CONFEDERATION BRIDGE MACPASS SERIES

With the contract in place engineers now had to design a 13 km long structure that would have to withstand the harsh winters, ice flows and high winds of the Northumberland Strait. In 35 years, ownership of the bridge would be handed over to the federal government. In return, Ottawa would give SCDI an annual subsidy of $41.9 million a year (a figure equal to the amount it cost the federal government to maintain the ferry service), and SCDI would be allowed to collect tolls equal to the cost of ferry service (adjusted annually for inflation). SCDI would assume the costs of building, operating and maintaining the bridge.

CONFEDERATION BRIDGE MACPASS SERIES

It demanded of the federal government - and won - compensation and re-training for the more than 650 ferry workers who would lose their jobs, compensation for fishers whose fishing grounds would be disrupted by construction, and a promise construction would bring substantial economic benefits to the Island.įinally in 1993, after a series of environmental reviews and court challenges initiated by “Friends of the Island,” Ottawa signed a deal with Strait Crossing Development Inc., a private consortium. The government of Prince Edward Island formally approved the project with conditions. On 18 January 1988, 59.5 per cent of Islanders voted in favour of building a bridge to the mainland. “Friends of the Island” - a coalition including a union (worried about the loss of ferry jobs), fishers and environmentalists - argued the bridge would bring too many people to the small island, endangering their distinct “island way of life.” On the other side, “Islanders for a Better Tomorrow” - primarily a business-oriented group - argued a bridge would increase tourism and provide a reliable and more cost efficient way to deliver products and produce to the mainland. The debate quickly galvanized the province. Premier Joe Ghiz chose not to take a public position and called for a plebiscite to allow Islanders to decide the issue. In spite of decades of complaints about the ferry service, the idea of building a fixed link stirred controversy on the Island. Twelve groups submitted proposals and the federal government said it would back the project as long as PEI supported it. Work began on the crossing, but in 1969, with cost estimates skyrocketing, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau cancelled the project.īy the late 1980s, with the federal government facing ever-increasing costs of subsidizing ferry service to the Island, Ottawa called for “expressions of interest” from private companies interested in building, operating and maintaining a fixed link structure connecting PEI to the mainland. Although Diefenbaker lost the election, the subsequent Liberal government said it would go ahead with the project. The idea gained momentum again in 1962, when Prime Minister John Diefenbaker announced Ottawa would commit $105 million to build a causeway that would handle cars and trains. Over the years, ferry service improved with the construction of ships that could better handle the tough winter conditions in the Strait, but talk of a fixed link crossing was always in the background.

A year later a delegation travelled from PEI to London to lobby for a railway tunnel, but those efforts fell on deaf ears.īefore Confederation Bridge opened in 1997, Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island was the eastern terminal of the Marine Atlantic ferry between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Howlan called for a tunnel-like structure that would lie on the ocean floor. In 1885, PEI Senator George Howlan first floated the idea of building a fixed link to the mainland.

Vessels couldn’t handle the thick ice that jams the Northumberland Strait in the winter and ferry service was often disrupted for days. In the early days that promise proved difficult to keep. Knowing the importance of maintaining links to the mainland, the Island’s political leaders insisted that a clause requiring the federal government to establish and maintain a service to convey mail and passengers to the Island year round be enshrined in the terms of Confederation. The factors leading to the decision to build a fixed link connecting Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick, and thus the rest of Canada, date back to 1873 and PEI’s decision to join Confederation. Confederation Bridge over a frozen Northumberland Strait.

Confederation bridge macpass