MR. GRAHAM STEELE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Minister, as I am sure you are aware, my constituency is primarily an urban constituency. There are only small parts of provincial roads within my constituency, a portion of Northwest Arm Drive and also a portion of the Bicentennial Highway. That portion of the Bicentennial Highway has been an irritant of long-standing to the residents of School Avenue in my constituency. For people who aren't aware of School Avenue, I am sure they have seen it, as one goes down the hill connecting to Bayers Road, on the left-hand side and the north side of the Bicentennial Highway is a street of residents who are my constituents. Their concerns have been raised before and I would like to raise them again.

Mr. Minister, I took the unusual step, I think, of giving you advance notice of these questions in the hope it would give your staff time to look into the questions I wanted to raise. To a large extent, the problems of School Avenue relate to the fact that the municipality and the province are arguing over who is responsible. While the residents put up with concerns of noise, dirt and a whole variety of concerns that come with living right beside a major highway, the municipality says it is the province's responsibility and the

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province says it is the municipality's responsibility and, meanwhile, over the course of more than several years, nothing has been done.

The first question I would like to pose to the minister is this. Does your department know or does it have a position on where exactly the dividing line is between municipal responsibility and provincial responsibility for that portion of the Bicentennial Highway?

MR. RUSSELL: Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the member for giving me advance notice, because obviously if we are talking about School Avenue, it might not mean very much to anybody, but having advance notice we know where it is. I also happen to know where School Avenue is because I, too, went knocking on doors up School Avenue, not with the honourable member opposite but with some other aspirant of a few years ago.

To answer that specific question, School Avenue does belong to the province. It does at the moment; it may not always, but at the present time it is our responsibility.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Minister, for the answer. I would ask the member for Halifax Fairview if he would yield the floor to the member for Dartmouth North for an introduction.

MR. STEELE: I certainly will.

MR. CHAIRMAN: The honourable member for Dartmouth North.

MR. JERRY PYE: Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the member for Halifax Fairview, as well as the minister, for the time. Once again there is another group of Grade 6 students here from Shannon Park School today. They are here with their leaders, Michele LeClaire, Suzanne Kennedy and Mary Edwards. They are here taking a tour of one of Canada's oldest Legislative Assemblies. They are here now watching the process in work. I want to advise them, although all members may not be present, that we are in budget estimates now, and that budget estimates take place in two areas, one, the Legislative Chamber and in another place, the Red Room. The Minister of Transportation and Public Works is now having questions put to him by members of the Opposition Parties.

Mr. Chairman, if we could give a great hand of welcome to those Shannon Park School Grade 6 students, again, I would greatly appreciate it. (Applause)

MR. CHAIRMAN: I would also like to welcome you here this morning.

MR. STEELE: Mr. Minister, I want to make sure that I am crystal clear about your answer. Is it the province's position that you own not only the Bicentennial Highway and not only the fence dividing the highway from School Avenue but also School Avenue itself. Is that your position?

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MR. RUSSELL: Mr. Chairman, when the Department of Transportation and Public Works acquired the right of way for the Bicentennial Highway, they also acquired School Avenue. The property still belongs to the Department of Transportation and Public Works, and we own the fence. However, if he is referring to who looks after the street at the present time, that is the responsibility of the HRM.

MR. STEELE: Since it is the province's undisputed position that it owns the fence dividing the Bicentennial Highway and School Avenue - and just for those people who don't know, the only division at the moment is a chain-link fence that is in rather poor condition - will the department consider, as a capital project, some kind of landscaping or some kind of soundproof barrier or some kind of improvement to the wholly inadequate fence that currently divides the residents of School Avenue from a major provincial highway?

MR. RUSSELL: Mr. Chairman, there have been ongoing discussions about the fence for a long time. In fact, I was made aware of that problem, as I said, when I was on the street knocking on doors. It only came back to my mind that that was the street after I got the briefing note from staff in response to your particular memo. The issue of putting up some kind of a sound barrier has been investigated by the department. Unfortunately, the existing chain-link fence is going to remain there as long as we have the present budgetary restrictions that we have.

[11:00 a.m.]

We have had ongoing talks with the HRM about a variety of subjects, as I was saying to the member for Timberlea-Prospect, with regard to certain responsibilities. This is one of the responsibilities that we are talking about with HRM. There may be a solution to this problem in the offing; however, at the present time, I can't suggest to the honourable member what it would be.

MR. STEELE: Mr. Chairman, to the minister again, it is apparent to me that not everyone on School Avenue would like, necessarily, a soundproof barrier; there is some consideration of the effect that it would have on the view and other considerations about how it would affect the street. One thing that I believe all the residents can agree on is that the fence as it currently exists is an eyesore and a garbage catcher. Will the department consider some kind of landscaping or other improvement to the fence that would cost far less than a proper soundproof barrier but would go a long way towards addressing the concerns of the residents?

MR. RUSSELL: Mr. Chairman, that is a very sensible suggestion. Certainly, it is one that can be considered. At the present time, as I said, we don't have the funding available to do anything. However, I don't want the member to assume that because we can't do it this year it is off the program for next year, not necessarily. We will try to do something with that, because we recognize there is a problem there. We hope we can do it in concert with

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the funding from HRM, perhaps we can't, but we will try to do something in the foreseeable future.

MR. STEELE: Mr. Minister, I appreciate that very much, and I am sure the residents of School Avenue will as well. My last question on this subject, before I turn our time back to the member for Timberlea-Prospect is, what are the department's future plans for that portion of the Bicentennial Highway? By way of background, it has been suggested to me that because the department has a long-term plan to widen the Bicentennial Highway, which would involve expropriating some or all of School Avenue, that that is the reason why the province has had no particular interest over the years in actually spending money on improvements. My question to the minister is, what are the department's plans for the medium to long-term, and do they include the possibility of widening the Bicentennial Highway, that portion of it that passes School Avenue?

MR. RUSSELL: Mr. Chairman, no plans exist at the present time, and I don't believe there is any thought within the department for doing that. Quite frankly, we just don't have the money now and we will not have the money in the foreseeable future to do that particular project, if it was required.