The province will spend $8.5 million to renovate the Bar Harbor ferry terminal.
Transportation Minister Lloyd Hines says the province is confident that Bar Harbor will provide greater stability for the Bay Ferries service, providing cost savings that will reduce the subsidy in the long term.
He tells Acadia News he understands very well how vital the service is, likening it to the Trans-Canada Highway.
“We firmly believe and I personally firmly believe that the Nova Scotia-Maine ferry is an absolutely vital part of our transportation system. It’s extremely important to our tourism industry and is an investment in our rural economic development. Let me tell you, as a former tourism operator years ago in the eastern part of the province, that felt the effects of the cancellation of the ferry back in 2010, this ferry service us important to every Nova Scotian.”
Work on the terminal includes a fixed span and pier, deck and pile repairs, as well as moving the transfer bridge from the Portland terminal and reassembling it in Bar Harbor.
Some outer buildings will be demolished, customs plaza facilities will be built and security equipment will be moved from Portland and reinstalled.
Work is currently underway and expected to be finished for the launch of the new Bar Harbor-Yarmouth route at the end of June.
Diane Surette, executive director of finance for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, explained why Bay Ferries won’t be paying for any of the renovations. “Bay Ferries is our service provider, they’re the operator for the ferry. The ferry itself is a provincial service and we have hired an operator to run our service so the improvements and the investments that we’re putting into Bar Harbor is for our ferry.”
The province is budgeting $13.8 million to operate the service in 2019-2020.
(story by Gary Nickerson
nickerson.gary@radioabla.ca
(Acadia News photo)
Funding for Ferry Terminal Renovations https://t.co/KiKrr0BpN3
— Nova Scotia Gov. (@nsgov) March 20, 2019
