Ottawa to review ferry between N.S. and P.E.I.

There is no new deal with the federal government for the ferry service between P.E.I. and Nova Scotia, and Ottawa is being tight-lipped about the future of the service.

The five-year contract between the federal government and Northumberland Ferries expires this March. In an email Thursday, Transport Canada would only say it is working on extending the current contract for one year.

The Liberal MP for the eastern end of the Island, Lawrence MacAulay, helped broker the last contract. He and two other sources have heard the department plans to evaluate the ferry service during that year.

"I can tell them without any review that we need this ferry service," said MacAulay.

"It's essential from Charlottetown to the east end of Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton and that area of Nova Scotia. So I'm certainly keeping a close eye on this."

Northumberland Ferries leases the two boats and the terminals from the federal government. The company gets about $5 million each year in a subsidy to operate the service from May to December.

Tourism PEI reports ferry traffic has declined every year for the past five years, though traffic was down on Confederation Bridge in some of those years as well.

Bob Langille, local CAW president, which represents many of the 160 ferry workers, said the ferry came under fire before the contract was signed five years ago. There was talk of running only one boat during fewer months of the year. After a vocal save-the-ferry lobby, that didn't happen.

Langille said an evaluation of the service isn't necessarily bad news.

"That could mean anything," he said.

"It could be really good news because of the age of one our vessels down here. It's time to start thinking about where that replacement's going to come from."

Langille said people who support the ferry service would rally again if necessary.