Email sent to premier leads to heated exchange at council table and a call for councillor to resign

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Yarmouth town councillor Ken Langille has apologized for an email about The Cat that he sent as a private citizen to Premier Darrell Dexter that a couple of his colleagues around the council table felt had betrayed council and breached confidentiality rules, although he didn't share their view.

And Councillor Langille also said he does not regret trying to raise the issue with the provincial government that this area needs a Plan B to deal with the fallout of no ferry service.

The matter over the email was aired at a town council meeting held Friday, Feb. 5 at noon. Councillors Esther Dares and Martin Pink spoke about how they felt when they saw the email that started, Hi Darrell and ended with, always your friend and supporter, Ken.

It was the parts in between that really got to them.

Councillor Dares made a motion, seconded by Councillor Pink, asking that Ken Langille resign as a councillor with the town of Yarmouth. The motion was defeated, and would not have been legally binding even if it had passed.

In the email – which was marked private and confidential but was accidentally emailed to another person who passed it on to others – Langille tells the premier, “I think people here are starting to see reality in that The Cat is gone for this season. I have been successful in getting local politicians to keep things at a political/diplomatic level in an effort to resolve this issue. Plus, I have been encouraging people to face reality and start planning for this season “without ferry service.” “I have spoken to several operators who “think” they can weather one year, but there will be some casualties,” the email continues. “As you said, “short term pain for long term gain.”

Langille then goes on to outline options, which were described at Friday’s town council meeting as Plan B, that included planning beyond and without The Cat ferry.

Plan A would have been to get the ferry back and up running for another year.

But at the time Langille wrote the email, Councillors Dares and Pink said in their opinion, Plan A was not yet completely dead and they wonder if Langille’s email could have had an impact on the situation. “I felt betrayed,” said Dares, adding she felt the email left council exposed and vulnerable. She said she was “profoundly disappointed.”

Pink said when he read the email, he was “quite shocked” and “flabbergasted.”

The email was sent out following a meeting with NDP MLA and minister Sterling Belliveau who had told council there was going to be an announcement coming from the federal government concerning The Cat. That announcement, though, never came. But while they were expecting a possible announcement, Pink said he felt upbeat. “This email hit me like a tonne of bricks,” he said.

He said he was sickened by what the provincial government had done by not agreeing to provide more funding to The Cat ferry. But he was even more sickened with what his colleague was sending to the premier. “We’re on the same team,” he said. “We have to be on the same page.”

Councillor Langille defended himself, saying he is as concerned about the impact no Cat ferry will have on Yarmouth as anyone else. But he also suggested it would be irresponsible not to be looking at a back-up plan, particularly with a tourism season soon getting underway.

He denied suggestions that anything contained in the email had been a breach of confidentiality because it had not exposed things discussed in camera. He said he never included anything in the email that had not been discussed openly. “Was I wrong when I suggested the terminal lease with Bay Ferries be terminated and returned to a community agency? . . . Do we not want to have federal (government) involved to save the service,” he asked. “Are we not now looking at Plan B? Am I wrong?”

He said MP Greg Kerr has said the same thing, the town needs to put together a back-up plan. “So why aren’t we listening,” asked Langille, who said he doesn’t even know if the premier had seen or read the email. And even if he did see the email, he doesn’t think it would have had any impact because the government’s position has not changed since Dec. 18 when the announcement was made that The Cat service was ending.

Yarmouth Mayor Phil Mooney, who did not support the motion asking Langille to resign, said the same thing. He doesn’t think the email from Langille has changed or would have changed the provincial government’s position. The government's mind, he said, has been made up since December. “I was simply trying to do something good for this community,” added Langille, explaining he wanted to get the province on side with any back-up plan or assistance for the area. Langille said it is vitally important that the town plan for the upcoming tourism season, even if it means planning without a ferry. “If we’re going to be sitting here without a plan in place, what are we going to do,” he said, adding he still wanted to be part of the council team.

The following is the bulk of the email sent by Ken Langille to Premier Darrell Dexter. The town has also posted the email on its website:

Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 9:36 AM

Subject: CAT Ferry

PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL

Hi Darrell:

I don't know if this will reach you or not as I know how busy you are.

