The Riverhurst, Sask., ferry was out of service again this month, after the cable drive system failed.
Repairs, expected to be completed by Aug. 5, provided little comfort to those in central Saskatchewan who rely on the service to cross the two kilometre wide span of Lake Diefenbaker.
Lorne Sheppard, councillor for the Rural Municipality of Canaan, was frustrated by the shutdown of this essential service during the busy farming and tourism season.
“It’s gone beyond an inconvenience. It’s an outright disgrace and an expense to local people,” he said of the three interruptions in service this season.
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Sheppard said there is little the municipality can do other than lobby the provincial minister of highways, responsible for ferry operations.
He noted the already strained relations between his RM and Saskatchewan Highways, following the department’s recent closure of a maintenance shed and depot.
Sheppard said the latest setback made his dream to bring a year-round ferry to the area seem more distant than ever.
“Now I’m four steps back. I can’t even get it to run all summer,” he said.
“Imagine trying to get the government to run it in the winter.”
A British Columbia firm was hired three years ago to change the ferry’s drive system but that work was fraught with problems from the beginning.
A second company from Ontario was hired last fall to switch the ferry to a hydraulically driven pulley system. It was unable to finish the job so the area was without service until May and then only sporadically due to broken cables and other problems.
A computer glitch shut the ferry down for a few more days in July.
Doug Wakabayaski of Saskatchewan Highways said the department is working with the ferry manufacturer on a solution.
“We have a system that according to the engineers and technical data should be working,” he said.
Wakabayaski expected the ferry to undergo major retrofitting during its winter shutdown, but said repairs should keep it going until then.
“It’s been an ongoing problem that we are working to resolve.”
