I wrote a column in response to Bill Black’s scathing column in Saturday’s Chronicle-Herald. Just fired it off to the editor. I hope they publish it, but if not, I thought I’d share it here.
Bill Black’s opinion column titled “The Yarmouth-U.S. ferry is not sustainable” certainly got me riled up on Saturday morning.
The fact that someone would actively try to write off an entire section of the province with an opinion piece in our provincial paper is shocking. Who in Yarmouth hurt you, Bill Black?
The lazy argument that the CAT ferry is heavily subsidized by the provincial government and the Digby to Saint John ferry isn’t, is like comparing apples to turnips. The Yarmouth to Bar Harbor ferry is the only ferry in Atlantic Canada that isn’t subsidized by the federal government so it falls on the provincial government to support it.
It’s a transportation link that south west Nova Scotia needs. We don’t have air service anymore. We don’t have a train anymore. We don’t even have a bus that goes beyond Weymouth on the north shore and Bridgewater on the south shore.
And if we’re comparing apples and turnips, the 100-series highways in Nova Scotia are also a transportation link that we need. Are they profitable? Are they sustainable? No! In fact they cost taxpayers approximately $500 million a year.
Bill Black says, “The cost for a one-way trip on the Yarmouth ferry in peak season is US$209 for a car and US$121 per adult.” What he doesn’t say is that Nova Scotians get a 50% discount on passenger and vehicle fares all season long, making his numbers grossly inflated.
It is laughable when Black says, “The Yarmouth ferry is seasonally important to Yarmouth but not to the rest of the province.” In what universe would Americans come across the ferry and only stay in Yarmouth? The fact is, according to The CAT 2024 Passenger Study by Narrative Research, most don’t stay in Yarmouth, rather they travel throughout the province spending oodles of money supporting the entire province’s economy. These are high-value visitors: they stay an average of 8.4 nights and 60% earn over $100K annually. They aren’t budget travellers buying knicknacks in Yarmouth.
Let’s look at the numbers. Nova Scotia’s $20 million investment in the Yarmouth to Bar Harbor ferry generates $31 million to $42 million a year in gross domestic product. It’s clear that the benefits outweigh the costs.
Black calls on Premier Houston to act like John Hamm closing Sydney Steel. The last time someone had the kind of “courage” Black is praising to cancel the ferry, the region lost more than 300 jobs and the percentage of people below the low-income threshold in the Town of Yarmouth nearly doubled. That’s what “courage” actually looked like on the ground.
The Yarmouth to Bar Harbor ferry isn’t some dying industrial relic like Sydney Steel, it’s a gateway that benefits the entire province. Nova Scotia learned the hard way what losing it costs and that’s not a lesson worth repeating, no matter who’s in office.
I do not doubt that the loss of the Ferry would be difficult for Yarmouth after also losing air and passenger rail. That said we still need to look at the realities.
(1) CBRM and towns like Kentville, Antigonish, and New Glasgow have also lost passenger rail. The airport in Yarmouth has always been a solution in search of a problem.
(2) The Yarmouth ferry brings fewer than 0.7% of tourists coming to Nova Scotia.
(3) Most of that less than 0.7% will still come to Nova Scotia if the Cat is no longer an option.
(4) Ms. Dion seems to misunderstand the meaning of gross domestic product. Using her formula would have the province paying fishing captains more than half their costs of boats, nets, traps, fuel, bait and crews.
(5) Tourists arriving in Digby are closer to the South Shore and much closer to the Valley.
(6) Ms. Deon highlights the value to Nova Scotians using the CAT for trips to the United States. Maine does not pay that incentive for tourism coming there. Nova Scotia pays people to travel out of province, providing a 50% cut on fares.
Bill, next time a thought is prompted, please relief yourself of such thoughts at the bathroom, instead of smearing them on newspapers and disrespecting Nova Scotians.
My name is Jim Houston. (No relation to Premier Houston!) I’m writing re: your column in today’s Herald about the Yarmouth Ferry.
