Glovertown shipbuilders celebrating ferry work

People in Glovertown, N.L. are celebrating a government announcement that six ferries will be built in the province.

"The fact that they're being built on the Island, that gives us great hope and great potential that there'll be a fair bit of work certainly done here at our yard," Ford Dowden, president of a ship building company called Glovertown Marine Ltd.

The announcement means an estimated $30-million worth of work for 100 people over two years to build vessels for ferry services on Newfoundland's south coast and in southern Labrador.

It’s work that many in the community feared would be done outside the province.

Last fall, Tom Marshall, the acting Transportation and Works Minister, said the province couldn’t control where the work went.

"They're private contractors, they’re private business people who bid on a contract," said Marshall. "I can't tell them where to get their ferries built." 

Back then, Dowden challenged the government’s decision to tender the work in a way that made it likely the vessels would be built in the U.S.

But after the provincial budget was announced this week, Transportation and Works Minister Tom Hedderson said the problem would be solved by having the government own the ferries and contract their operation to private companies.

"As a government, we feel very strongly that we can build these boats here in Newfoundland and Labrador," said Hedderson.