Since mid-2000
this NLFL website has sponsored a Strait of Belle Isle Fixed Link and continuous Gulf of St.
Law-rence North Shore TCH. In 2003, the governments of Canada and Quebec funded joint studies for
a North Shore highway. In 2004, the governments of Canada and this
Province asked Memorial University to administer a prefeasibility fixed link
study. The MUN Study, conducted by Hatch Mott MacDonald, SGE
Acres & IBI, agrees with NLFL claims that an electric
rail tunnel is technically feasible, will cost about $1.5 billion, will require
11 years to build, and more detailed study is needed. But MUN's
Report does not
have a viable financial plan and Provincial authorities are deferring further
studies.
In contrast to MUN's Report, NLFL has outlined, since 2004, a plan that
experience suggests can solve many Provincial financial problems. As MUN's
Report confirms technical feasibility and cost, and NLFL has proposed a viable
financial plan for the fixed link, all requirements for detailed site studies now exist. Thus, without further delay, Newfoundland and Labrador's
Government should create the Fixed Link Study Group that NLFL proposes in this
website. That Group's goal should be to find the best way to build the
fixed link (that should have been built 25 years ago) and not more studies as to whether it should be built.
NLFL's website authors are grateful for
the MUN study. It offers a base for realistic
debate
on how 530,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans can finally: a)- end their long and
costly isolation from the benefits of continuous road travel to and from the
mainland; b)- unite this Province's two major regions on hydropower development
and abolish two electricity suppliers' current duplicate costs;
and c)- use Provincial resources to create jobs in this
Province. NLFL's two-part organization plan
will resolve these problems and will reduce the
Province's long-term debt.
The
first part of NLFL's plan calls for a North Shore
Trans-Canada Highway to be built, like all TCHs, mainly with federal funds and
suitable Provincial support. The plan's second part will
replace both Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro (NLH) and Newfoundland Power (NP)
with one Provincially regulated investor-group (IG), as sole electric energy producer, distributor and exporter in the entire Province.
In return for this right, the IG will pay the
Province cash for all NLH assets, including those at Baie d'Espoir, Churchill
Falls
and Holyrood. The IG must also finance, design, build,
and operate the multi-use Fixed Link and create new Labrador hydropower
under Provincial regulation. With MUN Report's
agreement on technical feasibility and cost, and NLFL's financial plan, a sound base
now exists on which to create the Fixed Link
Study Group proposed in this website.
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