Saint John tourism grows after N.S. ferry cut
Last Updated: Friday, August 27, 2010 | 9:08 AM AT Comments36Recommend21CBC News
The high-speed ferry service between Nova Scotia and Maine was axed in December 2009. (CBC)
The closure of a high-speed ferry in Yarmouth, N.S., is turning into a boon for tourism in Saint John.
The ferry, known as the Cat, ran from Bar Harbor, Me., to Yarmouth was cancelled late last year and the fallout has been an unexpected jump in U.S. tourists visiting Saint John.
It has also been a real boost for the Princess of Acadia ferry, which travels between Saint John and Digby, N.S.
Cathy McConchie and her husband Gerry are among many American travellers who had not expected their summer vacation would bring them anywhere near New Brunswick.
"We went to Bar Harbor. We made all the reservations online and I looked up the Cat because I knew it was at Bar Harbour and then when I saw it wasn't running I looked for the next ferry," McConchie said.
Jean Hewick is travelling to Nova Scotia from Albany, N.Y., and also said the high-speed ferry's cancellation rerouted her plans through New Brunswick.
"I knew that there was a ferry from Bar Harbor and that was my original plan. And when I went online to book my ferry there was no ferry from Bar Harbor and I was quite disappointed," Hewick said.
"So we had to drive much further to Saint John."
Service cut
The high-speed Catamaran ferry service in Yarmouth was cancelled in December 2009 after the Nova Scotia government refused to continue subsidies to sustain the ferry service. The ferry's final voyage came in April.
Bay Ferries Ltd. wanted at least $6 million from the government in 2010 to keep the Cat ferry running between Yarmouth and the Maine cities of Bar Harbor and Portland.
The ferry between Yarmouth and Maine began in 1997. The Nova Scotia government had given $18.9 million to the ferry service since the fall of 2007.
Bay Ferries also owns the Digby ferry service.
Although the Digby ferry traffic is seeing an increase this year, it too has been reliant on government funding to stay afloat.
In 2008, the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia governments paid $2 million each to help with Bay Ferries' operating costs, while the federal government put in $11.1 million.
The three governments also cobbled together $8 million in 2006 after Bay Ferries threatened to halt its run because of rising costs and declining ferry traffic.
Ferry traffic up
The spike in U.S. tourist traffic may be attributable to the fact that people trying to book the Cat online in Bar Harbor are automatically forwarded to the Digby ferry in Saint John.
A spokesman for Bay Ferries says traffic on the Princess of Acadia has grown in excess of 25 per cent over the past year.
Bay Ferries is adding three additional crossings weekly to the Princess of Acadia's fall schedule.
That spike in tourist traffic comes as no surprise to some Saint John bed and breakfast owners, such as Willa Mavis of Inn on the Cove, who have seen the number of American visitors rise.
"All the American ferry travellers we spoke to overnighted in the city before boarding the Princess of Acadia," Mavis said.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/08/27/nb-saint-john-digby-ferry-523.html#ixzz0y8bHbVT7
Monday, August 30, 2010
NoRigs3
NS: NoRigs 3 seeks permanent oil and gas ban
By Staff, Transcontinental Media
Source: The Yarmouth County Vanguard, August 30, 2010
[YARMOUTH, NS] — The NoRigs 3 Coalition of fishermen, fishing groups, environmentalists and Aboriginal groups is calling on the Nova Scotia government for a permanent ban on oil and gas exploration and development on Georges Bank.
Representatives of the NoRigs3 Coalition will meet with Premier Darrell Dexter early in September to press for a permanent ban.
The coalition says such a ban is the only rational choice for the government in light of the exceptional nature of the rich fishing ground and sensitive ecosystem on Georges Bank and in light of ongoing oil spills that prove the industry is not safe and cleanup not easy.
Spills in the last year include the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon blowout and spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the West Atlas Montara blowout and spill in the Timor Sea in Australia and the Enbridge oil pipeline spill into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. The coalition notes the spills have done billions of dollars of damage and the full environmental and economic impact of these spills remains unknown.
“The clean-up costs and damage to the Gulf fishing and tourism industries are increasing every day,” says Denny Morrow, NoRigs 3 chairman. “Plus, damage to seabirds, turtles and other non-commercial species can’t even be estimated yet.”
