Bay Ferries anchors Digby-Saint John service

DIGBY, N.S. — Bay Ferries Ltd. says this fall will be the last sailing between Digby and Saint John because high fuel and operational costs are costing the service too much money.

According to the Chronicle-Herald, the Princess of Acadia will make its final three-hour trip across the Bay of Fundy on Oct. 31.

About 100 Bay Ferries employees and another 30 people who work for subcontractors will lose their jobs, the company said. It’s also bad news for the trucking fleets — mainly those that haul lumber and seafood to U.S. East Coast markets.

This fall may be the last time the Princess of Acadia sets sail

Bay Ferries, which has operated the service since it purchased it from crown corporation Marine Atlantic in 1997, had been pondering a shutdown since it cut some of its runs last November.

Yarmouth-based Terry LeBlanc of Eastside Fisheries, told Today’s Trucking at the time that without the ferry it would be a challenge for fleets in the region to deliver fresh products like lobster. The alternative via the road would increase costs and double delivery time, he says.

Not too long ago the service operated year round except for a few weeks in February when it’s in dry dock. Traffic peaked in 1998 at 190,000 passengers but has since dropped by more than 25 percent, according to the Herald.

This recent announcement sparked a flurry of calls for the federal and provincial governments to step in.

Digby Mayor Frank Mackintosh announced this past weekend that an emergency meeting is slated for Tuesday with three local Liberal MPs and MLAs. Federal Conservative cabinet minister and Nova Scotia MP Peter MacKay is also getting involved.

Mark MacDonald, president and CEO of Bay Ferries, told the Herald the company is not looking for handouts, but would be willing to talk to government about ways of saving the service.

MacDonald said the biggest challenge has been the skyrocketing price of fuel, but there’s also been a drop in tourism and declines in forestry exports.

The ferry service consumes roughly 24,000 litres of fuel per day, and its fuel bill has gone up over 70 percent in the last couple years.

Bay Ferries and sister company Northumberland Ferries Ltd. also operate the high-speed Cat ferry between Yarmouth and two Maine ports, Portland and Bar Harbor; conventional service between Caribou, Pictou County, and Wood Islands, P.E.I.