I just wanted to briefly express my thoughts on the present situation here in Yarmouth.

I have been talking to Ron Sherrard and Matt Hebb (NDP staff) on a regular basis in an effort to keep you abreast of things on our political side.

I think people here are starting to see reality in that The Cat is gone for this season. I have been successful in getting local politicians to keep things at a political/diplomatic level in an effort to resolve this issue. Plus, I have been encouraging people to face reality and start planning for this season "without ferry service."

I have spoken to several operators who "think" they can weather one year, but there will be some casualties. As you said, "short term pain for long term gain."

As we discussed, and an update since we last spoke, we have two issues...

1. 2010: We are stuck with Bay Ferries as they hold the lease on the terminal building - for 15 years. We have not seen the lease but we understand the lease can be terminated by the federal minister of transportation at the six-month point. I have requested our CAO to get a copy of this, through FOIPOP if necessary. Bay Ferries will not share the terms with us. So we have to get it from the feds.

I suspect that Bay Ferries will start to mothball the ferry terminal within the next two weeks. (Mark) MacDonald has been in, several times recently, Trinidad and I suspect this vessel will sail out of Yarmouth by the end of February and will enter service with the T&T Lines (Trinidad and Tobago Lines) in the near future...

Secondly, it will take between 10-16 months to locate, contract and get US Clearances etc. for a new vessel. Plus, we would have to make some modifications to the Yarmouth terminal to accommodate a new vessel.

Even so, this is doable.

However, given the expected devastation to our tourism industry some sort of short-term fix is needed to maintain the infrastructure until 2011.

Ideally, it would be great to see Federal dollars come in to rescue the season in some sort of partnership with your government. As I mentioned to Ron yesterday, I suspect there will be some jockeying on the federal front this week and warned him of MacKay making an announcement (of) some kind either tomorrow or Tuesday. As you are aware, there were meetings at the Fed level in Ottawa on Friday. How that will roll out is anyone's guess. If they decide to subsidize the CAT that will help "rescue the season" and look good politically but the damage has been done already.

And, I understand, the Tories will try to make political hay out of this. Kerr barely got in last time and he will be the first politician "out of the gates" for re- election. Thus, they will seek short term fixes rather than the long term vision that you and I share.

2. 2011: Here is where we should be looking. First of all, I suggested to Matt and Ron that we need to rebrand Yarmouth and Southwest NS. I think that if you considered providing funding for regional advertising and promotion plus work hand-in-hand, or shoulder-to-shoulder, with our new Transportation Authority (I had this started at our last Council Meeting - Greg Kerr's suggestion) to assist us in getting the new vessel, this would be a proactive and positive step in easing tensions here. This new Transportation Authority is now in concept form and will not have any involvement of (Frank) Anderson, SWSDA, etc. I want those guys as far away from this as we can. Our Council agrees with that as well. We see this as a county-wide body that will bring together the airport, ocean terminal, etc.

We had a major marketing study undertaken by Bristol Communications two years ago and I have requested a copy for the first of the week.

In that, they have identified what is needed for branding and from that study came the Yarmouth and Acadian Shores brand. I think we could dovetail on that quite nicely so as to save time and money on further studies. Why reinvent the wheel?

Secondly, we need to get rid of Bay Ferries, terminate the lease and get a new operator. As you are aware, there are several interested parties. However, MacDonald and Bay Ferries want to be in on that as well. Hence their reason for not easily giving up the terminal lease.

With your help and pressure on Ottawa, the lease can be terminated and that Terminal could be turned over to the Transportation Authority.

While that is being done, we (the Transportation Authority with your government) could be actively seeking RFPs for a new operator with the goal of having them in place for May/June 2011.

This would be terrific way to celebrate our 2011 - 250th

Anniversary.

By the way, we would love (for) you to come to Yarmouth on June 9th of this year to help us kick off our 250th Party. We are unveiling our plans, website and starting the Count Down Clock. Great PR for you???

Thanks for your time. Thanks too to Ron and Matt for keeping you abreast on events here.

If there is anything I can do, please let me know.

Always your friend and supporter,

Ken