Islanders’ presentation at meeting helps ferry issue

By Mark Ribble

PELEE ISLAND — A public meeting last week hosted by the West Region Transportation Task Force appears to have been the tipping point to getting the Pelee Island ferry issues solved.

Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald is co-chair of the task force along with Marta Leardi-Anderson of Owen Sound Transportation. MacDonald took the chair for this particular meeting and said members of the committee, including Leardi-Anderson, were very impressed with the Islanders’ presentation.

“The residents did a wonderful job,” she said about the presentation. “I was so proud of them.”

It appears that meeting with Islanders may have been the catalyst to a solution as MPP Rick Nicholls had been having ongoing discussions with MTO officials for several days leading up to it.

On Sunday, July 18, the Ministry of Transportation sent a text to Pelee officials letting them know that a solution had been worked out regarding the ferries.

The Pelee Islander II will now be running on its regular summer schedule, effective Monday, July 19.

The good news quickly spread among island business people and residents.

Prior to the meeting on Wednesday, July 14, frustrations were running high as Islanders dealt with a rotating summer schedule that saw the Pelee Islander II running every other week, while the much smaller Pelee Islander ran the opposite weeks, due to a shortage of qualified engineers for the big boat.

This presented a problem for businesses relying on visitors as the province emerged from under stricter COVID rules.

Julie Clifford, owner of The Bakery on Pelee Island, said the difference in sales was often staggering.

About the off-weeks, Clifford said, “It’s the worst we’ve ever seen it. There’s just no one here.”

Clifford has tried to remain positive as the ferry bugs are worked out, but hopes for a more permanent solution going forward.

Those sentiments were echoed by Pelee Island Deputy-Mayor Dave Dawson, who spoke to the Sun on Friday.

“We’ve got 10 other priorities for sustainability on Pelee Island,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to keep worrying about transportation.”

Dawson is also the chair of Pelee Island Transportation Committee and says that Islanders have long been struggling with the ferry service.

“This is not a new issue,” said Dawson. “We’ve been dealing with issues for years.”

Among the issues facing Islanders are, of course, the lack of tourists getting to the island and also the movement of farm machinery and crops when the big boat isn’t available.

Farmers who are harvesting grapes, wheat and soybeans have to be able to get their equipment back and forth, which is something they can’t do on the smaller vessel.

“Old faithful Pelee Islander, built in 1960, still makes the trips across for us,” said Dawson. “But it just doesn’t have the capacity of the newer boat.”

MacDonald said she’s happy that a solution has been reached, but cautions that they don’t want to take their foot off the gas just yet.

“There has to be a more permanent, sustainable solution,” she said.

“It’s hard for anyone to plan anything long-term with the uncertainty of the ferries,” says Dawson. “People want to build here but won’t make a commitment without a reliable ferry schedule.”

For now, at least, Pelee Island’s bustling tourism industry, wineries and farms should be able to bounce back with the increased schedule, but as Dawson and MacDonald have said, Islanders have to know that they’ve got reliable transportation going forward.

The 63-metre MV Jiimaan sits in Kingsville Harbour under a 30-year review and has not sailed under a regular schedule this year. The 67-metre Pelee Islander II, built for about $40 million in 2019, was pegged to replace the aging Pelee Islander, which was built in 1960. That same Pelee Islander has been handling half of the trips across Lake Erie so far this summer.