Though the ferry route has been serviced by
Nova Star Cruises for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, there seems to be some doubt as to who will provide the service going froward from 2015. In this vein the
Yarmouth County Vanguard has recently published several articles on the subject of who will be the future service provider and the meetings currently being held between company and County of Yarmouth officials.
One of the articles is reproduced in part below.
Time ticking away towards
decision on operator for NS-Maine
2016 ferry service
Tina Comeau
Published on July 29, 2015
Transportation minister says decision needs to be made by mid-August whether Nova Star Cruises or someone else will operate ferry service.
YARMOUTH – The province’s transportation minister says by mid-August a decision will need to be made on who will operate ferry service between Nova Scotia and Maine in 2016.
“We’ve got a very short window here to make a final decision,” Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Minister Geoff MacLellan said in Yarmouth on Wednesday, July 29. He also said the province wants to ensure there is no disruption between this sailing season and the next one regardless of who operates the service – Nova Star Cruises or someone else.
“We need continuity in the service so we can’t have a disruption at this point,” MacLellan said. “Two years has gone into re-establishing and developing that market, and letting travellers again know that the service is in place, so to have a disruption now would be detrimental to the overall success that we’re striving for.”
MacLellan said he and others were to meet with Nova Star officials also on Wednesday to discuss this season’s numbers, including the service’s passenger numbers, revenue and operational costs. Nova Star Cruises has a one-year contract with the government for this season. The government has committed up to $13 million for the service this year.
“But now we have to look at what the long term will look like. This is no longer a conversation about 2015, this is about where sustainability is,” MacLellan said. He said the province and others want to see the service succeed, but not, he said, “at all costs.”
“We’ve got to know whether or not this is going to be Nova Star as the vessel and the operators. The conversations we’ll have with Nova Star officials will answer some of those questions and we’ve got a very short window here to make a final decision,” he said.
Read on at the Yarmouth County Vanguard