Wolfe Island residents frustrated with lack of progress on Wolfe Islander IV

The date when the Wolfe Islander IV will finally come into full service has been a moving target since the ferry was delivered nearly two years ago.

The fall deadline set by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to have the Wolfe Islander IV in service has come and gone.

“Yeah I don’t know what happened there, I don’t know. Somebody screwed up,” said Wolfe Island resident Lorraine Staley of the troubles with the ferry.

“What can I say, it’s a government project. Public civil servants they work at their own pace,” added David Scott, also a resident of the island.

It’s a frustration for resident Jac Pharand as well. He moved to the island with his wife three years ago.

“We did move here because there was promise of a new ferry. We would have been a little bit more timid coming over if their would’ve been no talk about it because the line-ups were huge back then,” he said.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Judy Greenwood-Speers said the delays in bringing the Wolfe Islander IV into service is more than just an inconvenience.

“It’s holding us back, both from a housing perspective, economic development perspective, a health and safety perspective, emergency services perspective and MTO needs to get on with it,” she said.

Greenwood-Speers said her understanding is one of the last hold-ups is certifying staff with Transport Canada, something that is confirmed in an e-mail response from the ministry.

It is the same statement the MTO sent out on Dec. 18 which reads, in part:

“Before the WI4 can come into service full time, the ministry must ensure a full complement of licensed staff. Ministry staff are working with Transport Canada to ensure remaining staff are scheduled to take their onboard exams as soon as possible.”

That still leaves the question that Pharand has had since he moved to Wolfe Island: When will that be?

“They should be more forthcoming on the timeframe for this but I don’t think they know,” he said.

The mayor said if enough staff aren’t qualified then the MTO should bring in qualified contract workers to get the ferry into service.

“I appreciate that that doesn’t go over well with regular staff well we got to have it flowing one way or the other,” she added.

Greenwood-Speers said she has a meeting scheduled with the new minister of transportation later this month and she says she will be making it clear that delays are no longer acceptable and the new Wolfe Islander IV needs to be put into service.

The focus then can shift to how frequently the ferry will run and will Wolfe Island have a dual ferry service that the mayor says was in a 2011 MTO report.