Barrett first raised concerns about this road work in July when tenders were issued. The Minister of Finance and Minister of Transportation and Works defended the road work for several weeks before realizing they were caught and had to backtrack.

"I have raised this issue several times over the past two months in an effort to hear the justification for upgrading a private road," said Mr. Barrett. "I do not believe the minister just found out that this was a private road and did not qualify for upgrading. As a former Transportation Minister, there is an inventory of roads that the province is responsible to maintain on a priority basis. Local MHAs often approach the minister with their own wish list for road work, but there is never enough money to look after all of these requests. The upgrade to School Road Extension would not have been on any government inventory list and would have taken away from other slated priority projects. Someone has obviously interfered with the process in an effort to upgrade a road for political reasons. I ask the minister, why did they interfere with the recommendations from departmental officials, who have advised me that they were uncomfortable with the decision, and move forward with this project? Something is not right here and someone must answer the question.

"I have visited School Road Extension and I have taken dozens of pictures as proof of the road work that has already taken place. Detailed engineering work has already been undertaken at a cost in the thousands of dollars. Would government spend this money without doing their homework to see if this is actually a private road?

"There are many people in this province who live on class four roads who lost their maintenance upgrades in the provincial budget. Minister, how do you think these people feel about your attempts to upgrade a private road while removing the service they have always received? Visit Old Mill Road in Goobies and speak with the people there to understand their anger and frustration. Ministers Rideout and Sullivan, you have been caught trying to exclude yourselves from the proper process for allocated road work in each provincial district. Who wishes to answer to the people of the province and be held accountable for these actions?"