St. John’s, NL (April 25, 2025) – Loyola O’Driscoll, PC Shadow Minister of Digital Government and Service NL and MHA for Ferryland, raised concerns today about the condition of vehicles being used by highway enforcement officers in the province.

An access to information request from the Official Opposition revealed 74 per cent of vehicles used by highway enforcement officers are 10 years old or older with an average mileage of 300,000 kilometres.  One vehicle has almost 500,000 kilometres.

“It is simply unacceptable that we have staff travelling our highways in vehicles that are worn out and long past the age of retirement,” said O’Driscoll.  “Government has made lots of announcements and photo ops about fleet replacement, but the reality is highway enforcement has had just two vehicles replaced.  Keeping high mileage vehicles in service instead of replacing them is an embarrassment.”

O’Driscoll noted the Minister of Transportation, who is responsible for government fleet maintenance and procurement, has also repeatedly overstated the number of highway snowplows purchased by this government, blaming COVID and supply chain issues for government’s failure to get plows on our highways.

“It is simply not good enough that the Liberals are not providing their staff with modern and reliable vehicles,” added O’Driscoll.  “Furthermore, many of the vehicles listed from our access to information request are trucks and have logged over 300,000 and 400,000 kilometers – this surely requires thousands of dollars a year in maintenance and repairs just to keep them on the road.  The Liberals are throwing good money after bad.”