The latest ferry flap began after comments by Nova Scotia Business Minister Geoff MacLellan Thursday morning.
Following a cabinet meeting, he told reporters that U.S. Customs and Border Services (USCBS) has not yet issued a permit for the Bar Harbor facility currently under construction and admitted the process could take months.
“It comes down to them giving approval on the facility that includes layout design (and) some of the human resources. There’s no runway being given on a drop-dead date in terms of the timeline.”
MacLellan said since Bay Ferries, the operator of the service, got the green light to proceed with its port of call from Portland to Bar Harbor in 2018, there have been “well over a dozen” submissions and changes exchanged between the company and border services.
Meanwhile a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection says since 2016, USCBS has been discussing facility standards and requirements with Bay Ferries.
In an email to the CJLS newsroom, Michael McCarthy says on multiple occasions since that time, USCBS reiterated that projects of this scope typically take a minimum 12 to 18 months to complete.
Nova Scotia taxpayers are paying the $8.5 million bill for the upgrades.
Here is the full email from McCarthy:
“Since 2016, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been discussing facility standards and requirements with Bay Ferries. On multiple occasions since that time, CBP reiterated that based on experience, projects of this scope typically cost millions of dollars and take a minimum 12 to 18 months to complete. In March 2018, discussions switched from addressing deficiencies in the Portland facility, and focused instead on building a new facility in Bar Harbor. The standards required for either facility remained the same. CBP requires that all facilities across the nation meet the same minimum standard in order to facilitate the highest level of national security at all locations, thus limiting vulnerabilities for those who may wish to do us harm.
Since discussions began, CBP has been transparent and consistent in communicating its requirements. Most notably, CBP has been clear that facility projects of this nature and scope generally take 12-18 months to complete from design to construction. We are still well within that timeframe given that Bay Ferries had yet to obtain a lease for the ferry site, nor had the Town of Bar Harbor purchased the ferry site from the state of Maine until February 2019. CBP made clear at the outset of discussions that a signed lease for the site is required before CBP resources can be devoted to any facility enhancement project.
This project is a top priority for our project management team and we look forward to continuing to work closely with Bay Ferries on this project.”
The province has hired David Wilkins, the former American ambassador to Canada, at a cost of $10,000 U.S. a month, to lobby on behalf of the ferry service.
Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood is trying to remain optimistic.
“We’ve been through an awful lot in the past few years in regards to the ferry service. We can only control what we can control. The Town of Yarmouth is ready for visitors, the entire region is ready. Folks will find their way here to us, perhaps not in the numbers that we wanted. But you know this is not on the Nova Scotia side, this is on the U.S. side. We just need to pull together on this. We know the province is doing absolutely everything they can to turn this around so I trust them to do its job.”
Bay Ferries already announced the earliest date on which the service could commence is mid-summer because the construction and approvals processes had stretched on longer than they had hoped.
The CAT was scheduled to leave Charleston today (June 21) and is expected to arrive in Yarmouth on Sunday.