This spring the Nova Scotia government extended a ban on oil and gas exploration and development on Georges Bank to the year 2015. It was to expire in 2012.
But given the proof by the BP spill that the most up-to-date technology for preventing oil pollution were ineffective in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the NoRigs 3 Coalition will be asking the Nova Scotia and Canadian governments to place a permanent ban on oil and gas development on Georges Bank.
While Georges Bank is a shallow bank, the Georges Bank moratorium lands cover deep water as well. NoRigs 3 says an oil rig blowout on Georges Bank could easily result in similar damage costs of $1 billion per year to Canadian and U.S. fisheries on the Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. The New England tourism industry from Cape Cod to Maine could also be vulnerable if a blowout occurred on the Canadian portion of Georges Bank, as strong, counter clock-wise “gyre” currents on the Bank would likely carry the oil pollutants to Cape Cod and New England shorelines. BP is one of two companies currently holding leases on Georges Bank.
NoRigs3 member and long-time fishing company manager Claude d’Entremont says that at least two blowout disasters over the past 12 months have exposed the myths that oil and gas development technology is risk-free, that the forces of nature can always be controlled and that government regulations can prevent human error and malfeasance from triggering these accidents.
“At least two major spills have occurred in this time,” d’Entremont says, “spilling more 700,000 tons of oil into the sea.”
Mark Butler, policy director with the Ecology Action Centre, adds: “Instead of chasing the very last drops of oil into the most sensitive marine environments like Georges Bank, it is really time for North America to speed up the transition to a renewable energy economy.”
By Staff, Transcontinental Media
Source: The Yarmouth County Vanguard, August 30, 2010
[YARMOUTH, NS] — The NoRigs 3 Coalition of fishermen, fishing groups, environmentalists and Aboriginal groups is calling on the Nova Scotia government for a permanent ban on oil and gas exploration and development on Georges Bank.
Representatives of the NoRigs3 Coalition will meet with Premier Darrell Dexter early in September to press for a permanent ban.
The coalition says such a ban is the only rational choice for the government in light of the exceptional nature of the rich fishing ground and sensitive ecosystem on Georges Bank and in light of ongoing oil spills that prove the industry is not safe and cleanup not easy.
Spills in the last year include the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon blowout and spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the West Atlas Montara blowout and spill in the Timor Sea in Australia and the Enbridge oil pipeline spill into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. The coalition notes the spills have done billions of dollars of damage and the full environmental and economic impact of these spills remains unknown.
“The clean-up costs and damage to the Gulf fishing and tourism industries are increasing every day,” says Denny Morrow, NoRigs 3 chairman. “Plus, damage to seabirds, turtles and other non-commercial species can’t even be estimated yet.”
This spring the Nova Scotia government extended a ban on oil and gas exploration and development on Georges Bank to the year 2015. It was to expire in 2012.
But given the proof by the BP spill that the most up-to-date technology for preventing oil pollution were ineffective in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the NoRigs 3 Coalition will be asking the Nova Scotia and Canadian governments to place a permanent ban on oil and gas development on Georges Bank.
While Georges Bank is a shallow bank, the Georges Bank moratorium lands cover deep water as well. NoRigs 3 says an oil rig blowout on Georges Bank could easily result in similar damage costs of $1 billion per year to Canadian and U.S. fisheries on the Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. The New England tourism industry from Cape Cod to Maine could also be vulnerable if a blowout occurred on the Canadian portion of Georges Bank, as strong, counter clock-wise “gyre” currents on the Bank would likely carry the oil pollutants to Cape Cod and New England shorelines. BP is one of two companies currently holding leases on Georges Bank.
NoRigs3 member and long-time fishing company manager Claude d’Entremont says that at least two blowout disasters over the past 12 months have exposed the myths that oil and gas development technology is risk-free, that the forces of nature can always be controlled and that government regulations can prevent human error and malfeasance from triggering these accidents.
“At least two major spills have occurred in this time,” d’Entremont says, “spilling more 700,000 tons of oil into the sea.”
Mark Butler, policy director with the Ecology Action Centre, adds: “Instead of chasing the very last drops of oil into the most sensitive marine environments like Georges Bank, it is really time for North America to speed up the transition to a renewable energy economy.”
