Frontenac County Supports Wolfe Island In Ferry Dispute

Jeff Green | Mar 22, 2023

Frontenac Islands Mayor Judy Greenwood-Speers brought a motion to Frontenac County Council last week, asking for the county’s support.

Greenwood-Speers only recently learned, during a meeting with Ontario Ministry of Transportation Officials, that the long-awaited arrival of the Wolfe Islander IV may not solve all of the ferry service issues experienced by Wolfe Islanders and visitors. The Ministry revealed that they do not plan to keep the current ferry, the Wolfe Islander III, in operation once the new ferry is in operation. The ministry had previously indicated they were going to run a two-ferry system, thus shortening the wait times which have become significant in recent years, especially during the busy summer season.

Greenwood-Speers asked Frontenac County to “request that the Honourable Caroline Mulroney [Minister of Transportation] immediately reconsider the decision to reduce the original plans for a two-ferry service and reinstate the two-ferry plan as contemplated by the Ministry; and Further That in the absence of a plan for a two-ferry service, or a delay of the two-ferry service, that the Ministry conduct broad consultation with the Community, including the Township and the City [of Kingston] regarding the impacts and mitigation strategies for their decision, in particular parking, emergency response and quality of life.”

In response, North Frontenac Mayor Gerry Lichty said “I understand where you are coming from, but quite frankly ‘I have some issues with this particular motion … The ministry has committed $50 million dollars to this, and they are increasing ferry capacity by 50-60% capacity. If I were in Toronto, I would read this as Frontenac County is being ungrateful after receiving a new ferry.”

To Gerry Lichty’s point, Greenwood-Spear said “A lot of plans were made, a whole lot of decisions were made at the county level, at the city level and at the township, about things like parking, ambulance service, and development plans as well, on the expectation of two ferries.”

She said that with a single ferry, and the elimination of the parking lot at the Kingston ferry dock, which is part of the ministry’s plan for the dock, it it will be hard for her to promote further development on Wolfe Island.

“This all came from public consultation in 2015. If it changes now there has to be broad public consultation again, plus they are talking about a 90-minute turnaround for the new ferry, which would kill Wolfe Island,” she said.

Warden Ron Vandewal said, “let me make one thing clear, Frontenac County does not have anything to do with the Wolfe Island Ferry or with the dock. I only see us making a motion of support for Frontenac Islands, but not on our own behalf because that is not our ferry or our service. I doubt if the province ever made a promise in writing about the two-ferry service.”

“We did pass a motion at Frontenac Islands Council, so this one can be amended to say it is a motion of support for our motion,” said Greenwood-Spear. “This motion wasn’t written by me, it was written by the CAO,” she added.

“Let me provide a bit of context,” said CAO Kelly Pender, who wrote the motion. “When this came to the city in 2017, the issue on the table was docking facilities. The parking spots were eliminated, so the province could save millions by not extending parking on the dock. This would put parking into the city, which the city did not want. MTO [Ministry of Transportation] promised there would be a two-ferry service in exchange for eliminated the parking. Apparently, they changed their minds a couple of years ago, and it only came out a couple of weeks ago,” said Pender.

“The key word in the motion is mitigation,” he added.

With that explanation, the motion was carried without further comment.