Yarmouth enlists YouTube to save ferry

A campaign to save the high-speed ferry service between Yarmouth, N.S., and Maine now includes a YouTube site.

"Rescue Our Ferry" is devoted to testimonials by Nova Scotians worried about the impact of losing the service.

"We don't edit what people say, we don't tell them what to say. We literally press record and what they say goes live," said Julie Walters, a tourism officer with the South West Shore Development Authority.

"It's coming from their hearts and we think these stories have to be told."

'To cut out the ferry service is going to be a death knell for the already tottering economy in southwest Nova Scotia.' —Aaron Lansky, N.S. summer resident

Bay Ferries Ltd. announced Dec. 18 that the Cat ferry service would not resume in the spring because the province refused to give it more money for the 2010 season.

The company wanted at least $6 million to continue the ferry service between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor and Portland.

Local leaders have said the closure of the May-to-October service will devastate the area's tourism industry and result in the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Tourism in Nova Scotia accounted for $1.3 billion in revenues in 2008 and contributed nearly $204 million in tax revenues, officials say.

About 500 people in Yarmouth County alone could lose their jobs, Walters said.

She's also hearing from people right across the province who are concerned about losing customers if the transportation link disappears, she said.

Tourism industry worried

Among them is Anna D'Alessio Doucet, who owns Ocean Front Cottages in Church Point.

"Twenty-five to 30 per cent of our business comes from our partners from the New England states," said Doucet, one of about 50 people Walters interviewed for the video production this week, using a laptop webcam.

"If we have to continue and lose 30 per cent of our business, our revenue, it's going to make it very, very difficult for us."

The YouTube site even includes a comment from Massachusetts resident Aaron Lansky, who has a summer home in Cape St. Marys.

"I've been coming up to Nova Scotia for a long time. I know the area is really hurting already. To cut out the ferry service is going to be a death knell for the already tottering economy in southwest Nova Scotia," he said.

"So I am begging you please make the investment, because that's what it is. Restore the ferry service. Nova Scotia can't claim to be Canada's playground if people can't get there."

A Rescue Our Ferry online petition, started last month, has nearly 4,000 signatures.

Bay Ferries has provided the ferry service since 1997, but officials say traffic has plummeted in recent years due to the high Canadian dollar and new U.S. passport rules.

During the past two years, the Nova Scotia government has put $18.9 million into the ferry service to help keep it afloat.

The Cat, which can carry 900 passengers and 240 vehicles, has run every day in the summer, but only five days a week in the spring and fall shoulder season.