Trans Canada Highway into Newfoundland Nearly Abandoned by Ottawa

The Terms of Union, the official agreement by which Newfoundland and Labrador entered Canada in 1949, specifically identifies the delivery of ferry services as the responsibility of the federal government. Article 32 of the Terms of Union state:

“…Canada will maintain in accordance with the traffic offering a freight and passenger steamship service between North Sydney and Port aux Basques, which, on completion of a motor highway between Corner Brook and Port aux Basques, will include suitable provision for the carriage of motor vehicles.”

This article was included in the final agreement for the express purpose of ensuring that the island portion of the province would not be cut off from the rest of Canada and that it would have an equal access to goods and services as any other province in the Country.

In essence, the ferry system is a section of Trans Canada Highway itself. Mile 1 of the Trans Canada Highway begins in St. John’s NL. The highway extends to the west coast of the province where it meets the gulf ferry service. These ferries then allow passengers to once again connect to the TCH in Nova Scotia and continue across the Country.

I wonder if Canadians in Ontario, Manitoba or elsewhere would simply sit by and allow the federal government to allow the TCH in their area fall into disrepair. If they would let them get away with allowing it to become impassible at times resulting in their province being cut off from the rest of the Country. If protestors, demonstrators or striking government workers were to block other portions of the TCH would Ottawa have them removed? If retail prices were rising because tractor trailers couldn’t deliver goods over the TCH, would everyone just shrug it off and let it continue? I wonder how long it would take the fed to ensure that any obstruction to the highway system in those areas was cleared and traffic could flow unimpeded.

Why is it that when it comes to the TCH link in Newfoundland, the ferry service, these situations are allowed to happen again and again and continue to worsen with each passing year?

Marine Atlantic’s aging ferry fleet consists of 3 primary vessels, the Caribou, the Leif Erickson and the Smallwood. The ferries run 7 days a week, 365 days a year and each year they become more and more prone to repair issues and accidents. The Union representing navigators, engineers, electricians and radar technicians aboard these vessels have said that its time Ottawa examined the costs of repair in comparison to that of replacement.

Anyone who has used the Marine Atlantic service between Port aux Basques, NL and North Sydney, NS over the years has seen the long lineups, especially during the summer months. Truckers in particular are hard hit by the limited service and capacity available, a situation that is severely worsened when a vessel is out of service due to maintenance issues or a labor disruption. At times trailers containing goods destined for the province are stuck in line ups for days if not weeks. This delay to the delivery of goods means that truckers cannot make a living elsewhere and this in turn drives up the cost of supplies and materials essential to the province.

Union representatives are also concerned with safety issues after one ferry recently lost power and collided with a concrete dock barrier. Had the loss of power happened at sea or during inclement weather the result could have been catastrophic. They are sounding the alarm about the potential safety threat of the aging technology on the vessels and what that could mean to passengers and crew members.

In another incident in July, at the height of the provinces short tourist season, 1,300 passengers were stranded at North Sydney Nova Scotia when the Leif Erickson lost a turbo thruster and a replacement had to be shipped in from Switzerland.

The ferries are an essential part of the highway system across Canada and are required for the movement of goods but also for passenger traffic. In an average year the service moves 500,000 people (the equivalent of the entire population of the province). A large number of those passengers are tourists who travel during the short summer season and the provincial government has identified the lack of capacity on these ferries as factor limiting tourism development.

The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is a huge land mass. Many tourists prefer to drive to the province rather than fly. This allows them the freedom to move about the province at their leisure and visit the many towns and outports without the added expense of a rental vehicle. Unfortunately the limited service offered by the federal government’s ferry service often means visitors opt not to come to the province because they have difficulty reserving space on the ferries or are not willing to face long and uncertain lineups.

If we look more closely at the Terms of Union and specifically at article 32, it states: “…Canada will maintain in accordance with the traffic offering…” and “…will include suitable provision for the carriage of motor vehicles.”

This clearly indicates that the intent of article 32 is to ensure that the ferry system has the capacity to meet the needs of the province. This is obviously not the case and with each year the problem worsens while Ottawa continues to ignore it.

Newfoundland and Labrador has a long ship building history. Currently there are idle shipyards in the province that would jump at the chance to build new, larger capacity, ferries for Marine Atlantic. All it would take is the go ahead from Ottawa to upgrade the fleet. Why then is the federal government ignoring this problem? One that’s affecting economic development in the province, driving up the cost of consumer goods and causing Newfoundland and Labrador to become more and more cut off from the rest of the Country?