The Mill Cove ferry in Bedford is still a go after Halifax Council voted against an amended motion to explore cancelling it as budget deliberations continue.
All three levels of government are attached to the project, announced in March 2024, that is estimated to cost $260 million.
The motion was tabled by Councillor Kathryn Morse, Wednesday, in an effort to look at ways of tackling skyrocketing costs considering the number of people who will be impacted.
The original estimate for daily riders was about 3,500. Now that the ferry has been pushed to the year 2030, that has jumped closer to 5,000.
Morse said that it is important to look at the choices they make now don’t preclude transit investments in the future that may serve more people.
“My goal here, as everyone’s I’m sure, is to make sure we’re spending money in a way that benefits the most people for the least amount of money and the least amount of debt that keeps our options open for the future,” said Morse.
However, the idea of nixing it was met with opposing views, Friday, in a debate that had some passionate opinions and was ultimately voted down 10-4.
Councillor Tony Mancini said, now is absolutely the right time for a bold project like this.
“I’ve had many conversations yesterday with many of those people from both levels of government going with great concern that the word cancel was even part of this motion,” said Mancini.
“This is the project for us. This is the time for this project.”
Echoing Mancini’s opinion was Councillor Jean St. Amand who says considering the growing population in Bedford that has reached more than 45,000, a service like this is needed.
“All of these people would benefit from this system being in place, whether they become riders themselves or whether the traffic that would now no longer be in front of them because the riders were on the ferries,” said St. Amand.
“That would present an opportunity for those folks to be able to get downtown or wherever it is they were going.”
CAO Brad Anguish said Council will have another opportunity to discuss the ferry when staff complete the 30 per cent design for it in May.
