Another month without ferry service
Bay Ferries says while the company still hopes there could be an opportunity for some Cat ferry service this season, it doesn’t want to, nor can it, make any promises.
“Everyone’s focus is on getting the work completed and approved,” says Rhonda Latter, Director of Corporate Services for Bay Ferries Ltd.
“Obviously we hope there is the opportunity for some service this season but don’t wish to raise expectations,” she says.
The Cat has sat idle this summer, docked at the wharf in its home Nova Scotia port of Yarmouth as work has not yet been completed at the terminal facility in Bar Harbor. Bay Ferries decided last year it was switching ports from Portland to Bar Harbor (it had last sailed to Bar Harbor in 2009) but the needed construction work – which could only get underway this year – was nowhere near complete in time to start a sailing season in June, as had originally been targeted by the company, nor could sailings happen in the two months that followed.
After having to cancel reservations earlier on, since mid-July the company has not been taking any reservations for the Cat ferry.
Asked last week about the terminal work and construction, Latter said in an Aug. 29 email response, “Substantial progress has been made in recent weeks. All marine facilities are complete and land-side facilities are at differing stages of completion.”
While the Cat ferry hasn’t been sailing this year – except for a couple of short trips to Bar Harbor as part of the new route proofing process – there are still costs associated with the service. With the vessel not sailing, there is no revenue to offset those costs.
“Many of the operational costs are fixed or are required by contract or regulation,” Latter says. “We are cautiously managing variable costs and using the time for additional preventative maintenance, training, and other tasks.”
Asked about the employee side of the equation, Latter says again, many of these costs are contractually fixed.
“We are retaining our key workforce and maintaining the ship in ready-to-operate status,” she says.
Some of personnel who would have worked with the Cat service have been working instead on Bay Ferries’ Fundy Rose ferry that sails between Digby, Nova Scotia and Saint John, N.B.
“In general, it is difficult to move operating personnel between the services in mid-season; however, we have arranged for some personnel from our Yarmouth onboard services contractor to augment our Fundy Rose staffing,” explains Latter. “In partnership with Yarmouth and Acadian Shores Tourist Association (YASTA), we (also) relocated the Visitor Information Centre staff to Fundy Rose.”
Traffic on the Fundy Rose has been very strong this summer, although the ferry company says it is impossible to pinpoint the degree to which this results from The Cat not being in operation.
At the time the company had stopped taking reservations for The Cat, it said around 50 per cent of the cancellations had rebooked for the Fundy Rose.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has stated that a facility project of the scope and nature as the one happening at the Bar Harbor terminal facility generally takes 12-18 months to complete from design to construction.
Asked for comment on the status of things on Aug. 30, CBP spokesperson Michael McCarthy said, “CBP continues to work very closely with the ferry operator and their hired entities but the timeline is determined by the operator and their hired entities. I do not have an update on the completion date.”
The lack of ferry service is hitting the Yarmouth and Acadian shores region of the province particularly hard as accommodation bookings have been down, following a year of good growth the year before. In 2018 the region had seen 72,000 room nights sold, attributed mostly to the Cat service and the filming of The Lighthouse film.
The NDP party issued a media release on Aug. 30 saying the provincial government should be honest about the state of the Nova Scotia to Maine ferry service.
“When we get to the end of August and there still isn’t a ferry, the people of southwest Nova Scotia deserve to get a straight answer from the Liberals about what this means for them and their communities,” said NDP Leader Gary Burrill.
The last time there was no ferry sailing between Nova Scotia and Maine were in the years 2010 to 2013. In 2009 it was an NDP government that had cancelled the subsidy that was being paid to Bay Ferries for The Cat service. The Yarmouth area, and the provincial tourism sector, didn’t see this coming. After the subsidy was discontinued, Bay Ferries announced the service would be ending.