Ferry affects a N.S. web

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

The Digby ferry doesn’t just dock in one community: it delivers 35,000 U.S.-plated tourist cars and 28,000 transfer trucks that “have to go somewhere.

“If the entry points to Nova Scotia are in Halifax and at the New Brunswick border only, no one will be coming down the Valley,” says Mike Gushue, managing director for the Annapolis Digby Economic Development Agency.

“This infrastructure affects no just Southwest Nova Scotia - it’s all the province. You start losing infrastructure, and all the good things we’re doing for economic development depend on it.”

Gushue’s agency and a group called the Bay of Fundy Transportation Coalition are urging people to visit www.mariport.com. It’s an on-line survey for regional ferry users’ opinions that will be submitted to the federal government’s analysis of the service.

In July 2006, Bay Ferries, which operates the Digby service, announced its intention to end the Fundy runs last fall. Short-term funding from federal and provincial governments have extended service through 2008, but there is an evaluation underway of its sustainability.

“We have hundreds of surveys back in just a week or so - obviously from Nova Scotia, but also from all over New Brunswick and U.S. states - and lots of comments,” Gushue says.

Digby County Warden James Thurber says there has been support for the service from governments, businesses and communities through to Kings and Lunenburg counties.

“It’s an essential service and has to be kept. Just because it’s been there so long doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be there,” Central Annapolis Valley Chamber of Commerce president Byron McDonald says, adding he’s already filled out a survey.

“There is room for change, but it is needed.”