The Yarmouth ferry supporters are very right when they say that the whole province suffers if there’s no ferry service. PEI and Cape Breton Island have requested an inter-island ferry service for many years to shorten the Atlantic Canadian shipping route between PEI, northern NS, Quebec and NL to the rest of Canada and the US for many years.
Instead the province has subsidized the Yarmouth, Digby and Pictou ferries and have told Cape Breton interests that NS doesn’t subsidize ferry services. Yet, government reports in the past decade have shown the PEI to CBI ferry service as commercially viable during Spring to Fall seasons.
Capers have watched the mainland media attention to the failing Yarmouth and Digby ferry services in dismay with the knowledge that our PEI to CBI ferry route offers greater transportation synergies to our Atlantic region, yet receives little attention as a missing infrastructure piece that is essential to the future of moving people, goods and trade more efficiently through and around our region.
Cape Breton Island, too, is worried about the upcoming tourist season and access to the world famous Cabot Trail for tourists destined to our region. Where’s our PEI/CBI ferry?
Mark MacNeill
Chair, CBI Provincehood Campaign
Cape Breton
