Province mishandled RFP’s for Yarmouth ferry service: critics

There’s disappointment in Yarmouth today after the province announced it has rejected two proposals to resume a ferry service linking Yarmouth to Maine.

Critics point to the announcement as an example of how the NDP has mismanaged the situation starting in 2009, but there’s still some optimism a solution will be found down the road.

Liberal leader Stephen McNeil said the request for proposals simply had too tight a timeline, and the government didn’t do a good job of going out and talking to businesses before putting out the RFP’s.

“I think clearly that’s what you only had two bidders, because this government tried to squeeze the timeline for political reasons as opposed to doing what’s right and getting the proper service down there,” he said.

Yarmouth mayor Pam Mood told News 95.7 it was hard to lose the ferry in 2009.

“I had mixed emotions on that,” she explained. “It was the wrong ferry for us, but it would have been great until we found something else.”

Mood added she still has hope ferry service will return.

“The initial response was disappoint simply because the service won’t be returned within the next few months but after that we have to remember that if we’re going to do this, we have to do it right,” she said.

Liberal MLA Zach Churchill (Yarmouth) added so much time has passed since the ferry was scrapped, it will be hard to bring back another one.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “It’s going to take significant investment and effort to get that ferry operating again.”

He added the government’s decisions have had a dire effect on tourism in Yarmouth and the province.

“We’ve lost about 60 per cent of our rooms down here in Yarmouth, we’ve lost restaurants, bed and breakfasts and motels but the negative effects of losing a ferry have been felt all the way up the South Shore and all the way up to Pictou and Cape Breton,” he said.

The province will launch a new procurement process with the hopes of a 2014 start date.