RIVIERE-VERTE, N.B. — New Brunswick Transportation Minister Percy Mockler says the federal government needs to get in gear on completing the four-lane Trans-Canada Highway throughout New Brunswick.

“Let’s stop talking about it,” he says. He also called on Madawaska-Restigouche MP Jeannot Castonguay to continue pushing his government to build the highway.

The four-lane highway is “a necessity, not a luxury,” Mockler says. “We have to complete it.”

Mockler explains Prime Minister Jean Chrtien has to act on his promise to complete a four-lane Trans-Canada between Windsor, Ont., and Halifax because it is a vital economic link.

“This is our most important infrastructure in getting our products to central Canada and the Eastern United States,” Mockler says.

Groups in Edmundston and the Tmiscouata region of Quebec are lobbying for the completion of a four-lane Trans-Canada between Rivire-du-Loup, Que, and the New Brunswick-Quebec border.

Castonguay says he will “keep pushing” and believes the highway “has to be finished… It’s important for our region and it’s important for our country.”