Cape Breton Post

CRUISING ALONG

Polar exploratio­n cruise company wants to see second berth built.

- BY CHRIS SHANNON chris.shannon@cbpost.com Twitter: @cbpost_chris

An adventure cruise company with its eye on moving operations to Sydney on a fulltime basis has concerns about the length of time it’s taking to build a second cruise ship berth on the city’s waterfront.

Andrew Prossin, the CEO and managing director of One Ocean Expedition­s, said in an interview Tuesday, a second berth needs to be built north of the current dock “as soon as possible” because one berth will not be enough to sustain the current cruise industry at the port.

“Without the proper infrastruc­ture, it’s not enough to take Sydney forward as a viable cruise port. There’s just no question,” he said.

On a few occasions, the company’s vessels have been forced to divert to Halifax because the Sydney Marine Terminal was too busy.

“We’re being kept from doing a lot of things,” said Prossin, “because the port was double booked.”

He said dropping anchor in the harbour is not a practical solution.

“When you have to load supplies and hardware, some of it heavy, you can’t do that from a small boat.”

Last week, Cape Breton Regional Municipali­ty Mayor Cecil Clarke revealed that all tenders for the constructi­on of the second cruise berth had come in over the $20 million budget.

The three lowest bidders have been asked to bid on a revised tender reflecting a reduced scope of work, something Clarke described as involving fewer bells and whistles but

still meeting the core needs of the cruise industry.

The intention is to get responses from the bidders within a few weeks. Both Ottawa and the province have signed off on the design changes.

The provincial and federal government­s announced their support for the project 18 months ago. It is now anticipate­d that the second berth will be able to receive ships in September 2019.

One Ocean Expedition­s has been growing its business in Sydney and Louisbourg by using Cape Breton as a base for its arctic exploratio­n cruises and by using the island as the start and end points of some of its cruises.

However, in order to go “full bore,” as Prossin called his company’s move in to Cape Breton, the port of Sydney needs to be a full-service port with customs, transport, food inspection officials, among others, readily

available.

The hope is that the second berth will have the capacity for ships to take on fuel and water there, he said.

“All the various inspectors need to be positioned or start to be mobile to come to Sydney to do their inspection­s. I could list you a whole page of the different things that we need to do that we’re constantly being told, ‘well that’s easier to do in Halifax.’

“There are dozens of smaller things that all contribute right now to making Sydney less of a viable cruise port. Build the pier but then the various government department­s need to come to the table to really work towards efficient service.”

The CBRM engineerin­g department has not disclosed publicly what facets of the second berth project will be reduced or removed from the constructi­on tender.

The Department of Municipal

Affairs has confirmed that under the terms of the funding arrangemen­t with the province — which along with the CBRM and Ottawa is an equal funder of the $20 million marine terminal project — the municipali­ty has until 2023 to complete the project.

As Prossin further promotes One Ocean’s confidence in Cape Breton as a base of cruise operations, the RCGS Resolute will be recommissi­oned during a ceremony in Sydney harbour on Oct. 16, before heading on its inaugural voyage from Ushuaia, Argentina to Antarctica in midNovembe­r.

The ship — the first to carry the Royal Canadian Geographic­al Ship prefix, RCGS — will join the Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilov under the One Ocean Expedition­s banner.

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 ?? CAPE BRETON POST PHOTO ?? The Akademik Ioffe, shown here in Louisbourg harbour in June, is a former Soviet oceanograp­hic research vessel that now serves as a One Ocean Expedition­s adventure cruise ship. The company’s managing director Andrew Prossin has concerns about the length of time it’s taken leading up to constructi­on of the second vessel berth at the port of Sydney, however he’s hopeful it will be operationa­l by September 2019.
CAPE BRETON POST PHOTO The Akademik Ioffe, shown here in Louisbourg harbour in June, is a former Soviet oceanograp­hic research vessel that now serves as a One Ocean Expedition­s adventure cruise ship. The company’s managing director Andrew Prossin has concerns about the length of time it’s taken leading up to constructi­on of the second vessel berth at the port of Sydney, however he’s hopeful it will be operationa­l by September 2019.
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Prossin

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