St. John’s, NL (July 11, 2025) – Jim McKenna, Progressive Conservative Shadow Minister for Transportation and MHA for Fogo Island – Cape Freels, is slamming the Liberal government for a decade of neglect that has pushed Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial ferry system into crisis.

“For ten years, the Liberal government has stood by while ferry service and reliability have gone from bad to worse,” said McKenna. “The Liberal failure to act has left our coastal communities stranded and frustrated — especially now, in the middle of our busiest season for tourism and the fishery.”

This summer, ferry services on both the Bell Island and Fogo Island- Change Islands routes have been severely disrupted. Residents and visitors alike are struggling to access reliable transportation — the direct result, McKenna says, of Liberal inaction and mismanagement.

“The Liberals are content to shuffle vessels to try and save face,” said McKenna. “They take ferries from one community to quiet the outrage in another. That is not a strategy — it’s chaos. And it is pitting communities against each other, instead of providing the reliable service everyone deserves.”

McKenna points to repeated mechanical breakdowns, chronic shortages of vessels, and the absence of a proper long-term fleet renewal strategy as proof of the Liberal government’s failure to plan.

“What’s worse is the complete breakdown in communication with ferry users and community leaders,” McKenna added. “Scheduled maintenance and regulatory inspections are poorly planned. The Liberals have not made sure that there is an appropriately sized swing vessel,”

“The ferry system is our lifeline,” said McKenna. “We deserve better than patchwork solutions and political damage control.”