MARY'S HARBOUR, N.L. — A Mary’s Harbour man who was stuck on the Qajaq W for 12 hours while it tried to plow through the ice on Feb. 10 says it’s time for citizens to demand another ferry.
“We need to get a ferry committee together here in Labrador and they need someone with experience in the marine industry to head it up,” Jim Jones told The Northern Pen. “It’s the next step as far as I’m concerned.”
He says he has written to his MHA and MP about the issue, but said he doesn’t think the government is taking the problem seriously.
“Government, they’re the ones who signed the contract for these boats,” he said. “Everyone knows there is a problem and they’ll never admit it.
"The ship is not suitable and the government isn’t going to say anything different," alleges Jones. "They know if they ignore it after a while people wear down and just go away and (the issue) won’t come back again until next year.”
Jones was en route to a medical appointment on the island, which he had to cancel and reschedule for a later date in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. He said for him it could have been worse but many others rely on the ferry as their main link to the island.
The ferry, now in its second year on the run between Blanc Sablon, QC and St. Barbe, was the subject of much concern by some residents last year, with delays and cancelled crossings causing issues. Many residents and some politicians complained about the boat and Jones said this year people need to get together in a concentrated way and demand change.
Ice a concern: Labrador Marine
This season started in January but in the second week of February, there were at least four runs cancelled because of ice.
Labrador Marine Inc. (LMI), the company that owns and operates the ferry, issued a press release on Feb. 10, to explain how ice is impacting the service.
According to LMI, the current problem is a 12 to 14-foot high ice ridge that has formed on the Newfoundland coast outside Anchor Point, blocking access to St. Barbe Harbour.
“The pressure on the ice ridge has been so intense because of the wind that it has been impossible at times for the (Coast guard icebreaker) Henry Larsen to get through to St. Barbe,” said LMI president and CEO Peter Woodward. “If we attempted to get through in these types of conditions, we would damage our ship and risk having it out of service for months. We cannot put the safety of our ship, our passengers, and crew at risk.”
Jones said when he was a passenger on Feb. 10 it looked as if the ferry couldn’t follow the path of the icebreaker.
“The icebreaker had no issue with the ice from what I could see. She was circling us with no problems,” he said. “This new ferry, I’d compare it more to a self-propelled barge than a ship. It was unable to follow in the path the icebreaker was making.”
He said it was probably fine for its previous life as a riverboat when it did the run from Virtsu to Kuivastu in Estonia, but it's not suitable for winter conditions in the North Atlantic.
Following concerns last year, Transportation and Works Minister Steve Crocker told media the ferry had so much trouble because of the worst ice conditions in 30 years.
When asked by SaltWire at the end of the last season whether the government would look at replacing the ferry, like what was done with the Dutch Runner in Labrador in 2011, Crocker said that wasn’t being considered.
SaltWire reached out to the transportation department for a response on the current ferry situation. The department had not responded up to press time.
