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Gary Hee’s weekly trips across the Port Mann Bridge will cost less after the NDP government announced the removal of tolls on both the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges on Sept. 1.

The Surrey small business owner said he was relieved by the news after fighting the tolls for more than four years, at one point collecting 1,100 signatures for a petition that seemed to go nowhere.

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“I had faith, hope and determination,” he said Saturday, “and it has paid off.”

But just how the government plans to pay off billions in bridge debt is causing others concern — especially those who will now share the cost of a bridge they never cross.

In a sarcastic online commentary shared dozens of times on Facebook, Lower Mainland real estate analyst Don Campbell thanked the residents of Cranbrook, Victoria, Kelowna and Prince George for paying for him to cross the Port Mann.

The senior analyst with the Real Estate Investment Network said that while the news would likely be met with appreciation by those living south of the Fraser, it could lower the province’s credit rating and increase the cost of borrowing.