destination instead of an industrial route !

Well done !!

palomino

Posted by: The_Duke on September 26 2008 1:40 PM

Well this is good for trucking companies. Doesn't do much for the rest of us.

It does lots for anybody that drives the Coq!

Posted by: realitysetsin on September 26 2008 1:45 PM

palomino you hit the nail right on the head.

Posted by: ammonra on September 26 2008 2:02 PM

I would be interested in knowing the final tallies for the highway.

a. How much to build it.
b. How much to maintain it until now.
c. How much raised in tolls.

Posted by: Loki on September 26 2008 2:22 PM

of course Campbell is cutting the toll, now he has implemented the revenue neutral carbon tax to compensate.

Posted by: Hindsight on September 26 2008 2:26 PM

Up next...a toll on the Cariboo CONnector.

Posted by: seamutt on September 26 2008 3:12 PM

This was done for lower mainland votes since Kelowna and area is almost a bedroom community for Vancouver.

Posted by: HD on September 26 2008 5:25 PM

Good move!

Posted by: voter1 on September 26 2008 5:58 PM

To Loki,No such animal as revenue neutral carbon tax,it is a TAX grab to pay for the Olympics and his Convention Center cost overruns..bad..bad..bad man
all we got for the Caribo Connector are blue Twining The CC signs that are now falling down!!
Back to voting NDP next May and I never thought that would happen again,Sure hope they learned their lesson ..

Posted by: Andyfreeze on September 26 2008 9:13 PM

Whatever they give with one hand,they will take back with the other.
There is not a chance in hell they will wipe out the revenue from the Coquihalla and not make it back somewhere else!
No way in hell!
Campbell and his gang need money,lots of money, to feed projects like the Olympics,the Convention center,Sea to Sky,etc.etc.etc.
(notice these projects are all on the lower mainland?)
Oh,and they need some for fat raises too!
There is an election coming in May 2009 so expect a lot more of this smoke and mirrors,but rest assured...we WILL be paying bigtime!
Campbell is an arrogant ass!

Posted by: palomino on September 27 2008 7:49 AM

Well we all know what the NDP would do if it was them that cancelled the tolls, Andy.

They'd probably reinstate their photo radar program, buy a whole new fleet of vans to set up all over the Province again, (especially on the Coquihalla) and send another bunch of cops to New Zealand to learn how to turn the thing on and watch it work automatically.

Posted by: downnotout on September 27 2008 8:04 AM

Right on Andyfreeze They will never bring back photo radar. People in the lower mainland won't stand for it but for myself I wouldn't mind . At least if you got a ticket it wouldn't go against your license and affect your insurance like it does if you are ticketed now. As far as the toll goes it was only supposed to be in place till the highway was paid for. To the best of my knowledge that happened sometime back.

Posted by: netsurfer on September 27 2008 8:33 AM

Andyfreeze says:

"Campbell is an arrogant ass"

This is the best comment so far on this topic.

Posted by: palomino on September 27 2008 10:22 AM

Yeah downnotout, photoradar was especially handy if you were caught speeding while impaired, or didn't have a drivers licence!

Give the car the ticket, not the perpetrator ! No-one wants this kind of activity showing up on his insurance bill.

I'll bet there's "activities" out there that would love to see this method used to "catch" them too !!

Posted by: meinbcbud on September 27 2008 3:51 PM

It would definitely be a good thing as the Olympics travelers will have a safer route to travel by land without being gouged (like the rest of us for that long) to pay for "safe" travel from the interior. It would also improve travel inland for residents escaping the pandemonium during that time or any other. No mater what the motives, it's presently a good move.

Posted by: meinbcbud on September 27 2008 4:17 PM