In a hard-hitting editorial in its Sept 11 issue, the Shelburne County Coast Guard takes aim at the "rookie" Dexter government for botching the Yarmouth-USA ferry issue, with their "knee-jerk" yanking of $7 million-plus per year in subsidies.
Read the full text of the editorial here:
EDITORIAL - SHELBURNE COUNTY COAST GUARD, SEPT 11, 2012
Finally...
After the release of a much-anticipated report on restoring a Yarmouth-U.S. ferry service, Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter wasted little time announcing that the province would commit up to $21-million over seven years towards the return of a viable service.
While that's great news, and marks the first real commitment by the government towards reestablishing the much-needed ferry, there are still no guarantees a service will ever return.
But the province will soon put out an expression of interest seeking a private sector ferry operator willing to run "a successful and profitable" ferry service between Yarmouth and Portland, Maine.
The report concludes that a ferry service could exist with the right business model and the premier stressed, with the right partners.
The report also suggests 2014 is likely the most realistic tmieframe in trying to get a service back in place, as opposed to
2013.
And there will also be a big investment from the federal government needed with up to $13 million to repair and refurbish the Yarmouth terminal facilities required.
Premier Dexter also took the opportunity after the report's release to justify the 2009 decision to withdraw funding from the existing Cat service, saying that it was not viable and couldn't exist without a growing subsidy.
While that may be true, we still believe that the then rookie NDP government made a huge error in what we could only term as a knee jerk reaction to the growing need for subsidies for the ferry.
We believe-the government did not consider just how important this ferry was, not only to tourism and economic development but towards the pervasive sense of economic and physical isolation many the southwest region feel
In his remarks to the media on Friday the Premier said in southwest Nova Scotia the ferry issue became a political football and a "method of attack on the government" that he believed totally unwarranted
Unwarranted?
Oh, it was warranted
Ending the service subsidy was a rookie move that really should have had a sober second look before an apparently arrogant young government took out the axe.
We also believe that if the issue had not become a "political football" that the question of a ferry service would likely never have surfaced.
We can only view last week's announcement as what it was... an important step to correcting a mistake.
