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News
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Government must start taking responsibility for their inaction on improving the province's ferry fleet October 26, 2006 |
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Eddie Joyce, Opposition Transportation and Works Critic and MHA for the
District of Bay of Islands, says it is time for Transportation and Works
Minister John Hickey to begin taking responsibility for his government’s
inaction on improving the province’s ferry fleet and ensure further safety
issues are addressed immediately. Over the past few days, the province’s ferry fleet has been plagued by problems. The most recent incident involved the Inch Arran which almost slammed into the rocky coastline after losing engine power and was pushed by strong winds towards the shore. "Yesterday, we almost witnessed a tragedy on the Little Bay Islands run," said Mr. Joyce. "Going into their fourth year in office, the best the minister could do was blame the former administration. This coming from a government who have commissioned several consultant reports to stall the replacement of the province’s aging ferry fleet. All we have seen is a 25 per cent increase in ferry rates, while a decrease in the service provided. "Everyone in the province knows our ferry fleet is aging and needs to be replaced. Hundreds of thousands of dollars did not need to be wasted to give us this conclusion. The province already knew the problems that existed with the provincial ferry fleet as the former Auditor General (AG) and current Tory MHA, Elizabeth Marshall, highlighted these problems in her 2000 report. There was also public hearings by the Public Accounts Committee in which the current Minister of Finance was Chairman. Obviously, there was no real intention to replace any ferries before the next election, even though promises were made in the Tory Blue book almost four years ago. "This government continuously blames the previous Liberal administration for everything negative that happens. The fact that the former Liberal administration was moving towards the replacement and upgrading of the province’s ferry fleet, a plan that was cancelled by this government in favour of reports, is never referenced. It is time for the minister to take responsibility for his own government’s lack of action on transportation problems in the province. If he is serious about addressing these safety issues, now is the time to do a major safety audit of our vessels, discover any further problems that may be present, and accelerate the process of building or replacing ships. We raised these safety issues last November and warned government that problems could exist, but were ignored. This government has done nothing to address these problems in almost four years and now is the time to cut the rhetoric and show some real action."
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