N.L. ferry costs $42,000 a year per resident of small outpost
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A $6-million ferry service to Cottel Island is highlighting Newfoundland and Labrador’s spending crisis.
The year-round service to St. Brendan’s on the island cost about $42,000 for each resident last year. And that price tag has only gone up — the population has slightly shrunk to around 115 since costs were last tallied in 2015-16.
“We assume it’s a right,” said Ruby Kean, 49, who has always called the island home. She has run a convenience store there for 13 years, but says business isn’t what it used to be. “It’s declining.”
Critics said it’s one of many services that must be reviewed in a province where last year’s $1.1-billion deficit was higher as a percentage of gross domestic product than any other province.
With a greying population spread thinly over vast geography, Newfoundland and Labrador also spends more per resident than other provinces.
“I think the government has to have some kind of cut-off. When do you stop providing services to a community?” Richard Alexander of the Newfoundland and Labrador Employers’ Council said in an interview.
His group has consistently pressed the governing Liberals and the previous Progressive Conservative government to bring bloated spending in line with revenues.
“There are five schools in Newfoundland and Labrador with three or less children, and there’s 25 schools with less than 25 enrolments.”
The St. Brendan’s ferry on Bonavista Bay is just one of the more stark examples of outsize spending, Alexander said.