This year’s provincial budget had cuts in several areas, but one piece of irreplaceable infrastructure was completely removed – the Gagetown ferry.
If you’ve lived in New Brunswick for any time, you’ve certainly run into one of its user’s, either past or present. It’s been operating for over a hundred years and is one of the highest traffic cable ferries in Atlantic Canada.
It was noted as failing to receive funding last month, but it hasn’t gone away silently, several organisations have grouped up to try and force the government’s hand in reinstating it, some pointing out the study the province did on the ferry’s benefits.
‘The Allaby report is a key piece of evidence, it was conducted by the province to examine and, in their hopes I think, give them a reason to cut it. This wasn’t the case though, the report actually came out in favour of the ferry, stating it should be maintained” said Wilf Hiscock, the spokesperson for Save the Gagetown Ferry, a social media organisation.
Hiscock later said the report conducted was by former MLA Eric Allaby that even hinted at improving the services of the ferry, noting that it added more than its fair share of economic benefit on the region.
Hiscock isn’t the only one rooting for the ferry’s continued success though. Some fs in the region are dealing with the repercussions of the closure – Namely, the fact that it causes inconveniences when dealing with their heavy farm equipment.
“It’s just not practical,” said Andrew McGinnis, a farmer from lower Gagetown “it used to be a 14-minute ride to my farm on the ferry, now it’s over an hour. That’s in a car, it takes even longer when we have to take a tractor trailer to transport the equipment [that used to be able to cross over with the ferry].”
Hiscock says he’s heard complaints like that more than once, even noting that his neighbors in the region have similar struggles.
“One fellow bought an orchard across the river…I don’t know what he’s going to do,” said Hiscock “It’s just not practical to hire workers that have to travel that extra distance. Most of them are making minimum wage and by the time they drive there and back, it’s not worth it to go to work.”
Hiscock said that’s one of the biggest concerns for the community – If people can’t make an affordable trip from one area to another, they might not be able to find gainful employment, or any employment for that matter. Others in the community share this concern as well, with some even calling the closure a deathblow to the community’s economy.
“I really worry about the impact this might have,” said Connie Denby, a resident of the area “we really don’t want to become yet another town propped up by welfare. It really hurts to have an additional 56 kilometres added to your trip.
Denby said she’s still surprised at the move, noting that the ferry acted as a sure-fire way to promote local businesses and keep people in the community employed instead of drawing social assistance to sustain themselves.
“In the end, I really find it just sickening to think that the government that’s supposed to represent us neglected to look at the numbers before pulling one of our best resources.”
An attempt was made to reach the province’s Minister of Public Safety, but no response was given.
Hiscock also raised a pointed that there’s a safety aspect to the closure of the ferry. In the event of an emergency, first responders traditionally used the ferry to reduce response time. The extra minutes added onto the trip to the community could be an issue of life and death for some.
“The government says this is a way to cut costs, but if they’d just read their own internal reports, they’d see that [this cut] does more harm than good. It’s amazing to me that they even considered it an option,” said Hiscock “Sure, it might not be very high traffic late at night, but we had it running 18 hours a day [instead of the previous 24-hour cycle] this last year and that was fine. We’re reasonable people, we can deal with that.”