In today’s Herald, i discuss a recent survey conducted by the town of Bar Harbor on the impact of cruise tourism to the town. Most residents didn’t want to outright ban cruise ships, but were concerned about their number and size.
Halifax doesn’t seem to have much hate for cruise ships, but i did wake up to one email from a reader.
Read your article in today’s business The Chronicle Herald. I for one would like to see the end of cruise ships! They are and will be a menace to our ports and city ! Why does everything have to be about financial gain?
Halifax Fire’s new boat arrived from the builders, and entered the Harbour for the first time on the June 21. The boat, named Kjipuktuk is the Mi’kmaq name for Halifax, and will be heard on the Radio as Fireboat 1.
The new boat is a Firestorm 36, and was built by MetalCraft Marine of Kingston Ontario. The boat is a popular design and is use by fire departments around the world. Unlike the previous boat, this one will live in the harbour permanently, and will be operated from a slip at the Alderney Marina.
The Federal Government announced restrictions on Cruise Vessels in Canadian waters for the upcoming year.
Cruise vessels with greater then 100 passengers are not permitted to operate in Canadian Waters until February 28th 2022. This mirrors the restrictions that were in place last year. The Ban on Pleasure craft in arctic waters is also in place once again.
Those who do not comply with the pleasure craft prohibition could be subject to penalties: $5,000 per day for individuals and $25,000 per day for groups or corporations.
Those who do not comply with the passenger vessel prohibition could be liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to $1 million or to imprisonment for a term of up to 18 months, or to both.
There is no national ban for smaller cruise ships certified to carry 100 or fewer people. They must follow provincial, territorial, local and regional health authority protocols for timelines and processes around their operations.
One Oceans Cruise ship the RCGS Resolute was finally released from arrest in Argentina, and on the way north sunk a Venezuelan warship. One Ocean itself went through a restructuring, and plans to offer cruises in 2021.
Rail blockages by Indigenous protests caused problems for the port. So did Excess traffic caused by a longshoreman strike in Montreal. MSC Diverted ships, but added Halifax to its regular schedule. Containers began to dwell, due to rail delays cased by a shortage of cars, causing excess empty containers were stacked all around port property. The Strike also led to Hapag Lloyd diverted some traffic to Halifax.
Thanks to a presentation posted on the cities public consultation website Shape Your city, we now know what the new truck access to Fairview Cove will look like.
This access will be used to handle the majority of container traffic bound for both the Fairview Cove and PSA halifax terminal in the south end. the new access is off Africville road, in the general area where the dump trucks now access the infill area. Containers bound for PSA Halifax will be loaded on rail cars for transport to the other terminal.
Besides the truck access, the facility will feature a new inspection facility, presumably for use by CBSA to inspect suspect shipments before being forwarded on. that facility will include a shed, and a fenced in yard.
There is no word yet on the changes to the Windsor street exchange to improve access to the site, however the moving of the truck access will free up land making more space available for whatever the final result is.
The 14,414 TEU CMA-CGM T. Jefferson arrived this afternoon, becoming the largest container ship to call in Halifax. The previous record was set last January by CMA-CGM Libra at 11,388. sister ship CMA-CGM Abraham Lincon is also scheduled, as is the 13800teu APL Sentosa.
All the Recent record beaters have operated on the CMA-CGM Columbus JAX service, which sails from asia to both the east and west coasts. 18 vessels provide weekly service, and 1 voyage takes 126 days. Both Records will fall this June when the 15072 teu CMA-CGM Panama arrives, beating both east and west records. the ship is currently Due June 6th.
CMA-CGM T.Jefferson coming along side. (HPA Phato)tug Spitfire III hauling the stern around so the ship can back in to Pier 41.
COVID 19 concerns kept interviews to email, and media off the pier, and i will post some additional photos later.
The Port of Halifax has delayed The 2020 cruise season until July 1. This does not apply to smaller vessels carrying 500 people or less (passengers plus crew). This follows the direction provided by Transport Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Yesterday Princess cruises suspended operations for 2 months, Viking Cruises cancelled trips for 2 months, and Virgin delayed the inaugural season of their ship Scarlet Lady.
The Port Authority also announced that The Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market building will not open on Saturday, March 14, 2020. This is to contain the spread of COVID-19. The building will remain closed indefinitely.
The 2020 cruise season in Halifax will start on April 11 with the arrival of
Norwegian Star, a Norwegian Cruise Lines vessel. The season will run until November 3.
for the 2020 season the Port of Halifax is expecting 203 vessel calls carrying approximately 350,000 cruise guests. For local tourism providers, planning for the upcoming season is well underway.
