Tories question ferry move
Published Tuesday April 28th, 2009
FREDERICTON - The Opposition Conservatives are baffled as to why a former Liberal MLA is being paid to help reverse the Grits' decision to scrap two cable ferries - when the Liberals originally cut the ferries to save money.
On Monday, it was publicly revealed that former Fundy Isles MLA Eric Allaby is being paid to consult the government on the current ferry fiasco.
Allaby will help set up a volunteer community group, which will take over ownership of the Gagetown and Belleisle ferries.
The group will then contract out the service to a private operator. Allaby will also help the community group choose the private operator.
The Tories say the arrangement is suspect.
"Here, they've gone and spent some money to hire a friend of the party, who comes from an island (Grand Manan) - so they assume he's an expert on ferries - to do what the minister should already be doing," said Conservative Bev Harrison in an interview.
"The minister is the expert. At least he's suppose to be. He's got a staff quite capable of working with these citizens and coming up with the privatized solution," the Hampton-Kings MLA said.
"But what has he gone and done? Spent money to hire someone when they're trying to save money on the ferries in the first place.
"It doesn't make sense."
Allaby's emergence came just a day after the Liberals announced the Gagetown and Belleisle ferries would remain in service, but with a private operator and a significantly reduced schedule.
The Hampstead ferry, however, has not been spared the chopping block.
As announced in the recent provincial budget, the three river ferries were to be pulled from their runs at the end of this month. The services are being discontinued to save the province $1.5 million.
Under the new arrangement, said Allaby, the department of transportation will no longer operate the ferries.
Still, he wouldn't rule out the government supporting the ferries through grants or by covering liability for the service.
As well, he couldn't say when the province will finally step away from the two ferries.
That will all depend on how quickly the volunteer community group can be formed - and a private operator found.
So far, three potential contractors have shown interest in running the ferries: Armstrong Management Solutions Inc. of Chipman; East Coast Ferries Ltd. of Deer Island; and Tim Tupper of Jemseg.
"We want to do it as quickly as possible because the longer we drag this out, the more uncertainty there is," Allaby said.
Until then, the government will operate the two ferries daily, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Harrison called the new plan a "partial measure".
"People aren't terribly excited by this," he said. "But they're happy the boats haven't come out of the water."
Randy Smith, the mayor of Gagetown, stood shoulder to shoulder Monday with Allaby and Eugene McGinley, the Liberal MLA for Grand Lake-Gagetown.
He admitted that many questions are left unanswered, but said his community will have no trouble forming a volunteer group to oversee the ferry service.
"It's one more step towards a conclusion and one step further to a solution," he said.
Smith also praised the Liberals' budget - the very document that slashed his village's ferry in the first place.
Smith told reporters the government had "received accolades across the country for its budget."
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This is a slap in the face to anyone outside of gagetown who faces cuts (Mactaquac come to mind) that supported his towns cause.
And I'm sure we'll also see a handful of loudly gloating naysayers cheering, saying 'I told you so', and doing nothing but sneering on the web, if these volunteers -- who are giving their time and energy to keep services in their community -- fail in their efforts.