Our Ferry Ridership Looking Good This Year
N.B.-N.S ferry's spike in riders fuels hopes
Last Updated: Saturday, August 28, 2010 | 2:03 PM AT
CBC News
The Princess of Acadia ferry docks in Saint John, N.B. Supporters hope an increase in passengers this year will convince governments to back the survival of the crossing. (CBC)Defenders of the subsidized ferry service that connects New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are hoping a spike in passenger traffic this summer will help save it.
Last week Bay Ferries Ltd. announced that the Princess of Acadia will add three extra crossings weekly between Saint John, N.B., and Digby, N.S.
There has been a 25 per cent jump in passenger numbers this summer, the company says.
The future of the service is in the hands of the federal and provincial governments. They have promised the crossing will stay open until the end of 2011, with a decision on what happens to the ferry service beyond that coming next fall.
In 2008, the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia governments paid $2 million each to help with Bay Ferries' operating costs, while the federal government put in $11.1 million.
Firm ongoing funding and a replacement for the federally owned, 1970s-era Princess of Acadia would likely be required to keep the crossing going.
The ferry business is especially important to the small town of Digby, which residents say would experience a huge drop in traffic if the ferry ever shut down.
Ferry vital to fish-packing
Jim Thurber, who heads a coalition in southwest Nova Scotia that is trying to save the ferry, said the strong summer shows that the ridership is there. He says the passenger numbers can be combined with a recent study by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency that said the ferry service is critical to the region's fish-packing industry.
"It should help in selling the fact that that service needs to remain and be guaranteed long-term," he said.
Stakeholders attribute the increase in passengers to the cancellation in December of the high-speed catamaran ferry that ran between Bar Harbor, Me., and Yarmouth, N.S. That crossing was also subsidized, and when Nova Scotia pulled its funding the crossing was cancelled.
Bay Ferries operated both vessels. People who look for the Bar Harbor crossing online are automatically forwarded to the Digby Ferry.
Digby-based restaurant owner Chris Cogswell said he has noticed the difference this summer.
"It's always been going downhill a bit for the last four years and this year it's actually coming back up the other way, so definitely the ferry traffic is helping for sure," he said.
Last Updated: Saturday, August 28, 2010 | 2:03 PM AT
CBC News
The Princess of Acadia ferry docks in Saint John, N.B. Supporters hope an increase in passengers this year will convince governments to back the survival of the crossing. (CBC)Defenders of the subsidized ferry service that connects New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are hoping a spike in passenger traffic this summer will help save it.
Last week Bay Ferries Ltd. announced that the Princess of Acadia will add three extra crossings weekly between Saint John, N.B., and Digby, N.S.
There has been a 25 per cent jump in passenger numbers this summer, the company says.
The future of the service is in the hands of the federal and provincial governments. They have promised the crossing will stay open until the end of 2011, with a decision on what happens to the ferry service beyond that coming next fall.
In 2008, the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia governments paid $2 million each to help with Bay Ferries' operating costs, while the federal government put in $11.1 million.
Firm ongoing funding and a replacement for the federally owned, 1970s-era Princess of Acadia would likely be required to keep the crossing going.
The ferry business is especially important to the small town of Digby, which residents say would experience a huge drop in traffic if the ferry ever shut down.
Ferry vital to fish-packing
Jim Thurber, who heads a coalition in southwest Nova Scotia that is trying to save the ferry, said the strong summer shows that the ridership is there. He says the passenger numbers can be combined with a recent study by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency that said the ferry service is critical to the region's fish-packing industry.
"It should help in selling the fact that that service needs to remain and be guaranteed long-term," he said.
Stakeholders attribute the increase in passengers to the cancellation in December of the high-speed catamaran ferry that ran between Bar Harbor, Me., and Yarmouth, N.S. That crossing was also subsidized, and when Nova Scotia pulled its funding the crossing was cancelled.
Bay Ferries operated both vessels. People who look for the Bar Harbor crossing online are automatically forwarded to the Digby Ferry.
Digby-based restaurant owner Chris Cogswell said he has noticed the difference this summer.
"It's always been going downhill a bit for the last four years and this year it's actually coming back up the other way, so definitely the ferry traffic is helping for sure," he said.
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