Our provincial government has a responsibility to be as clear and open about whether toll highways are on its agenda. To this point it has been anything but.

In the past, Highways Minister July Bradley has given reporters and the public the assurance that the government had not and would not look at tolls on highways to pay for road construction.

The feds may be looking into it, but not our provincial government we were told. But according to a request made by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation under the province's information laws for "all studies, reports, and analysis" pertaining to toll highways in Saskatchewan, a consultant had indeed been hired to study exactly that - whether it is feasible to have toll roads.

In the Department's reply we were told that a study had in fact been done back in 1997 but it could not be released. According to government officials, the Highways Department had been approached by a private company, First Marathon Securities, with a proposal to use tolls to finance plans to complete the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway in Saskatchewan.

When the CTF made its request for information on studies regarding toll highways, First Marathon asked the government not to release a copy of its proposal for competitive reasons. That's fine.

But the Department also hired a consultant - paid for by taxpayers - to look at the First Marathon proposal. The government rejected access to this report as well. So despite their earlier denials, the government had in reality paid for a consultant to look at the issue and, to add insult to injury, refused to release the report.

This highlights a very important problem; taxpayers deserve to know what options the province may be considering on such an important policy issue.

Thankfully, Premier Romanow put an end to the speculation by promising that toll highways would never be a part of Saskatchewan's landscape as long as he was in charge.

Even if we take him at his word that toll highways are not on the agenda, there are still lots of unanswered questions. Why would the Highways Department spend money in the first place if they were not actively considering toll highways Why can't taxpayers see a copy of the consultant's report on tolling that was paid for with their tax dollars

But more importantly, highway tolls shouldn't even be on the table. We already pay almost ½ billion in gas taxes and road user fees each year, but only about 44% of that money is directed back into roads. If we were forced to pay tolls to drive on roads that we are already paying for every time we fill up at the gas station, the tolls would simply be another tax.

The message is: put gas tax revenue into roads or cut the tax. Use it or lose it. This is at least one tax that should be dedicated to its original purpose.

The government has a duty, indeed a responsibility, to be clear and open about what is on its agenda. Instead the government led taxpayers down the garden path as they said one thing but did another. Is there a hidden government agenda here Only time will tell.