The Nova Scotia government has poured more money into operating the Yarmouth ferry since it restarted in 2014 than the tourists it brings have spent in the province.
Tourism Nova Scotia says visitors who took the ferry spent approximately $52 million over the last three sailing seasons. In the same time-frame, the government spent $62.8 million in startup and operating costs.
READ MORE: Yarmouth ferry carried over 35,000 passengers in 2016 season: Bay Ferries
Officials with the tourism agency and the provincial transportation department spoke at the public accounts committee on Wednesday.
Despite the numbers, the tourism agency says it sees a direct benefit from the ferry. For example, the agency’s manager for research, planning and decision support Anna Moran, said hotel occupancy rates have skyrocketed by 57 per cent in southwest Nova Scotia since the ferry returned. She added that tourists who visit via the ferry spend double what other tourists spend, making them more valuable to the provincial economy.
“We can say quite definitively that that ferry has a had a very positive impact on that region,” Moran told reporters after the committee.
The government maintains the ferry serves more than just tourists, because it’s a transportation link to Maine, but no economic impact analysis has been done to show what its total impact is.
Bay Ferries took over operation of the ferry service in October 2015, after the government ditched former operator Nova Star Cruises. Bay Ferries sailed its first season, carrying passengers from Yarmouth to Portland, Maine, this summer using a new boat, the CAT.
By the end of the season, the ferry service had carried only 35,000 passengers, far less than the government’s target of 60,000.
However, Deputy Transportation Minister Paul LaFleche said Wednesday that the government’s decision to keep running the service boils down to more than numbers.
“You’re going down the path that this is some sort of a commercial operation, that’s not what it is, this supports people of southwest Nova, it supports all people of Nova Scotia, in fact,” LaFleche said.
He also added that the service is a “historic link” between the province and New England.
“It’s not being sold for economic benefits, it’s being sold because it’s a historic transportation link. It does bring economic benefits, and we’re very happy that it does, and we want to maximize those,” LaFleche said.
Progressive conservative finance critic Tim Houston said the government using the transportation link to justify the difference of more than $10 million is “spin,” calling the entire agreement a “terrible deal for Nova Scotians.”
“We heard a new line of response which was that this is a transportation link and the only thing I can say to that is, ‘hogwash,'” Houston said.
He said if it was a true transportation link, then transport trucks would also be able to use it to ship goods to Maine faster.
The transportation department says Bay Ferries is far and away a better ferry operator than Nova Star Cruises. According to the government, Nova Star Cruises was $15 million in debt when the province cancelled its contract with the company.
Bay Ferries is a “professional” and “sophisticated operator,” LaFleche said. “They are exactly the perfect operator we would want for this route.”
The province has pegged next year’s operating fees for the ferry at $9.4 million.
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