Yarmouth business owners feel the strain of delayed ferry service

At this time last year, Elaine Surette's lakeside bed and breakfast was already booked up until the end of the summer.

This year, Surette said her small business is feeling the crunch thanks to continued delays to the Maine-to-Yarmouth, N.S., ferry service.

"For June, we had 29 cancellations from U.S. travellers that were planning to come across on the ferry," Surette told CBC's Information Morning.

She owns The Lake House Bed & Breakfast, operating out of a three-bedroom houseabout 25 kilometres east ofYarmouth's downtown. The business is in its third year.

In June 2018, Surette said 63 room nights were sold. In June 2019, there were only six.Bookings are down for July and August by about 50 per cent.

Fewer employees

"It's affected my employees," she said.

"Last year, I had one full-time and two part-time [people]. This year, I have one part-time employee. I haven't been able to give her the hours."

The majority of bookings are made in the spring, said Surette, so while she's hopeful she'll get more bookings as summer progresses, she has a pretty good idea how many rooms will be filled.

Surette believesthe drop in business is because of the late start to the troubled Cat ferry, which was originally slated to begin carrying passengers on June 21.

In early June, Bay Ferries, the ferry's operator, announced the start of the season would be delayed well into July. The company has cancelled bookings up until July 18.

On Wednesday, deputy transportation minister Paul LaFleche said if everything worked out as planned, the Bar Harbour, Maine, ferry terminal, could be ready by the end of August.

Surette said her business isn't the only one affected by the late start to the ferry season.

"It does impact the rest of the province as well, because tourists may stay in Yarmouth one or two nights, but they head on to Shelburne, Lunenburg, Halifax, Cape Breton, P.E.I., so they do travel." she said.

"It's not just room nights it's restaurants, it's service stations, it's everything else that gets impacted as well."

'We have yet to have a single U.S. guest'

Candice Phibbs, the owner of Yarmouth Walking Tours, said her bookings are down about 20 per cent this year.

Last year, the companyemployed one student and one part-time employee. This year, Phibbs is running the tours herself.

"It's early in the season, so we're certainly hopeful that we'll recoup those numbers, but we have yet to have a single U.S. guest join us for a tour," she said.

"When we look at our demographics from last year's tours, we did have U.S. visitors, so it's hard not to put a correlation there."

Phibbs said she still has bookings toward the end of July and early August from U.S. customers, but she suspects they will get cancelled if the start date for the ferry is pushed back again.

In astatement, Bay Ferries spokesperson Rhonda Latter said the company plans to make an announcement on Monday.

"The impact on businesses is foremost in our minds as we have worked through this," she wrote."That is why we are working to provide alternatives to displaced customers."

Ferry 'an important link'

While taxpayer money forthe ferry hasbeen a point of contention in the province, Surette said she believes it's necessary to keep the ferry running.

When the then-governing NDP originally ended the Cat's subsidy in 2009, she described the Yarmouth area in the aftermath as a "ghost town."

Surette added that keeping the ferry running will help bring tourists into the community, which is struggling to attract visitors due to a lack of other ways to get to the small town.

"We have no airport anymore, we have no railroadand the ferry is an important link," she said.

The provincial government budgeted $13.8 millionfor ferry operations this year. It's unclear how much of that money will be spent given savings on fuel and other associated costs with a shortened or scrapped season.

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