HALIFAX – Amid mounting questions about the Nova Star ferry’s finances, the company released some of its executives’ salaries Thursday.
The information of four executives was released, all are shareholders, and as part of the agreement signed with the government, they agreed to defer 50 per cent of their salaries until the ferry service is profitable.
The salaries total $425,000, released in a lump sum, according to the public relations company hired by Nova Star.
That represents 1.1 per cent of the yearly operating budget of about approximately $38 million.
However, there are five other executives listed on the company’s website. Sean Lewis, the director of National Public Relations, said their salaries weren’t released because those employees aren’t shareholders and didn’t defer 50 per cent of their salaries.
Opposition parties want to know government’s plan for the Nova Star
In Province House on Thursday, both opposition parties raised questions about the long term plan for the Nova Star ferry. The questions come after the province announced an additional $5 million injection for the ferry service, Tuesday.
In addition to the cash infusion for outstanding costs, Economic Development Minister Michel Samson said the government might be on the hook for costs the ferry could incur over the winter. That additional money will be required if the ferry service doesn’t get a contract to work in the off-season.
He confirmed the government will also be giving money to the service when it starts next summer’s operations, however Samson wouldn’t give any details on how much.
The NDP said it wants to know whether the government has written a blank cheque for the ferry service.
“A lot of cash has been outlayed already. Based on what the minister has been saying, there’s a hint that this is an open ended kind of arrangement, and we need to have answers whether or not that’s how he sees it,” said interim NDP leader Maureen MacDonald.
Samson blames the previous NDP government for the contract it’s now stuck with.
“The frustration with all this is that when this agreement was negotiated by the previous government it was assumed the vessel would have winter work. There was no Plan B,” said Samson. “Today we are telling Nova Scotians that we are concerned that there may be a need for us to work with the company during the winter months to secure the vessel, that wasn’t contemplated in the agreement.”
That argument doesn’t wash with Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie.
“I heard the minister defend his position saying that they had assumed that the NDP had done all their homework, and all their due diligence so they just signed off. Well quite frankly that’s laughable,” said Baillie. “They wouldn’t assume that on anything else, why would they assume that the previous government had done all their due diligence?”
The government said it does not know when it will find out if it will have to pay for the ferry during the winter. Samson also said he has no ballpark on what the bill might be.
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