Digby-Saint John ferry will stay put, says federal transport minister

The MV Fundy Rose, the ferry that runs between Digby, N.S. and Saint John, will not be redeployed next spring.

Transport Canada Minister Pablo Rodriguez made the announcement Friday both online and while attending an event at the Port of Halifax.

"I've made the decision that MV Fundy Rose will remain on the Digby-Saint John route and will not be moved," he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The minister's department confirmed to CBC News last month that it was considering a temporary redeployment of Fundy Rose to service the route between Souis, P.E.I., and the Magdalen Islands when the ship that normally handles that route is scheduled to be in dry dock.

Rodriguez said his department would look at alternatives to limit the impacts on the services to the Magdalen Islands.

When news of the possible move broke, people in the trucking sector expressed concern about what it could mean for their business. Trucking companies, many that serve the lucrative fishing industry in southwest Nova Scotia, use the ferry to cut down on travel time to markets in New England.

Tourism operators also expressed concern about what the loss of the link, even temporarily, could mean for their business. The West Nova Chamber of Commerce organized a petition calling on Transport Canada to leave Fundy Rose alone.

In a phone interview on Friday, West Nova MP Chris d'Entremontsaid Rodriguez made the right decision. He credited the community for its lobby effort.

"I think the full-court press that the community has put forward worked to make [the minister] understand the importance of the Digby ferry and maintaining it in its current state," he said.

"To go and share a ferry with another area didn't make a whole lot of sense."

D'Entremont said the federal government needs to take a bigger look at how many ferries are available in the country and what happens when one of them goes down for servicing.

"There's been a lack of investment on critical pieces of infrastructure," he said.

The consideration of moving Fundy Rose was "a bureaucratic response to a critical lack of under funding," said d'Entremont.