A shipping industry executive doubts the construction of a fixed link between Labrador and Newfoundland would lead to increased commercial truck traffic via the new alternative.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says a Liberal government would support the fixed link, but his statement was short on detail.

Sid Hynes, the owner of Oceanex which carries goods between Newfoundland and the mainland, says the creation of such a route between Newfoundland and Labrador would actually increase the cost of a truckload of goods.

He says trucks usually leave Newfoundland empty but pick up a load in Nova Scotia. Via the northern route, they wouldn’t pick up that load until they reached Quebec, an extra thousand miles. At $2 per mile, that works out to $2,000 per truckload.

Labrador Liberal candidate Yvonne Jones has been working on the file for a long time and sees it as a great economic opportunity. The federal government partnered with the province two years ago to do an updated study on the link.

She says they probably would not be doing another assessment but would issue a request for proposals and look for a private-public partnership.

The Conservative candidate for Labrador, Larry Flemming, sees it as something which the Liberals came up with without any real planning or thought, almost as if they were running scared.

He says it sounds like something which was hatched on the back of an envelope.