You conclude your column as follows: “It is time for Premier Tim Houston to follow John Hamm’s courage [in 1999, when he ended the subsidy to Sydney Steel]” — i.e. it’s time for Premier Houston to terminate the $20-million-plus annual provincial government subsidy paid to Bay Ferries to operate the Yarmouth-Bar Harbor ferry service.
I agree with your recommendation — in times when the provincial government is searching for opportunities to reduce unproductive expenditures, this low-value-for-money subsidy to Bay Ferries represents a golden (and sizeable) opportunity.
That government took a lot of heat for the decision, but it was the right thing to do in light of the state of provincial government finances at the time.
Take your blinders off and look at the full picture tourist entering from Yarmouth travel through the valley or south shore and spend $$$$ all the way to other parts of the Province……!!!!!
Digby is closer to the south shore, the valley is much closer.
The annual subsidies for 2022 were $18 million . That was about $1,300 each for the 14,000 visitors that arrived by ferry. TThat many travellers in 2025 would have cost $1,500 each.
Wow! finally someone did the math and the math is not good. E does not equal MC squared. I always shake my head at the existence of this ferry, owned and operated by Americans. And now that there’s a comparison with Bay Ferries, it’s obvious NS is foolish to continue with the Cat. If people want to come to NS, they will come, as we did years ago, travelling the entire province twice, without any subsidizing of our gasoline to get to Yarmouth. Who else subsidizes tourists in Canada?
I wrote a column in response to Bill Black’s scathing column in Saturday’s Chronicle-Herald. Just fired it off to the editor. I hope they publish it, but if not, I thought I’d share it here.
Bill Black’s opinion column titled “The Yarmouth-U.S. ferry is not sustainable” certainly got me riled up on Saturday morning.
The fact that someone would actively try to write off an entire section of the province with an opinion piece in our provincial paper is shocking. Who in Yarmouth hurt you, Bill Black?
The lazy argument that the CAT ferry is heavily subsidized by the provincial government and the Digby to Saint John ferry isn’t, is like comparing apples to turnips. The Yarmouth to Bar Harbor ferry is the only ferry in Atlantic Canada that isn’t subsidized by the federal government so it falls on the provincial government to support it.
It’s a transportation link that south west Nova Scotia needs. We don’t have air service anymore. We don’t have a train anymore. We don’t even have a bus that goes beyond Weymouth on the north shore and Bridgewater on the south shore.
And if we’re comparing apples and turnips, the 100-series highways in Nova Scotia are also a transportation link that we need. Are they profitable? Are they sustainable? No! In fact they cost taxpayers approximately $500 million a year.
Bill Black says, “The cost for a one-way trip on the Yarmouth ferry in peak season is US$209 for a car and US$121 per adult.” What he doesn’t say is that Nova Scotians get a 50% discount on passenger and vehicle fares all season long, making his numbers grossly inflated.
It is laughable when Black says, “The Yarmouth ferry is seasonally important to Yarmouth but not to the rest of the province.” In what universe would Americans come across the ferry and only stay in Yarmouth? The fact is, according to The CAT 2024 Passenger Study by Narrative Research, most don’t stay in Yarmouth, rather they travel throughout the province spending oodles of money supporting the entire province’s economy. These are high-value visitors: they stay an average of 8.4 nights and 60% earn over $100K annually. They aren’t budget travellers buying knicknacks in Yarmouth.
Let’s look at the numbers. Nova Scotia’s $20 million investment in the Yarmouth to Bar Harbor ferry generates $31 million to $42 million a year in gross domestic product. It’s clear that the benefits outweigh the costs.
Black calls on Premier Houston to act like John Hamm closing Sydney Steel. The last time someone had the kind of “courage” Black is praising to cancel the ferry, the region lost more than 300 jobs and the percentage of people below the low-income threshold in the Town of Yarmouth nearly doubled. That’s what “courage” actually looked like on the ground.
