In a statement, Peter Nelson, Executive Director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA) had this to say, 'Tom Mann and The NB Union of Public and Private employees want to put another noose around the struggling neck of the Atlantic Canadian economy. The public sector union position that road tolls are good for New Brunswick and good for Atlantic Canada is irresponsible and out of touch with the present economic reality. New Brunswick is the gateway in and out of Atlantic Canada. The imposition of road tolls in NB would drive up transportation costs within every Atlantic province and increase costs for food, clothing and shelter. It will make our region's ports less attractive for shippers; it will stall a rebuilding of our forestry sector and the valued added goods that were once produced in mills throughout our region. Road tolls will make it more difficult and costly for our struggling fishers throughout Atlantic Canada to move their products to external markets. The province of Prince Edward Island is completely reliant on road transport to receive 100% of all products consumed. The good people of Newfoundland, struggling under the high costs of food and food shortages, owing to Marine Atlantic tolls, will suffer even greater hardship if road tolls are imposed in New Brunswick.'

Nelson further stated 'We can ill afford any increase in transportation costs in our industry at this time. Many of our members will be forced to scale back both on operations and human resources by anywhere from 10% to 50% depending on the company and their client base over the coming year. Many trucking firms already have reduced the size of their fleets. Each long haul truck removed from the road today will be a loss of $50,000 to $60,000 in annual tax revenues.'

Nelson observed, 'We note that the public sector unions admit that their very large pension funds are invested beyond Atlantic Canada. Those who invest and work in the private sector should be deeply offended by this. The public sector unions would have more credibility if they invested where they lived. This is especially true when all of the major banks are telling every sector of the economy in Atlantic Canada that they are going to restrict consumers, as well as small, medium and large businesses, to less credit and charge more for it! '

Nelson added 'Here in Atlantic Canada we are all in the same truck, boat, plane or train together when it comes to the movement of freight. This struggling economy needs champions and cheerleaders. Our region has an historic and proud record of entrepreneurship with names like Boss Gibson, the Irving Family, McCain's, Steele, Shaw, Jodrey and Sobey's and yes, even Molly Cool. Our Association would ask the four Atlantic Premiers to dismiss this economic impediment by public sector unions outright. Also, to consider that public sector cuts should match those in the private sector. We would also ask that the four Premiers band together to hold the line on energy increases by the regional utilities. When this present economic turmoil ends we will need to jumpstart our production in the forestry sector and low energy costs as well as holding the line on transportation costs will be a cornerstone to that success.'

Nelson closed by saying 'We are at present suffering under the weight of a massive freight imbalance. We import far more goods and foodstuffs into this region than we produce to sell outside the region. We now have empty trucks leaving our region to pick up food in Mexico, clothes from Ontario and appliances from the United States. These trucks are being dispatched from our region empty because there is no demand for our value added wood products, lobster or Michelin tires outside of our region. There is a massive cost to having one way freight; road tolls would only make a bad situation much worse. Tom Mann and the New Brunswick public sector unions want to increase road transport costs that will only result in families in New Brunswick and the rest of Atlantic Canada paying $8 for a head of lettuce. In thes