2020 Halifax Cruise highlights include:
Eleven (11) scheduled inaugural calls in 2020, starting with the arrival of Norwegian Star on April 11 and flowed by Hanseatic Inspiration (May 20), Empress of the Seas (May 23), Amsterdam (June 1), Norwegian Pearl (June 8), Oasis of the Seas (June 25), Island Princess (Aug 6), Carnival Radiance (Sept 11), Norwegian Encore (Sept 12), Amundsen (Sept 13), and Evrima (Sept 25)
Four (4) visits from Queen Mary 2 on July 1-2, August 2, September 23 and October 21
Two (2) visits from Disney Magic on October 10 and October 19
September 25 is expected to be the busiest passenger day with over 10,000 cruise guests on five vessels
Recent rail blockages are beginning to severely effect the port of Halifax. Yesterday ACL announced they were no longer calling in Halifax as long as rail service is limited, routing traffic through New York instead. ACL has a contract with CERES until 2022, and calls twice a week with containers and RO-RO traffic.
Hapag-Lloyd, and the Alliance is still calling in Halifax, but is considering re-routing cargo, as is ZIM. Hapag-Lloyd released this statement Wednesday.
The blockades of key rail track and Port Infrastructure facilities throughout Canada continues and the Federal and Provincial Governments remain in dialogue as they seek a resolution with the Indigenous communities across the country.
There have been no material changes to the state of the blockades as communicated in our previous letter. CP Rail tracks remain comparatively clear.
Prince Rupert is now clear and the recovery is underway.
The blockade in Ontario remains in place, and CN’s Eastern Canadian network is more or less shutdown. A limited number of trains are operating in the Halifax/Montreal corridor. Various options to move /divert cargo out of Halifax are being explored.
It is not clear yet how long the protests could last and the disruption continues as the blockades enter their third week. There has been inevitable disruption to the Rail transportation of both domestic and International shipments for which we apologize.
This is a continuing situation and we will provide you with regular updates.
Hapag-lloyd Feb 19 Statement
Some trains working east of Montreal are moving, but as most cargo through Halifax is bound or from beyond the Belleville blockade, those services are affected. The port is stacking cargo bound for Toronto and points west.
Why are we here?
Coastal gas link is attempting to build a Natural Gas pipeline in BC. CGL have signed benefit agreements with several indigenous tribes along the pipeline route, and the project has broad support among elected councils and hereditary chiefs. 5 Hereditary Chiefs oppose the pipeline route across Wet’suwet’en Territory, and were blocking progress in Protest.
The supreme court ruled that the Wet’suwet’en territory is unceeded – it is not subject to a treaty, and the people were not conquered, therefore the Hereditary chiefs have legal title to the land.
Those 5 hereditary chiefs are not against the pipeline. they are against the current routing of the pipeline across their lands. The chiefs have proposed alternative routeing, which is actually in use by other pipelines currently. CGL rejected the proposed new routing, claiming it would delay the project by a year, and Cost 700 million more to build.
CGL went to court, and the BC Court granted an injunction ordering the protesters away. they refused, citing sovereignty over their territory. The RCMP then moved in and enforced the injuction. The Legality of the BC court injunction is likely to be challenged, however that will take time to work out.
In the Meantime, Mohawks have blocked the CN mainline near Belleville in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en. An injunction has been issued against this blockade by an Ontario Court, however the OPP have yet to enforce this.
The above are the facts. they are not open to debate.
This protest is not anti-pipeline, its not about the environment, or moving oil. some have latched on to the protest to advocate for those ideas, however that is disrespecting the purpose of the protest- which is about respecting indigenous title to the land, which in this case clearly exists.
The OPP have likely chosen restraint in dealing with the Mohawks, frankly its likely the interruptions could become much more severe were they to forceably remove this blockade. The Mohawks were participants in the Oka Crisis which featured blockaded roads bobby-trapped with incendiary devices. as bad as the rail blockade is, shutting down the 401 would be much worse.
while the Trudeau liberals are rightly getting criticism for the handling of this issue, Calls for the prime minister to order the police to do something are wrong. Politicians do not and should not directly control the actions of the police. Support and calls for Vigilantes, or other citizens to take it upon themselves to intervene is also not a sound approach.
Fundamentally CGL chose to go to court rather then being a good neighbour. CGL, wanting to save time and money is now costing the Canadian Economy millions per day in losses, and several thousand people are out of work until this is resolved. the rest of the country is an externality to getting this pipeline built how CGL want it, and frankly more anger should be expressed to at CGL, and Corporate Canada should be demanding CGL apologize, and change the routing.
Develop Nova Scotia today released the RFQ for construction of a new wharf on Georges Island. The project will see the existing wharf cut down, and a new pile structure twice its size constructed.
The new wharf will be 135′ long, and 18′ wide. there will be 60′ of Floating dock on either side of the main wharf to allow for boat access. Deadline for bids is Sept 17.
The Current wharf was built in 2004, and is built over the ruins of previous wharves. The first wharf was constructed by 1784, and was historically 130′ in length, and 20-25′ wide – the approximate dimensions to the proposed structure.