Fogo Island ferry protest over, but more work to be done says committee

Protesters aboard the Astron W ferry have finally disembarked as of 7:00 a.m. this morning. 

"The Astron is doing load and go all day until both side of traffic is cleared up," protestor Jessica Payne told the CBC, adding she still doesn't know when the other ferry, the Veteran, will return to the run. 

The protest started late Thursday night after residents received a notice the Astron W would be leaving the Fogo-Change Island service. The vessel was going to go to Bell Island, where there was only one working vessel. 

Friday evening, the province's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure made an update stating that the Astron W will remain on the Fogo Island route. The route's other ferry, the MV Veteran, is still experiencing mechanical issues and has technicians deployed to fix the situation, said department spokesperson Maria Browne. 

Chair of the Fogo Island Ferry Committee, Jarrod Oglan, says some protesters probably stayed on board after the update.

"I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people were just mistrusting of the way the department was handling things and wanted to make sure that the vessel was actually going to be making the runs," he said. 

Oglan says they were updated around 11:00 p.m. Friday night that repairs to Beaumont-Hamel Ferry were completed and could return to servicing Bell Island - Portugal Cove. He says after that point, protesters fizzled out because the Astron W was no longer needed on Bell Island. 

"I'm sure maybe some people decided to stick around just in case this was some kind of weird ploy to get everybody to go home," said Oglan.

Oglan says the Astron W is now functioning on a load and go basis, and clearing traffic that accumulated while the Veteran was down and dealing with mechanical issues. 

Better communication needed

During the protest on Friday, Oglan said he acted as a channel of communication between the protesters and the provincial government. 

Oglan says communication from government desperately needs to improve, and residents need to be given a "proper heads up" when changes are made to the ferry system. 

And while he doesn't feel like blocking the ferry was necessary, he said he supports residents voicing their opinion. 

"The traveling public was just fed up with what was happening and they took it upon themselves to go ahead and prevent the Astron from departing," said Oglan.

Oglan says he doesn't want the government giving them anymore last minute updates when changes are made to the ferries, and he would like to see explanations about why vessels are moving sooner.

"I'm hoping that we've learned from this that if we can get information out, people are understanding," he said. 

He hopes that going forward, the transportation and infrastructure minister will be more open to communicating with the committee. 

"The government at this point seems to be doing just a lot of Band-Aid fixes for a much larger issue at play," said Oglan. "They're using the boats as kind of like chess pieces in some political game that is messing with the lives of both the people on Bell Island and Fogo Island."

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