It’s full steam ahead for the planned move of a high-speed ferry between Nova Scotia and Maine.
The privately-operated service, operated by Bay Ferries Ltd., is one step closer to shifting from Portland, Maine, to Bar Harbor after the town officially took control of a local ferry terminal form the State of Maine at the beginning of the month.
But with only four months until the start of the sailing season, there’s still no lease agreement in place for the ferry service, better known as the CAT, to dock in Bar Harbor.
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Lloyd Hines, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, said on Thursday that it wasn’t clear whether a new contract was necessary for the new location.
A 10-year deal between the ferry operator and the Nova Scotia government had been contingent on travel between Yarmouth and Portland.
“I’m sure there are other parts of the lease than just the destination, as it were. There’s all kinds of other considerations in the document,” Hines said.
Despite an annual subsidy of approximately $10 million, the minister did confirm that taxpayers will cover some of the costs for renovations that Bay Ferries is conducting on the ferry terminal in Bar Harbor. On Tuesday he said he wasn’t sure how much it would cost.
He also said he doesn’t know who is performing the renovation work, and who will front the cost if, for some reason, the CAT isn’t sailing to Bar Harbor by the beginning of the season — slated for June.
“I’m not sure what the arrangement is on that. It would depend on the lease arrangement that we have with Bay Ferries,” Hines said.
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The renovations could cost upwards of US$3 million, according to numbers obtained by Global News last year.
Hines says he has yet to be briefed on a consultant’s report that has been prepared to analyze the move.
Hines said he’ll be receiving a briefing by department staff next week.
It remains unclear whether Nova Scotians will be on the hook for the costs of staffing the ferry terminal with United States Customs and Border Protection agents.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston, meanwhile, says he’s unhappy with any arrangement that would result in taxpayer dollars funding customs agents in the U.S.
“It’s very scary to have the minister paying for renovations at a facility in another country when he doesn’t even have a contract that says he’ll be able to use that facility,” said Houston.
Premier Stephen McNeil says the investment is justified by an increase in tourists to the South Shore of Nova Scotia.
“When we go out and look at that ferry, we know that that number is a positive number coming into the province. Those are encouraging signs,” McNeil said.
The province has yet to commission any study linking those number to the ferry service.