Coast guard responds to emergency because Wolfe Island ferry shut down

The coast guard had to be called in to help a woman experiencing a medical emergency on Wolfe Island Sunday night because the ferry, which residents rely on for access to an ambulance, was out of service.

Frontenac Paramedics said they received the call around 8:45 p.m. and when they arrived at the shore of the St. Lawrence River, the coast guard had to carry them across the water on a lifeboat to the island — and then bring them back to Kingston with the patient.

Paramedic chief Gale Chevalier said the patient reached the hospital in Kingston in less than two hours and is "recovering well." She described the approach as a "contingency" plan, used when the ferry is out of service, and said it worked as planned.

The success was notable, but this was the second time first responders had to scramble to treat a medical emergency because the ferry was out of service, said Wolfe Island Fire and Rescue Chief Tim Hawkins.

There is no ambulance on the island, so Hawkins and his team provide immediate medical care on the island, too.

"You got to start thinking outside the box," he said.

"We don't get contacted when the boat is out. I have to read it on social media which ... is not right."

Outage due to staff shortage

Ontario's Ministry of Transportation (MTO) tweeted this weekend the ferry would be docked from 8 p.m. Sunday until 6 a.m. Monday, and sent an email to users.

It stated multiple crew members were "unable to work."

A nearly identical message was sent out May 9 saying the ferry would be out of service that night from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. — again due to a crew shortage.

MTO has a "standing agreement" with the coast guard in case of emergency situations during a ferry outage, a ministry spokesperson wrote in an email to CBC, describing what happened Sunday as the "prearranged plan."

Frontenac Islands Mayor Judy Greenwood-Speers was able to catch the last boat yesterday and back to Wolfe Island, where she spent the night telling tourists and other travellers they were waiting for a ferry that wasn't coming.

"Basically, people were ambushed," Greenwood-Speers said of the closure. "Those on the mainland were having to scramble to get to relatives, get to hotels if they have money."

She described the situation as a "job action" and "hostage taking" of people on both sides of the St. Lawrence River.

Mayor says outage risks lives

Ferry workers represented by OPSEU Local 428 have been pushing for higher wages, according to the mayor, who called on the ministry and union to deal with the problem at the negotiating table, not the ferry docks.

"When it gets to the point where they're risking people's lives, that we don't have the emergency ambulance service in a timely fashion, It's going to result in a death," she said.

The ferry has also been plagued by disruptions recently, including engine issues that knocked it out of service for three hours on Monday.

A new, electric ferry called the Wolfe Islander IV is expected to start carrying passengers sometime this spring, but even that comes with a delay — it's more than a year later than anticipated.

In an email to CBC Monday, the MTO would not say exactly when the new ferry will be activated, only that it's working to have it in service "as soon as possible."

The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A post on OPSEU's website from April said members brought a 1,000-signature petition to Queen's Park, calling on the MTO to end service disruptions by hiring more ferry workers and retaining them with better pay.

The union has also said the ministry pays a temporary agency more than the unionized ferry workers.

Kingston and the Islands MPP Ted Hsu tweeted Monday he'd spoken with Transport Minister Caroline Mulroney and she would receive a briefing about the ferry outage.

In comments made at Queen's Park, Hsu described the situation as a "total mess" and called on the minister to take "personal responsibility" for it.