Year-round pilot project for Labrador ferry

Transportation in and out of Labrador is beginning to open up.

The Department of Transportation and Works announced on Jan. 7 a $1.5 million pilot project intended to provide year-round ferry service between the island and Labrador across the Strait of Belle Isle.

Transportation Minister Tom Hedderson said the continuous ferry service will open up better travelling and shipping routes combined with the Dec. 16 opening of Phase 3 of the Trans Labrador Highway.

"While this is indeed a great initiative, people should keep in mind that this is a bold endeavour in a difficult winter environment and that over the course of the winter we may encounter conditions that, despite our best efforts, cause disruptions in service," Mr. Hedderson said.

The MV Apollo service will continue operating between St. Barbe and Blanc Sablon until Jan. 31 this year or until ice and weather conditions dictate otherwise. The service will then continue for the duration of the winter season - with two round trips per week - between Blanc Sablon and Corner Brook.

The MV Apollo will be taken out of service on Feb. 1 to undergo its annual refit for roughly eight weeks, during which time the MV Sir Robert Bond will continue with the service.

"It's a great day for Labrador," Forteau's Stelman Flynn said. "It's a great day for this province. From a provincial perspective, that allows businesses across the province to be able to ship freely to basically anywhere now in North America."

Mr. Flynn is the owner of Seaview Restaurant and Cabins in Forteau and a few other businesses in Southern Labrador. He is also past chair of the Cruise Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, a former mayor of Forteau, and past-president of Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as having sat as chair of the Coastal Labrador Marketing Group and the Labrador Straits Development Corporation.

"With the road now, this will obviously make a difference on how you do business and opens up opportunities that we haven't seen in a lifetime," Mr. Flynn said.

Previously, Mr. Flynn built a warehouse to store four months of stock - roughly $150,000 worth, he estimated - over the winter, when the MV Apollo ended between January and April generally.

"I have for this year brought in my winter inventory, which may present a challenge for us, but in the long-term, not having to carry $150,000 worth of extra inventory is a great opportunity. Now we can cut down on the warehouse; the actual interest that I got to pay on that $100,000-plus every winter, if this continues, will obviously not be required," Mr. Flynn said.

For Nath Moores, L'Anse au Clair Mayor and VP for the Combined Councils of Labrador, the true answer to Labrador's transportation troubles lies in a fixed-link tunnel running across the Strait of Belle Isle.

Not to disparage the provincial government's short-term solution, he added.

"But the long-term solution, as we all know, has got to be a fixed link."

Mr. Moores said, despite the potential prosperity brought by the year-round ferry service combined with the opening of the TLH, truckers will ultimately favour a route with less hassle than the North Sydney-Port Aux Basque run.

He predicts truckers will prefer the ferry-free route through northern Quebec and Labrador West.

Better yet, he added, Route 138 along Quebec's Lower North Shore.

"The actual distance is 20 kilometres longer by way of 138 than it is by way of North Sydney, then you take off your eight or 10 hours sitting in North Sydney, providing the ferry runs and you get to go when you're supposed to go, you're still a day behind getting into St. John's," Mr. Moores said, adding that the 138 scenario depends on a fixed link.

Each year the Straits become filled with sea ice, eventually making the crossing between St. Barbe and Blanc Sablon impossible.

The Port of Corner Brook is the closest relatively ice-free port with the appropriate wharf infrastructure to accommodate this service.

"A year-round connection between Labrador and the island will allow more opportunities for travel, recreation and business for all residents of the province," Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Hickey said. "Each step we take toward enhancing the province's transportation network is a step that brings people closer together and serves to strengthen the economy."

A government release stated that while St. Barbe remains the province's preferred port for continued operation of ferry service across the Strait of Belle Isle, the port's geography and location make it unsuitable once winter ice moves in. Once the MV Apollo returns from refit, and provided the ice conditions are favourable, service will resume between St. Barbe and Blanc Sablon.

Based on the existing policy respecting ferry rates throughout the province, rates on the Corner Brook to Blanc Sablon crossings will be calculated based on road equivalency. Schedules and rates pertaining to the extended service will be made available in the coming weeks on both the Department of Transportation and Works and Labrador Marine Inc. websites.