New BrunswickAfter Green MLA Megan Mitton pointed out a pattern of political favouritism in how district road funds are allocated, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Chuck Chiasson revealed he had already brought in a new formula to correct the problem. Transportation minister says problem is fixed under new formula implemented this yearErica Butler · CBC News · Posted: Dec 05, 2025 3:32 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Chuck Chiasson told reporters on Wednesday he was shocked by how unfairly district road funds had been allocated, so he introduced a new system. (CBC)For years, there has been “glaring inequity” in the way the province has allocated the millions of dollars in its county roads budget, according to Department of Transportation Minister Chuck Chiasson. The minister acknowledged the longstanding problem Wednesday in the legislature, in response to a question from Green Party Deputy Leader Megan Mitton, the MLA for Tantramar.Earlier that day, Mitton shared the results of a Right to Information request she filed with the department, which showed that allocations in electoral districts tended to increase or decrease depending on whether it was represented by a government MLA or an opposition MLA.Green Party MLA Megan Mitton said she believes her persistence in obtaining data on the road fund caused Minister Chuck Chiasson to react. (CBC)The data includes eyebrow-raising instances, where big changes in allocated funds coincided with political changes.One example is in the riding of Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou, which had a healthy allocation of $200,000 in 2019. The following year, when MLA Robert Gauvin left the PC caucus to sit as an independent, the amount dropped to just $50,000.The former riding of Gagetown-Peticodiac was held by PC MLA Ross Wetmore for a decade. In 2018, under the Liberal Gallant government, the riding received just $50,000. Then after former PC premier Blaine Higgs formed the government, the allocation went up to $420,000, peaking at $713,000 in 2022. WATCH | ‘We need to see public reporting of this fund’:MLA finds politics plays a role in determining rural road work budgetsTransportation minister agrees funds allocated according to which party is in power, but promises changes have been made to make it fair.Mitton also pointed out several instances when district budgets increased significantly after their representative became minister of Transportation and Infrastructure. The most striking example is the allocation for Carleton-York, which more than doubled the year after MLA Richard Ames was appointed minister. The district was allocated more than $1 million in 2024-25, out of the total $7 million in the fund.Progressive Conservative Carleton-York MLA Richard Ames served as minister of Transportation and Infrastructure from June 2023 to November 2024. His riding had a road fund allocation of more than $1 million in 2024-25. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)The allocation for the riding of Kings Centre also more than doubled in 2019 and 2020, the years after MLA Bill Oliver was appointed minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.“The numbers are clear. The ridings with government MLAs got more money to spend on roads,” Mitton said in the legislature. “The Road Ahead plan was supposed to remove this archaic practice of political favoritism.”Infrastructure plan doesn’t cover district projectsThe Road Ahead plan is the department’s three-year capital infrastructure plan, which it updates every year. The plan includes lists of planned projects, and covers $1.5 billion in investment over three years. District project allocations sit outside the Road Ahead plan. The $7 million fund is allocated according to electoral districts, and according to Chiasson, there hasn’t been a clear formula or system for determining allocations until this year.“Imagine my shock when I see that my predecessor actually had over a million dollars in his county project money,” Chiasson told reporters Wednesday. “I mean, that was just ridiculous to me, and it stood out like a sore thumb.”New formula ensures proportional splitChiasson said that once he realized the problem, he asked department staff to create a formula to fairly allocate the funds.Each riding where there are provincial roads will get a base amount of $50,000, said Chiasson, and the rest of the budget will be split proportionally, according to how many provincial roads each electoral district has.“I am glad that there’s finally a formula,” said Mitton, though she believes the new system was created in response to her prodding. “It appears that me looking into this and asking questions and being persistent caused them to react,” said the Green MLA. A response to a Right to Information request by MLA Megan Mitton details district project allocations by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure from 2018 to 2024. (Erica Butler/CBC)Mitton said she had to file multiple requests for information before she received the data from the department. “Initially they said we don’t have a budget by electoral district,” said Mitton. “And so I kept pursuing it.” Mitton said that she and Green Leader David Coon weren’t told about the fund, but after hearing an MLA mention it in passing, she decided to look into it. “I just had a feeling that something was off,” she said.The MLA says that allocating funding by riding leaves it open to potential political misuse.Minister Chiasson said the system helps MLAs to “have a little bit of input in what happens in their areas.” Ultimately, he said, the decisions about how funds are spent lie with department staff.Seeks annual public dataMitton agreed that it’s part of an MLA’s job to communicate community needs to DTI, something she said she had been doing even before she became aware of the riding fund. But she believes the unexplained allocations over the years have coloured New Brunswick electoral politics, to the disadvantage of third parties.“We’ve seen the [Progressive] Conservatives and Liberals say things like, ‘We need a seat at the table’, which means we need access to these funds in order to pave your roads,” said Mitton. “That’s not how it should work. No matter who people elect, they should have safe roads.”Mitton says she will now continue to pursue data from earlier years and also push to have all data made public every year, to maintain transparency.ABOUT THE AUTHORErica Butler is a reporter with CBC New Brunswick. She lives in Sackville and works out of the Moncton newsroom. You can send story tips to erica.butler@cbc.ca.
N.B. road fund data shows pattern of favouritism by governing parties
