‘CAT’ Ferry Under New Government Scrutiny
YARMOUTH — An economic impact study is coming this fall for the CAT ferry.
Public Works Minister Kim Masland says the Yarmouth-to-Bar Maine service will undergo a broad overview. She told reporters yesterday that the province will issue a tender for the study.
Masland says it’s important that Nova Scotians know if their tax dollars are being spent wisely. She said last month that the service would undergo a review and said cancellation could be a possibility.
Premier Tim Houston says the lease for the ferry has been extended for another season, meaning the CAT should sail again in 2023.
The Government has expressed disappointment in passenger numbers this season and Houston said Nova Scotians would have liked to see higher numbers.
Bay Ferries says that, this year, the CAT carried 36,151 passengers and 14,972 vehicles, completing 113 round trips total with 12 weather cancellations. Traffic from the United States was 35 percent lower than 2018 and US travelers represented about 75 percent of passengers.
The company guessed the the tropical storm Fiona caused it to lose business from about 2,000 passengers.
The CAT has a capacity of 200 cars and 866 passengers per trip. The ferry carried just over 36,000 passengers in its first season back from the pandemic. But, In 2018, the last full season the ferry ran before Covid-19, a total of 50,185 passengers used the service.
Before he was elected premier, Tim Houston was critical of Bay Ferries. He argued the province spent too much on the ferry for too little return.
His party even sued Bay Ferries to publicly disclose how much money in management fees it receives from the provincial government. He won, and Bay Ferries revealed the province had been paying it close to $100,000 a month in fees since 2016.
More recently, the provincial government began releasing passenger numbers for the ferry, after the company initially refused to do so.
Despite apparent skepticism among the provincial government, Yartmouth’s mayor continues to ardently support the ferry.
“That rising tide floats all boats. When one of us is successful, all of us are successful. If you take away the ferry, you’re not taking it from Yarmouth, you’re taking it from Nova Scotia,” Pam Mood said in a recent interview.
Mood has requested that other mayors and wardens write a letter to the province on the importance of the service.
Kevin Northrup is a reporter with CJLS in Yarmouth, a Huddle content partner. With files from Skye Bryden-Blom and Trevor Nichols