Northumberland Ferries moving quickly to reimburse Holiday Island passengers

Northumberland Ferries says it has already resolved a lot of the compensation claims of passengers who had to be evacuated from the MV Holiday Island due to a fire on July 22.

Vice-president Don Cormier told CBC News: Compass on Tuesday the company has been requesting bank transfer information from customers this past week so the company could transfer funds to them directly.

More than 200 passengers and crew had to be evacuated from the ferry after a fire broke out in its engine room while it was making its way from Caribou, N.S., to Wood Islands, P.E.I.

But some people were stuck without vehicles, clothing and personal belongings for days.

Cormier said he didn't think it was appropriate to get into specifics, but that immediate out-of-pocket costs are in the "thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands."

"People had hotel bills, meals, car rentals, transportation needs since they were without their vehicles, some had to return home," he said. 

"All of those expenses will be processed and people will get a satisfactory resolution to their out-of-pocket expenses."

MV Saaremaa work still underway

Cormier said it could take months before it can be determined how much the claims will cost the company in total.

"Obviously there's an insurance component to it, so maybe things in terms of resolution of claims have not been quite as quick as we might have hoped," he said. "But a lot of claims have already been resolved."

Meanwhile, work is still ongoing to get MV Saaremaa 1 ready to start service between Nova Scotia and P.E.I. along with Northumberland Ferries' other ship, MV Confederation.

The Saaremaa, owned by Société des traversiers du Québec, was brought in as a temporary replacement for the Holiday Island and was docked in Caribou for over a week while Northumberland Ferries did some testing and modifications.

Forty-four crew members have been training over the last eight days or so, and the company has recently performed some docking trials in Wood Islands.

The Holiday Island fire is still under investigation. Cormier said it may take months before the Transportation Safety Board identifies a root cause.