• The Vanguard News Local Nova Star ferry saga continues to move in many directions Tina Comeau Published on January 24, 2015 The Nova Star ferry service has been in the news a lot over the past week, although still not yet for the announcement that people can begin purchasing tickets for the upcoming sailing season. That can’t happen until a contract agreement is reached between the province and the ferry operator, although the province’s economic development minister has indicated an agreement is getting closer. “We are hoping within the next two weeks that we will be able to announce what the 2015 sailing season will be, who the operator will be, what the vessel will be,” Michel Samson, Minister of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism, told reporters on Jan. 22 over the telephone. He then clarified his remark to say the province’s ongoing negotiations are with Nova Star Cruises. “Hopefully the company will be in a position to post their fares and to start taking reservations,” he said. Money has been the focus of much of the attention in the past week, specifically what the province has spent on the service. The public knew that $21 million, which was supposed to be spread over seven years, was used up during the first season and that another $5 million was forwarded to the ferry operator at the conclusion of the season to help it to cover its expenses. But what the public didn’t know until a Sunday, Jan. 18 media release from the economic development department was that an additional $2.5 million was approved for the ferry operator on Dec. 23. That figure had not been disclosed to reporters by Samson earlier this month when they questioned him about whether any more money had been given to the operator. Samson also didn’t mention the additional $2.5 million when this newspaper spoke with him on Jan. 15 and asked if the ferry operator had the money needed to cover berthing costs for Nova Star in South Carolina. Rather he said this would be the subject of talks as the contract negotiations went on. On Thursday during a Jan. 22 teleconference call with media, Samson said he misspoke when he had earlier said the province had only spent $26 million on the ferry service that runs between Maine and Nova Scotia. That’s because with the additional $2.5 million it rounds the figure out to $28.5 million. Samson had said because he believed a new ferry deal was imminent, the intention had been to announce everything as a package, meaning the $2.5 million would have been disclosed then. Argyle-Barrington MLA Chris d’Entremont is very critical of the government’s, and Samson’s, handling of the ferry service. On Friday he sent a letter to Merlin Nunn, the province’s Conflict of Interest Commissioner, asking him to investigate what d’Entremont believes to be a clear contravention of the Conflict of Interest Act. “It is my contention that on Jan. 15, Minister Michel Samson was not truthful or forthright to the public when he responded unequivocally to media that government had not given the operators of the Nova Star ferry more than the $26 million already disclosed,” he wrote. Meanwhile, as if there aren’t already enough plot lines in the ferry file, it was reported by the Chronicle Herald Friday evening that in the fall, one of two unsolicited proposals submitted to the government for alternate ferry service came from Keith Condon, who was the chair of the Nova Scotia International Ferry Partnership group that assisted the province in helping to find an operator for the Portland-Yarmouth ferry service. The newspaper reported that Samson said part of Condon’s group included Steve Durrell, the former chief operating officer for Nova Star Cruises. The newspaper reported the group was looking at a ship that was 25 to 30 years old but had just undergone a recent $7 million refit. This newspaper has reached out to Condon for comment. He was out of the country at the time of this posting.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 13:16:59 +0000
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