Patches, Patches… “I’ve tried to do my best, It’s up to you to do the rest…”

​The lyric of the song by Southern Spiritual singer Clarence Carter

This is what New Brunswick’s Minister of Transportation, Chuck Chiasson must be saying to Premier Holt and his other cabinet colleagues about the paltry budget his department has for rural roads.

​It is refreshing and at the same time, disarming, when one reads Chiasson’s words, almost begging to do something about the patches on the province’s rural roads. 

As told by wonderful singer, Clarence Carter, in his song about a poor U.S. Southern man on his death bed, who told his son, named Patches, “I’m depending on you, son…I’ve tried to do my best…it’s up to you to do the rest.”

These days, Minister Chiasson is making a similar desperate plea for adequate attention to the province’s patches.

The critical point for the rural roads was in 2019 when Premier Blaine Higgs, known for his fierce dedication to balancing the province’s books, slashed the budget for these back country roads to $10 million, when the previous government had put $25 million into each budget for the 2014-18 period.
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When Higgs ran successfully to become Premier in 2018, he portrayed himself as a new type of politician who would do away with old-style politics such as patronage handed out by the party in power.

This was not a phenomenon that was only seen in New Brunswick. As noted in a July 2024 column of the Against the Flow blog, back in the 1970’s, Jean-Guy Cardinal a minister in the Union Nationale government in Quebec ordered a road paved right over the winter snow.

Even with his penny-pinching style of governing, the desire for election victory did not even allude him, either. During the late summer and fall of 2024, Higgs discovered the political advantage of having a road patched, chip-sealed, even paved outside rural homes.

Diamond-shaped orange signs with the tell-tale word Construction began to dot the countryside as the Higgs government sought re-election. One particularly noticeable resurfacing was through the marshy land between Lawrence Station, past the Hemlock Knoll landfill, and near to Brockway. This stretch of blacktop was impressive enough that it qualified for a 100 KPH speed limit.

We can only guess why this section of highway was chosen for government largesse…

Meanwhile, the province is left with the reality of patches and more patches on the rural roads. 

Back in 2012, New Brunswick’s highly-respected Auditor-General Kim Adair-MacPherson warned that when roads are neglected for too long, they are much more costly to rehabilitate. New Brunswick’s loss was Nova Scotia’s gain, as MacPherson went on to serve in the same capacity in Nova Scotia.

In the practical, everyday language of New Brunswickers, MacPherson’s warning rings true: “If you’re going to do a job, do it right the first time.”

One of the neglected sections of rural highway in the province is route 127 from St. Stephen to Saint Andrews and onto the TransCanada Highway near Digdeguash. These branches are the entryway to one of the province’s main tourist attractions, Saint Andrews-By-The-Sea. Most of these kilometres are a mess, with a flood of patches. In fact, local cyclists describe these routes as some of the most dangerous in the region because of the lack of paved shoulders.  
 
 But with the heavy promises of Susan Holt’s Liberal Party in the last election, particularly in health care, the government’s projected operating deficit is rising sharply to almost $669 million, close to $120 million more than in the government’s first budget.

Ever hopeful, Transportation Minister Chiasson points to one way to do more with the dollars available for rural roads, and that is adopting policy that would favour upgrading roads that traffic counts indicate are really needed, and not upgrading roads that do not have heavy traffic.

This might take some of the old-fashioned politics out of which MLA’s win resurfacing in their riding, and which do not. Yet, many MLA’s and members of the general public will remain frustrated.

No doubt there will still be an inordinate number of patches on province’s highways.

Minister Chiasson can listen to Clarence Carter’s song, “I’ve tried to do my best…it’s up to you to do the rest.” 

The Against the Flow blog acknowledges the research of John Chilibeck, reporter for the Telegraph-Journal on the campaign of Chuck Chiasson about the crumbling N.B. rural road