‘Closed’ sign still hanging on Maine ferry
According to its website, Bay Ferries is still hoping to get its taxpayer-funded ferry service between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and Bar Harbor, Maine up and running before the end of the 2019 tourist season. I’d say “that ship has sailed” but it’s too obvious and not right.
Those Nova Scotians who watch their tax dollars disappear will know that the $11 million or so they sunk into the ferry this year (fiscal 2019-20) wasn’t enough to get it ferrying because the Maine port-of-call wasn’t ready.
They’d also know that it’s costing them another $8.5 million-plus to build a ferry terminal and some other stuff in Bar Harbor so that The Cat – as the ferry’s known – can operate from there.
All told, since 2015, Nova Scotian taxpayers have spent more than $72 million on the ferry’s operations and undisclosed management fees to Bay Ferries. That money bought three seasons of ferry operations between Yarmouth and Portland, Maine. Last year, the operator decided to move its U.S. operations to Bar Harbor but never sailed due to delays blamed on construction and U.S. Customs.
The provincial government and the ferry operator are pretty hush-hush about precisely what Nova Scotians are buying for their millions of dollars.
One thing they’re obviously not buying – or at least not getting – is much of an effort to keep the travelling public informed about the ferry’s future, if indeed it has one.
The last post Bay Ferries put on its Maine-nova Scotia website, right under a catchy little come-on that says, “The road to adventure is rarely paved,” is a note dated July 15, 2019. It contains the sad news that the ferry isn’t running, a promise to try to get it going and yet another promise “to make every effort to support the Southwest Nova tourism industry, and Nova Scotia tourism industry, in any way possible.”
In this case, “in any way possible” means up to, but not including, providing decent information to anyone who might be considering taking the boat.
Tourism Nova Scotia is in on the ruse, too. Its website includes helpful links to Bay Ferries’ Maine-nova Scotia reservation site, which isn’t taking any. Or you can click “learn more” about getting here – to Nova Scotia – by sea, and Tourism Nova Scotia will deposit you at the July 15 Bay Ferries’ note that is actually about not getting here.
Nova Scotia’s Opposition and Progressive Conservative leader, Tim Houston, has taken the province to court in an effort to get a breakdown on how the millions of public dollars shovelled into the ferry service are spent.
The province provides the annual total disbursement to Bay Ferries but refuses to break out the operating subsidy and the management fee.
The total costs range from more than $24 million in the 2018-19 fiscal year, to just over $10 million back in 2016-17.
The 2018-19 figure is large because it includes funding for U.S. Customs Services, the Bar Harbor terminal, and other costs related to the move from Portland.
Houston wants to know how much the ferry operations cost and how much of the money goes to Bay Ferries as its “management fee.”
The Tory caucus made a Freedom of Information request to get that breakdown, but the Liberal government said “no.”
The Tories appealed to the Information Commissioner who sided with them, and said the breakdown should be public information, but the government still said “no.” The final appeal for access to information about how the government spends Nova Scotians’ money is to the courts, where the PCS have taken their quest.
One would assume the “management fee” would cover routine work like providing potential customers with the latest news on the ferry’s schedule. One would be wrong.
The “Update” of July 15, 2019, says “Due to continued construction and related approval processes at the Bar Harbor ferry terminal, it is anticipated that the earliest date on which any service could commence is in the late summer range.” Yadda, yadda, yadda, “Bay Ferries Limited deeply regrets any inconvenience caused to our customers and impacts on our partners and the hospitality industry.”
As almost everyone knows, these days a business’s website is its storefront. Last July, Bay Ferries hung a “Temporarily closed. Be back soon” sign on its storefront and hasn’t taken it down. Meanwhile, potential tourists – including those hooked by Tourism Nova Scotia’s promo for The Cat, which asks, “Wouldn’t you rather spend less time driving and more time … discovering?” – are making other plans.
If these are your tax dollars at work, you wouldn’t want to see the lazy ones.