It appears from what we’re hearing in Fredericton, the government is looking at privatizing all river ferries and that means charging tolls. This includes the Westfield Ferry.

There is a meeting tonight in Cambridge Narrows to discuss the formation of the new multi-stakeholder Ferry Committee at the Cambridge-Narrows Municipal Building beginning at 7pm.

Below is a transcript from Question Period yesterday where the ferry issue was addressed. This email was forwarded by Conservative MLA Jody Carr to people fighting the ferry cuts. What do you think?

The Gagetown and Belleisle ferries will continue operating past the end of the month. The government was planning on cutting the service on April 30th. But the Hampstead ferry is gone for good and the other two ferries will be operated privately by a third party on behalf of the community. That means tolls will likely be charged. Gagetown Mayor Randy Smith said on a CBC Radio interview this morning that this agreement is another step forward. He said the comunity is thrilled by this new turn of events, even though they still don’t know all the details including if the ferry will operate year round. He warns that if a private company can make money in a small economy like Gagetown, it’s likely the same model will be applied for the Westfield Ferry.  Below is the news release from the province.

Province to provide opportunity for continuation of ferry services in Belleisle Bay and Village of Gagetown (09/04/27)

NB 566

April 27, 2009

FREDERICTON (CNB) – The provincial government will work with community stakeholders to provide, through a third party, an opportunity for the continuation of ferry services in Belleisle Bay and the Village of Gagetown, Transportation Minister Denis Landry announced today.

“I think we have an excellent solution here today, one that respects the need for government to exercise restraint in difficult times while maintaining a service that these communities value,” said Landry. “I want to thank the community leaders for coming to the table, and I particularly want to thank local MLA Eugene McGinley for his key role in facilitating this solution.”

Landry announced that while the provincial government is still getting out of the ferry business in the two communities, it is appointing Eric Allaby, former member of the legislative assembly for Fundy Isles, to work on the issue. Allaby will work with stakeholders on behalf of the Department of Transportation to facilitate the continuation of ferry services in the two communities.

“Eric is an excellent choice to oversee this process,” said Landry. “Having represented, for 19 years, communities that depend on ferries, he understands this issue well. I am confident that he will be able to deliver a positive outcome.”

Allaby will work with community stakeholders to set up a locally controlled group to oversee operation of the ferries. At the same time, he and stakeholders will identify a suitable contractor to operate the ferry service.

To date, three potential contractors – Barry Armstrong, of Armstrong Management Solutions Inc., of Chipman, East Coast Ferries Ltd., of Deer Island, and Tim Tupper, of Jemseg – have come forward to express interest. Other interested parties would also be considered. A proponent will be chosen to operate the ferries based on financial and technical merit.

The two ferries and other relevant and related assets will be transferred from the government to the community-based group upon its establishment, and the contractor will begin operating the ferries on its behalf. The government will operate the two ferries daily, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., until the community-based group is in place.

As previously announced, the seasonal ferry in Hampstead will not resume operation.

As this issue of the newspaper hits the streets there are only a few days of life left for the Gagetown, Hampstead and Belleisle ferries. The provincial government extended the run for a month but unless something has changed in the last few days, the almost two hundred year old tradition of a river ferry in Gagetown is coming to an end.

The government announced in the budget it was cutting these services to save 1.5 million dollars. Despite protests and rallies, the minister and the premier say they are not changing their minds. Supporters of the ferries have made it clear they aren’t backing down either.

They received a boost at the last Village of Gagetown Council Meeting when Conservative Opposition Leader David Alward pledged to reverse the Liberal government’s decision to scrap the ferries, if he’s elected premier in 2010.

Former Liberal Cabinet Minister and Gagetown native, Vaughn Blaney says losing the ferry is like having a rug pulled out from under you. “It’s very difficult for me to believe that the ferry of the Shiretown would be gone,” says Blaney. “But I have a sense that this is the tip of the iceberg. If their reasons are economical because of the age of them, (ferries) well you better hang on to Westfield and Evandale and right on around.” Blaney sees this fight as a wake-up call for all of rural New Brunswick. “In the last depression it was rural New Brunswick who fed the fat cats in the urban area and if this whole country goes down the tube, it’ll be rural New Brunswick again that they’ll be coming to and saying please feed us, please get us out of this.” Blaney introduced himself at a recent Gagetown rally to save the ferries as a P.O.L. – Pissed Off Liberal.

At the same rally, Jean-Frances & Dick Mann drove all the way from Bathurst to voice their opposition to the government decision. They say the province should be promoting rural NB and the ferries are part of the whole fabric of the way people live, you just can’t rip it apart.

“This is just the first, watch out Westfield and Gondola Point,” warns Queenstown resident Anne Fawcett. She’s convinced this is just the beginning of the end for all river ferries. She fears this government decision may throw her into bankruptcy. “I’m partially disabled and can’t teach anymore,” she says. “Last summer I got a job as a deckhand on the Hampstead ferry and loved it. It was best job I ever had.”

