Since June, the Indiana Toll Road is a great topic of discussion. Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed a 75 year lease for a lump sum of $3.85 Billions in USD, paid ahead with Cintra, of Madrid and Macquarie Bank of Sydney Australia.
These two companies are also the operators of 3 other toll roads in the Unites States and one in Canada the 407ETR. They also have plans for the New Jersey Turnpike, the Delaware Turnpike, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a truck toll road along I-81 in Virginia and the Trans-Texas Corridor. We are lucky in a way that the Parti Quebecois had hiked up the rates on the province’s autoroutes in the early 80’s. I think they would have made a long term lease on them too.
The thing that tickles our southern neighbours, these roads have been paid by their taxes and the tolls are mostly for maintenance and a disguised tax. In the Highway Funding Bill of last year, the US government has planned to lead the way to toll roads for any future expansion of the Interstate System. SAFETY-LU has provisions for some pilot projects to setup tolls on some existing highways.
Back to the consortium, they are also on board for two other projects here in Canada in the province of Quebec. The Bridge on A-25, and the west extension of A-30.
I am not against Private Public Partnerships if they are well structure and do help for the economic development of the area. The only shadow I see is that some of the demands from the leases are going a little bit too far.
Looking back on the lease of the Indiana Toll Road, in the contract there is some conditions that limit the weighs and measures on the neighbouring roads, non-competition clauses so most of the commercial traffic must use the toll road. Macquarie has done it in Sydney for a tunnel in the city.
The increases of the tolls are also in the lease. Three ways are set to do so and it is the highest percentage that is considered. An increased in the cost of living, a fixed minimum percentage or if the economic indicators are on the rise, regardless of any average salary increases for the population.
Like in Ontario, will the use be limited to the users of transponders? Macquarie Cintra Group is specialist in electronic tolling to maximise the profits with a minimum of expenses. A sure thing, the main goal of a company is to do a profit but, when these profits are going out of the country, we have our word on it.
Some questions are to be answered.
Who will pay for the lands?
Who will pay for the construction?
Who will pay for the start-up cost?
Will we the truckers and the carriers have to support a double tax? I see a double tax combination of the toll and the IFTA rate for the distance we travel.
Look what happened in Ontario on the 407ETR. SNC-Lavallin is one of the operators of the lease with Macquarie Cintra. A large 17% of it.
I am asking the following to our governments. If the option of going in a PPP for any new infrastructures in Quebec, is it possible that a Quebec group of investors or a Canadian group would be preferred to a foreign investor?
Another point to bring up. When I look at the four companies that have been kept for the next step of qualifying in the project for A-30, three of them are already partners in the operations of the 407ETR and the other one is another Spanish lead group.
What are the odds that the race to bid will be honest?
Some of our elected will have to answer these questions. I don’t count on the main stream medias to do so. It looks like the opposition parties are just waiting do make some voting gains of the back of the one that will sign this deal.
If only all of the taxes we pay with the licence plates, the drivers permit, and the fuels would go to road works and projects, we would no longer be the champions of pot-hole slalom.
My last request to you is to write to your elected members. They really need to be recalled that they have been voted in by us to serve us and to protect the collective interests. Will we need another Jean Lesage who will say “Maitre chez nous!”(Masters on our land). When I roll down the highway dedicated to him and I see the way it’s maintained, the poor man must be rolling in his grave…
These two companies are also the operators of 3 other toll roads in the Unites States and one in Canada the 407ETR. They also have plans for the New Jersey Turnpike, the Delaware Turnpike, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a truck toll road along I-81 in Virginia and the Trans-Texas Corridor. We are lucky in a way that the Parti Quebecois had hiked up the rates on the province’s autoroutes in the early 80’s. I think they would have made a long term lease on them too.
The thing that tickles our southern neighbours, these roads have been paid by their taxes and the tolls are mostly for maintenance and a disguised tax. In the Highway Funding Bill of last year, the US government has planned to lead the way to toll roads for any future expansion of the Interstate System. SAFETY-LU has provisions for some pilot projects to setup tolls on some existing highways.
Back to the consortium, they are also on board for two other projects here in Canada in the province of Quebec. The Bridge on A-25, and the west extension of A-30.
I am not against Private Public Partnerships if they are well structure and do help for the economic development of the area. The only shadow I see is that some of the demands from the leases are going a little bit too far.
Looking back on the lease of the Indiana Toll Road, in the contract there is some conditions that limit the weighs and measures on the neighbouring roads, non-competition clauses so most of the commercial traffic must use the toll road. Macquarie has done it in Sydney for a tunnel in the city.
The increases of the tolls are also in the lease. Three ways are set to do so and it is the highest percentage that is considered. An increased in the cost of living, a fixed minimum percentage or if the economic indicators are on the rise, regardless of any average salary increases for the population.
Like in Ontario, will the use be limited to the users of transponders? Macquarie Cintra Group is specialist in electronic tolling to maximise the profits with a minimum of expenses. A sure thing, the main goal of a company is to do a profit but, when these profits are going out of the country, we have our word on it.
Some questions are to be answered.
Who will pay for the lands?
Who will pay for the construction?
Who will pay for the start-up cost?
Will we the truckers and the carriers have to support a double tax? I see a double tax combination of the toll and the IFTA rate for the distance we travel.
Look what happened in Ontario on the 407ETR. SNC-Lavallin is one of the operators of the lease with Macquarie Cintra. A large 17% of it.
I am asking the following to our governments. If the option of going in a PPP for any new infrastructures in Quebec, is it possible that a Quebec group of investors or a Canadian group would be preferred to a foreign investor?
Another point to bring up. When I look at the four companies that have been kept for the next step of qualifying in the project for A-30, three of them are already partners in the operations of the 407ETR and the other one is another Spanish lead group.
What are the odds that the race to bid will be honest?
Some of our elected will have to answer these questions. I don’t count on the main stream medias to do so. It looks like the opposition parties are just waiting do make some voting gains of the back of the one that will sign this deal.
If only all of the taxes we pay with the licence plates, the drivers permit, and the fuels would go to road works and projects, we would no longer be the champions of pot-hole slalom.
My last request to you is to write to your elected members. They really need to be recalled that they have been voted in by us to serve us and to protect the collective interests. Will we need another Jean Lesage who will say “Maitre chez nous!”(Masters on our land). When I roll down the highway dedicated to him and I see the way it’s maintained, the poor man must be rolling in his grave…
Jean Catudal
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