Transport Minister Anne Berner said on Sunday that she has been shocked by attacks from her party’s coalition partner leaders in the last few days. She says she was given a task by the three parties in the government to assess the ways Finland’s transport network could be developed in a more commercial direction. At the time, Berner said, each of the parties was of the opinion that transfer of the road network from a state agency to a company owned by central and regional government would be an idea worth exploring.
“The government agreed to conduct the report last spring. There was a consensus at the time that the current system of maintenance funding for the road and railways was insufficient, and that additional investment would be detrimental to our aim of increasing competitiveness,” she told the press.
“The task appointed to me was explicitly to consider how the transport network could be developed on a commercial basis. That’s why we drew up the report,” she said.
Drastic measures
Released on Thursday, Berner’s transport reform proposals included some revolutionary ideas. The two points that have led to the most feedback are her team’s suggestions to incorporate state-owned roads and railways, and impose user fees levied for road usage. The road usage fees would make it possible to lower Finland’s hefty tax on new cars, the report suggests.
Members of Finland’s opposition political parties came down hard on the proposals, as did the leaders of her Centre Party’s government coalition partners, the centre-right National Coalition Party and the populist Finns Party.
Chair of the Finns Party, Foreign Minister Timo Soini dismissed the reform in his blog on Saturday and NCP Chair and Finance Minister Petteri Orpo denied that changes to the system of car taxation are forthcoming in interviews. Orpo even asked Berner to explain how tranferring ownership would bring in more money for transport infrastructure maintenance.
Comments supposed to be held until later
Berner told the press on Sunday that she was also surprised by the attacks because the government parties had expressly agreed to reserve any comments until after the reform proposal had been sent round for stakeholder comment, according to protocol. The Transport Minister was due to present the proposal to the government only after the comments round had concluded, and after public opinion of the reform had been gauged.
“We were supposed to proceed according to the agreed-upon democratic process, and i was to present the proposal to the other ministers only after that,” Berner said. “I did what was requested of me. I even set up a project steering group that contains a representative from the Finance Ministry.”
Berner said it is now up to Prime Minister Juha Sipilä – who has publicly come out in support of his party colleague’s proposals – to decide when the transport reform ideas will next be discussed, and who will be in attendance.
_Edited 23 January 2017 at 20:06 - References to privatization were changed to reflect that the proposal would incorporate the transport systems under a state-owned company. _