Ten years after the Government of Canada announced they were removing tolls on the Champlain Bridge in Montreal, thereby abandoning the longstanding and successful user-pay policy for federal transportation infrastructure, Islanders are finally getting some relief on transportation costs as well.

Prince Edward Islanders are not getting any special treatment, only long overdue results. Given that both the Champlain Bridge in Montreal - which cost over $4 billion to build - and Confederation Bridge - which cost $1 billion - are owned by the Government of Canada, Islanders had long wondered why this double standard where some Canadians benefitted from a toll-free bridge, while others were stuck paying $50 to cross, was not being corrected. 

When Confederation Bridge was built, Islanders willingly accepted the toll charge as part of the user-pay system. After all, it was literally the price we had to pay for a continuous and reliable year-round connection between the province and the rest of Canada. But then the federal user-pay policy changed for only one bridge in Montreal, leaving Islanders still paying the toll.  

Prince Edward Island is not receiving any favour. In reducing the fees Islanders must pay, the federal government is simply bringing some fairness to a double standard they imposed in 2015. Prime Minister Mark Carney is fixing Justin Trudeau’s mistake. 

A recent editorial in the Globe and Mail, “Carney’s cut to PEI tolls are a bridge too far”, failed to acknowledge that the federal user-pay policy changed when tolls were removed on the Champlain Bridge in Montreal, or the fact that the other bridges across Canada mentioned in the editorial—as busy and important as they are—do not exist to meet a constitutional requirement; Confederation Bridge does.

Canada made a constitutional promise to Prince Edward Island as part of its entry into Confederation in 1873. The Terms of Union required:

That the Dominion Government shall assume and defray all the charges for the following services, viz.:–

. . .

Efficient Steam Service for the conveyance of mails and passengers, to be established and maintained between the Island and the mainland of the Dominion, Winter and Summer, thus placing the Island in continuous communication with the Intercolonial Railway and the railway system of the Dominion.

 

In other words, a year-round connection between Prince Edward Island and Canada was a precondition for the colony’s entry into Confederation. As time and technology advanced, “continuous communication” evolved from “steam service” and ice boats to car ferries and ultimately to the permanent fixed link that is Confederation Bridge, a development acknowledged, and indeed enabled, by a 1993 amendment to the Constitution that clarified that “a fixed crossing joining the Island to the mainland may be substituted for the steam service.” 

The actions of Prime Minister Carney corrected the divisive policy of the previous prime minister, which was also recognized by Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre who promised, during the election campaign, to remove the toll altogether.

Carney’s leadership has already had a positive impact as traffic on Confederation Bridge, in both directions, has increased dramatically since the reduction of tolls. Removing trade barriers in Atlantic Canada will build a better future for our country.  

 

Percy Downe is a Senator from Charlottetown.