The Yarmouth to Bar Harbor ferry isn’t some dying industrial relic like Sydney Steel, it’s a gateway that benefits the entire province. Nova Scotia learned the hard way what losing it costs and that’s not a lesson worth repeating, no matter who’s in office.
Ingrid Deon
Ingrid Deon | April 21, 2026 |
Response to Ingrid Deon
I do not doubt that the loss of the Ferry would be difficult for Yarmouth after also losing air and passenger rail. That said we still need to look at the realities.
(1) CBRM and towns like Kentville, Antigonish, and New Glasgow have also lost passenger rail. The airport in Yarmouth has always been a solution in search of a problem.
(2) The Yarmouth ferry brings fewer than 0.7% of tourists coming to Nova Scotia.
(3) Most of that less than 0.7% will still come to Nova Scotia if the Cat is no longer an option.
(4) Ms. Dion seems to misunderstand the meaning of gross domestic product. Using her formula would have the province paying fishing captains more than half their costs of boats, nets, traps, fuel, bait and crews.
(5) Tourists arriving in Digby are closer to the South Shore and much closer to the Valley.
(6) Ms. Deon highlights the value to Nova Scotians using the CAT for trips to the United States. Maine does not pay that incentive for tourism coming there. Nova Scotia pays people to travel out of province, providing a 50% cut on fares.
Bill | April 21, 2026 |
Bill, next time a thought is prompted, please relief yourself of such thoughts at the bathroom, instead of smearing them on newspapers and disrespecting Nova Scotians.
Bob | April 20, 2026 |
My name is Jim Houston. (No relation to Premier Houston!) I’m writing re: your column in today’s Herald about the Yarmouth Ferry.
You conclude your column as follows: “It is time for Premier Tim Houston to follow John Hamm’s courage [in 1999, when he ended the subsidy to Sydney Steel]” — i.e. it’s time for Premier Houston to terminate the $20-million-plus annual provincial government subsidy paid to Bay Ferries to operate the Yarmouth-Bar Harbor ferry service.
I agree with your recommendation — in times when the provincial government is searching for opportunities to reduce unproductive expenditures, this low-value-for-money subsidy to Bay Ferries represents a golden (and sizeable) opportunity.
I’m writing today simply to remind you that a previous provincial government had the courage to end the Yarmouth Ferry subsidy — namely, the Dexter government, in 2010:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/yarmouth-bar-harbor-ferry-makes-final-voyage-1.942314
That government took a lot of heat for the decision, but it was the right thing to do in light of the state of provincial government finances at the time.
Jim Houston | April 19, 2026 |
Take your blinders off and look at the full picture tourist entering from Yarmouth travel through the valley or south shore and spend $$$$ all the way to other parts of the Province……!!!!!
Bernie Boudreau | April 18, 2026 |
Digby is closer to the south shore, the valley is much closer.
The annual subsidies for 2022 were $18 million . That was about $1,300 each for the 14,000 visitors that arrived by ferry. TThat many travellers in 2025 would have cost $1,500 each.
Bill | April 18, 2026 |
The travellers can get to the south shore faster from Digby than from Yarmouth; much faster to the valley. The cost per American tourist is $1,500.
Bill | April 18, 2026 |
Bill, it is apparent a lot of items in canada don’t work without support. How long can we keep this up. Mac
Mac Balkam | April 18, 2026 |
Thank you Bill. With this analysis the decision becomes a “no brainer” let’s hope Tim has the balls and the brain to see sense.
Nicholas Carson | April 17, 2026 |
Well said Bill , Cheers
Helmuth Wiegert | April 17, 2026 |
Wow! finally someone did the math and the math is not good. E does not equal MC squared. I always shake my head at the existence of this ferry, owned and operated by Americans. And now that there’s a comparison with Bay Ferries, it’s obvious NS is foolish to continue with the Cat. If people want to come to NS, they will come, as we did years ago, travelling the entire province twice, without any subsidizing of our gasoline to get to Yarmouth. Who else subsidizes tourists in Canada?
bob found | April 17, 2026 |