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TRURO, NS – The Nova Scotia Highway Workers’ Union is welcoming the provincial government’s release of figures which show big savings from bringing some of the province’s asphalt and chip seal work in house.

CUPE Local 1867 president Gareth Drinnan says, “We are very encouraged to see a combined savings of almost $5 million for taxpayers by bringing this work in house. Our union has been telling previous governments for years that our members can do quality work at a reasonable cost. 

We are glad to see the current government is interested in thinking outside the box a little, especially if it will mean cost savings for Nova Scotia taxpayers,” he says.

Nova Scotia highway workers and the Department of Transportation are more than capable of getting this work done and saving money in the process. In fact, we have slowly been bringing many aspects of our work back in house with good success,” says Drinnan.

CUPE Nova Scotia president Danny Cavanagh, meanwhile, says, “This is a great way to save some money during these tough economic times. In fact, we’d like to see contracting in used as a means of saving money in other departments.

As for the Road Builders Association, this is a very small percentage of the work that is being done on our roads. They still have 95 per cent of the work. This is a way to put some checks and balances in place to make sure we are getting the best bang for taxpayers’ money,” he says.
  

For more information, please contact:

Gareth Drinnan    
President, Local 1867   
(902) 499-5794 (Cell) 

Danny Cavanagh 
CUPE N.S. President  
(902) 957-0822 (Cell) 

John McCracken
CUPE Communications Representative
(902) 455-4180