The warden of Pictou County says lowering the cost of travelling between Atlantic provinces is a good start but is still missing the mark.
Ottawa slashed the prices of interprovincial travel, Monday, including the tolls on the Confederation Bridge and ferries between Atlantic provinces.
However, Robert Parker tells our newsroom, although this will mean a lot for tourism, there shouldn’t be any cost at all.
“I mean, those two provinces, P.E.I., Newfoundland…they’re part of Canada and should be connected without any charge. That’s just part of the highway system, but it is good news right now,” says Parker.
He adds, this could mean the difference between whether people get off the ferry or not and “enjoy all the good things about Pictou County”.
“I think equally important to me, is the businesses that use that ferry. They have to try and do business and they’re on an uneven footing with the rest of the country and have to pay these high charges because they travel that boat day and after day after day with big trucks that are paying quite a bit to get on and off there,” adds Parker.
Ferry troubles
There are two ferries that operate between Nova Scotia and P.E.I. – the MV Saaremaa and the MV Confederation.
Over the last couple of years, service has been a real problem due to technical issues.
Parker says when ferries are not running, if affects all the tourism businesses and everything.
“It was just plain shut down. I think was two, two and a half months last fall, open two weeks before they were scheduled to close. So, it’s been a mess,” says Parker. “One person said to me yesterday, you know price doesn’t make much difference if it’s not there. So there needs to be reliability.”
In addition to that, he says, they’re having a lot of problems with how the new boat handles low tide.
Reached out to Ottawa
Pictou County reached out to former Minister of Transport, Anita Anand on the ferry issue in November.
Parker says she promised to look into it and make sure they had two ferries at all times.
“The worst possible way to start a season here early May, is to only have one ferry. You can almost bet that ferry is going to break down if you only have one. If you have two, at least you still have service,” says Parker.
Although Anand is no longer the transportation minister, he says, council will likely reach out to the federal government again on the issue.
Parker adds, the disruptions are a bigger risk than the price.
“It’s important people realize that, well, sometimes it looks like a gift. Nothing in this world is free and I think somebody pays the bill. In this case it’s going from the user to the general taxpayer,” says Parker.
