Canada announces five-year extension of Ferry Services Contribution Program in Eastern Canada miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Staff
The Canadian company contracted to operate the CAT ferry service between Bar Harbor and Nova Scotia is being paid nearly $1 million a year while the high-speed vessel remains a no-speed one.
The 350-foot-long ferry has been idled for the past two years, initially because of delays in building a new terminal in Bar Harbor and in 2020 because of the pandemic. Last month, owner Bay Ferries Ltd. also canceled the CAT’s 2021 sailing season due to public health concerns.
While Bar Harbor businesses and the community will have to wait at least an additional year for the return of the service to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, residents and politicians there are frustrated for other reasons. The province has heavily subsidized the CAT, and two years ago Canada’s Progress Conservative party sued to obtain records revealing how much.
The CAT wonât run in 2021
BAR HARBOR
 â The CAT ferry linking travel from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, to Bar Harbor will not operate during the 2021 season due to the pandemic.
Bay Ferries Ltd., the Nova Scotia-based company that operates the CAT, had hoped to resume the service from Bar Harbor in 2019. It has sailed from Portland for the last 10 years.
After losing the 2019 season because the ferry terminal renovation had not been completed and approved by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the company eyed a 2020 start, but that didnât happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision was made on Monday by Canadian officials who said they do not expect the countryâs border to open to nonessential travel anytime soon.
Credit Courtesy Bay Ferries
A notice on the company’s website indicates that the 2021 season to Bar Harbor has been suspended due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s the third year for the reestablished ferry service between Bar Harbor and Nova Scotia, but thus far there have been no sailings at all.
The service was meant to commence in 2019, after a decade that saw the ferry moved to Portland, but the new service was delayed due to prolonged construction on the Bar Harbor side of the route for screening facilities ordered by Customs and Border Protection.
The season was also canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19.