MR. SPEAKER: Further petitions.

The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I stand today to present a petition on behalf of the residents of Red Bay to Goose Bay. This petition, Mr. Speaker, is signed by people in Forteau, L’Anse au Clair, L’Anse-au-Loup, Red Bay and Capstan Island. Mr. Speaker, it is regarding the highways in that area, and it reads:

WHEREAS the residents of Red Bay to Goose Bay use a section of the Trans-Labrador Highway that is unpaved and in poor condition; and

WHEREAS this road is no longer suitable for the traffic volumes that travel this route; and

WHEREAS government will not commit to provide funding to even begin paving of Phase I and Phase III of the Trans-Labrador Highway; and

WHEREAS the residents of this region deserve a similar standard of road as on the Island portion of the Province;

WHEREUPON the petitioners call upon the House of Assembly to ask the government to provide funding to pave the road from Red Bay to Goose Bay.

Mr. Speaker, these petitions have been circulating in my district for quite some time, and in the Goose Bay area, and, as I said, as they come in I will continue to present them. People in this area, Mr. Speaker, feel that government is not giving the attention that it needs to give to keep up the conditions of the gravel roads in that area. In fact, this year there has been nothing only a litany of complaints about the section of road between Red Bay and Lodge Bay.

Mr. Speaker, all the articles that have been written in the papers, quotes from people all over the Province and across Canada who have been using that section of road, and all of the stories talk about busted tires, damaged vehicle reports, shocked by the state of the road when travelling over it from Red Bay to Lodge Bay. Mr. Speaker, the high traffic road is just as important as the Trans-Canada was outlined by many people. Local people were quoted as saying we have to travel that highway for medical appointments, and be able to catch the ferry, which is our transportation link out of here.

Mr. Speaker, it has just been one thing after another. Truck companies, Clarke’s trucking, I have had calls from Christopher’s Trucking, and I have had complaints, Mr. Speaker, from the drivers with Way’s trucking. These are people who have to use that road every single day to deliver goods to all of these communities, and they are doing it, Mr. Speaker, over one of the worst sections of road that people have ever seen in their lives in this Province.

The road between Red Bay and Lodge Bay, there are sections of it that, in ten years, have not been resurfaced. There is no crushed stone left on the road. It is down to just the rock and potholes, and it is absolutely ridiculous to drive over it. I drove over it again myself this weekend. A drive that usually takes me an hour over seventy-six kilometres, took me an hour and forty minutes, because the road was just so bad. You cannot drive more than twenty or thirty kilometres and, as a result of it, people are damaging their vehicles to try and get to a hospital, to try and get to the ferry, to try and get to an airport, to be able to get in and out of the area, and they are asking the government to deal with this situation and to address it immediately.