The fight over ferry service has brought these river communities together like never before. Jemseg, Cambridge Narrows, Hampstead, Queenstown, Upper Gagetown are all working together along with other communities affected by the Belleisle ferry closure. They’ve already organized rallies at home and in Frederiction, collected names on petitions and launched letter writing campaigns. They’re determined to continue fighting to the end. “We’re just going to fight right to the last day,” says Gagetown farmer Wilf Hiscock. “We’re going to try and keep the ferry. It’s our road. It’s our bridge. We’re just not going to turn belly up. We’re going to keep fighting because we’re one big community here and this has brought everyone closer together than ever before.”

“We will not let them take it if we have to sit on the ferry all summer.”

Gagetown councillor and United Church Minister, Rev. Robert McDowell is still hoping the Graham government will change its mind and maintain the service but if it doesn’t he says they’ll insist the infrastructure remain in place. If they try to remove it he says they will defend it and do what they need to do to preserve it, including civil disobedience. “We’ll plan on having all night vigils at the ferry,” says McDowell. ” We’ll have someone sit there all night because I suspect if they do come to take the ferry it’ll be in the dark because they know they wouldn’t be able to do it during the day.”

McDowell says they’re looking at all the options in this fight including taking legal against the province but he wasn’t able to give any details just yet. He says the government did this with the intent of sweeping the economy of these little communities away and that, he says, is immoral.

The Gagetown, Hampstead and Belleisle ferries are due to stop running for good at the end of April.

It’s the cutting season. No, I’m not talking about grass although the whine of lawn mowers will soon be echoing around the river valley. The cuts I’m referring to are to ferries and to the CBC. They’re both New Brunswick institutions that have been around for many years and their demise is going to affect us all.

The provincial government decided in its budget to end river ferry service in Gagetown, Hampstead and Belleisle. There have been letters printed and stories written about the governments position and the fight to retain the services in this paper and others for weeks now. The province says it can’t afford to keep the ferries operating because not enough people use them and they’ll soon need to be replaced at a great cost. The people from Gagetown, Queenstown, Hampstead and up and down the river valley and even right across the country argue they can’t drop the ferry service because it would mean the end of these communities. They say the ferries are their lifeblood. It’s what connects them, keeps the economy going, attracts tourists to the region and serves them in times of need like in a medical emergency. These are all sound reasons to keep the ferries and I’m not going to repeat them all here. In my mind the important thing to remember is these ferries are basically like public roads. If a road became impassable, like many around here almost have this spring due to potholes, you’d expect the government to patch and fix them, not close them forever. These ferries are exactly the same.

Years ago previous governments seemed to lose interest in another New Brunswick institution, the covered bridge. They weren’t being maintained properly and if they burnt down or crumbled, the government was quick to replace them with a modern bridge. Thankfully that attitude has changed now and governments and most New Brunswickers treasure our covered bridge heritage and do what they can to protect them. It would be wrong for this government to toss away our ferry heritage because the boats are too old or too expensive to maintain. That’s so short sighted.

The economic crisis facing our government and all of us is also the reason behind the cuts at CBC Radio and TV. The public broadcaster has a 171 million dollar deficit this year. Many blame the federal government for not coughing up more money for the crown corporation. That may be true but I blame CBC management for the direction these cuts are taking. We still don’t know the exact numbers of jobs that will disappear but in the worst case scenario it will dramatically change CBC Radio service in New Brunswick’s two largest cities. Both Saint John and Moncton could lose up to half of their radio staff. These are the producers and journalists who make the local programs listeners have depended on for years. CBC Radio in Saint John just celebrated its 30th anniversary in the city. If the station loses between 4 and 8 of its radio staff, it’ll be the end of the kind of CBC Radio listeners have known since the 1970s. This is personal for me too because I worked there for many years and I know all the people who may be affected.

If the CBC goes ahead with its plan to change Saint John and Moncton from small stations to bureaus, the local programming will be a far cry from what it’s been. And even when the economy improves and CBC regains its funding, the cuts to these services will never be restored. Once they’re gone, they’re gone for good. Saint John and Moncton will forever be mere bureaus to Fredericton and Halifax where much of the ‘local’ programming will originate. I fear this is a misguided CBC decision to eliminate small station status to cities like Saint John, Moncton, Sydney, Sudbury and Thunder Bay. In my mind, like cutting the ferries, this is short sighted and just wrong.

Without ferry service these river communities will become just a shadow of their former selves. And without the reporters and journalists, the ability to tell our own local stories will be greatly diminished. In a province where one company owns most of the newspapers and where private radio and television broadcasters are also cutting back and struggling to produce local content, weakening the independent voice of the CBC would be a loss and a shame.