PORTLAND, Maine — Bruce McNeil, the leader of an effort to take over a ferry line between Maine and Nova Scotia, said his group Canamerica Cruises plans to submit its proposal to officials in the Canadian province Wednesday.
McNeil said Friday his group has lined up a 700-passenger vessel and will ask the province for a subsidy and loan package to support its service, a proposal not solicited by the government that has already provided about $26 million to the current operator, Nova Star Cruises.
That service’s first season this year fell short of total passenger projections and used up almost all of the subsidy package that was intended to last seven years.
In mid-October, when McNeil announced his group’s plans, Sarah Levy McLeod, a spokeswoman for Nova Scotia’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism, wrote that the province is focused on having the Nova Star service succeed.
“If a company has a well thought-out proposal with sound fundamentals they want us to look at, they can send it to us and we’ll take a look at it,” McLeod wrote in an email. “Our main interest is to ensure there continues to be a reliable ferry service between Yarmouth and Maine, based on realistic costs, the right business plan and the best interests of Nova Scotians.”
McNeil said his company also will send its proposal next week to the office of Gov. Paul LePage, who won re-election Tuesday and has committed to Nova Scotia officials that he would draft a law allowing Maine to provide a $5 million line of credit to Nova Star Cruises.
McNeil said he is hoping that the province would respond to his company’s proposal by Dec. 1, allowing for it to secure approval to operate from the Federal Maritime Commission and to start selling tickets by January.
“We can’t put the government on a deadline,” McNeil said. “But we would request that we could have an immediate review and hopefully either get a yes or no answer by Dec. 1.”
McNeil said the company continues to bring on consultants that had worked with the previous Scotia Prince line that ended its run from Portland to Nova Scotia in 2004. McNeil declined to name the vessel the group has agreed to acquire, depending on whether a deal moves ahead with officials in Nova Scotia, where control of the provincial government has shifted parties since the deal approved with Nova Star Cruises.
“Until the check is written and we take ownership, we would be unable to say what the name of the vessel,” McNeil said.
While he couldn’t disclose the name of the vessel, he did say the company’s board of directors approved what it would be called if McNeil’s venture moves ahead: the Scotia Prince II.