Blown diesel generators the latest hitch for electric Wolfe Island ferry

A union official says blown generators are plaguing ferry service to Wolfe Island near Kingston, Ont., as what's supposed to be an electric vessel continues to run on diesel while waiting for its charging infrastructure to be set up.

The problem came to a head this past weekend when mechanical issues again knocked the Wolfe Islander IV (WI4) out of service, stranding frustrated residents with no way to cross between the island and mainland for hours.

"What's happening is we're running it on its backup power source," explained Lee MacLaren, a ferry captain and president of OPSEU Local 428, which represents crew members.

"These generators are continually going down on us, and with the lack of spare parts and running it in a manner that it's not designed [for], we're putting a lot of stress on it."

Unscheduled maintenance took the WI4 out of service last Thursday, with the old ferry brought in to carry passengers until the new boat returned Saturday morning.

But just a few hours after the WI4 started ferrying passengers once again, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation (MTO) announced on social media that it had run into "mechanical issues" around 8:18 a.m.

A second service outage was posted about at 3:13 p.m., again due to an unspecified mechanical issue, before the vessel was back in action shortly before 7 p.m.

Internal note says generators cause outages

CBC first started asking MTO about the maintenance issues on the morning of July 17, but did not receive a response to questions about the cause. 

The ministry also did not reply by deadline to a separate request for comment about the weekend disruptions and whether the diesel generators were to blame.

A ferry service update sent out by email from MTO during the disruption Saturday afternoon said the ministry "recognizes the vital connection the ferry provides, and we thank you for your patience and understanding."

As CBC previously reported, despite different Ontario governments using the WI4 as an example of the province leading by example in the fight against climate change, the ferry — which was designed to run on electricity — continues to burn diesel, with monthly fuel bills ranging from $150,000 to $200,000.

The maintenance issues are just the latest in a series of headaches and delays for the new boat, which finally entered service last August before a gash was torn in its hull and it was towed away for repairs in early December.

An internal MTO information note, obtained through freedom of information legislating, said some of that work on the boat focused on its generators in order to "mitigate wear on the units and prevent future outages."

It also said modifications to the exhaust system had been completed to prevent the generators from overheating.

MPP says residents are frustrated

Kingston and the Islands MPP Ted Hsu visited the Kingston dock Saturday and said he found people upset by the outages.

"They expect a ferry service that isn't being disrupted as often as this ferry is," he said in an interview Monday morning.

Hsu said generator breakdowns are happening "often" because the boat is meant to be running on electricity stored in batteries, but their charging stations have yet to be installed on shore.

In the meantime, the generators are "not supposed to be running all the time" and so keep blowing out, he said.

Construction on the Kingston dock was initially supposed to be finished in 2023, but that deadline has since been pushed into 2026, with the possibility of work continuing into 2027.

Hsu said he's been in contact with the ministry and is in the process of setting up a briefing to find ways to cut down on the disruptions in the meantime.

One possibility he proposed is for spare parts to be stored on the ferry itself, so repairs can be made more quickly if a generator breaks down.

Union calls outages a safety issue

The Liberal MPP also said he wants to see if there's some sort of compromise where the chargers are set up before the dock is finished.

"If the charging infrastructure is not completed soon, the generators will continue, probably, to to have problems," said Hsu.

MacLaren, the union president, said if the ferry disruptions do continue, the ministry should be quicker to bring the older Wolfe Islander III into service to avoid situations like Saturday where the island's only lifeline is cut off.

"Shutting down the ferry for the better part of a day is incredibly dangerous," he said. "Aside from getting to and from work ... there's a real safety concern with emergency response ... should someone need an ambulance or police service."