The president of St. Lawrence Cruise Lines in Kingston says he is poised to take the federal government to court over the continued closure of the LaSalle Causeway.
Part of the causeway, which connects downtown Kingston with its eastern suburbs at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, is the Bascule Bridge, which is a lift bridge that allows boats through. Earlier this month, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) said a steel truss on the bridge was damaged during construction on March 30. The bridge was originally scheduled to close for construction on March 29 and be intermittently closed until May 2. The bridge is now fully closed due to the damage.
This week, PSPC advised that it is working on repairs through a phased approach. The first phase will strengthen elements of the bridge and prepare for the repair of the damaged element. The second phase will involve repairing the damage to the diagonal steel element and strengthening it, PSPC said.
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“Although timelines to complete repairs remain unknown, our teams continue to work diligently to reopen the bridge as soon as possible,” said PSPC in a public notice Monday.
According to Jason Clark, president of St. Lawrence Cruise Lines, the current situation is “a bungled bridge overhaul that has bottled up vessels in the city’s inner harbour and put dozens of jobs at risk.”
In a news release Wednesday, Clark said that construction delays have trapped a number of commercial vessels in the inner harbour, as well as effectively shut down the only drydock in Eastern Ontario because it can’t be accessed from Lake Ontario.
“My ship has run aground in government incompetence and red tape,” said Clark. “Other commercial owners are in the same boat.”
St. Lawrence Cruise Lines operates the Canadian Empress, which has operated on the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers for more than 40 years. According to Clark, the Empress was due to make its first voyage of the season May 10.
“The company has now been forced to cancel its first cruise of the season due to the inability of the government to commit to a firm date to reopen navigation. Unfortunately, the cancellation of more cruises may follow,” said Clark.
Eric Ferguson, general manager for Kingston 1000 Islands Cruises, has also told local media that two of his vessels, the Island Belle and the Island Star, are stuck because of the closure.
Clark said he has met with government officials and provided a solution to get the trapped vessels out, but “federal bureaucrats are proceeding at a ponderous pace.” He noted that the “marine industry in Kingston pumps millions of dollars every year into the economy.”
“It’s scandalous that the federal government and the local MP who are supposed to protect Kingston jobs are twiddling their thumbs while several businesses face bankruptcy,” said Clark. “We have no alternative but to take the federal government to court if they fail to act now.”
According to a white paper prepared by Ferguson and Daniel Beals, responsible for operations at St. Lawrence Cruise Lines, the preferred solution is to schedule several temporary lifts of the Bascule span in early May — either with the bridge’s own mechanism or with a crane — even as work continues on repairing the bridge. An alternate option is to temporarily remove the low, fixed concrete span of the causeway to allow passage by marine traffic.
