PORTLAND, Maine — The operator of the luxury cruise ferry placed under arrest by a range of creditors says it’s still owed $2 million from the province of Nova Scotia, which doesn’t plan to give any more to the company.
Mark Amundsen, CEO of Nova Star Cruises, which offered daily summer ferry service between Portland and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the company has asked the province to provide $2 million he said remains outstanding from the initial $21 million (Canadian) subsidy that carried it through the first season.
“This was always part of the $21 million package,” Amundsen said.
That’s under dispute by the province’s transportation minister, Geoff MacLellan, who said Tuesday the province does not owe the company any money.
“This was never something that we would entertain,” MacLellan said.
The money in question was advanced by the province to the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, which required a bond from the cruise operator to ensure it had money set aside to pay for refunds for any trips booked but not taken.
That bond was returned to the province in July as Nova Star Cruises put its own money into an escrow account to satisfy the deposit requirement from the maritime commission.
Amundsen said Nova Star Cruises has argued the money should have been transferred into its bank account, not remained with the province.
“I asked for it again two weeks ago, and they said they’re not obligated to provide any further funding,” Amundsen said.
Amundsen said his company began to ask for the $2 million payment from the province in August, seeing definitively that the season was not going to meet its ridership projections.
The company also is awaiting the return of its own deposit to the federal maritime commission this week after assuring the commission it had refunded bookings already made for the 2016 season.
He declined to state how much the company expects to receive from that fund but said “it’s a significant amount of money” and that it “will go a long way to solving the creditor issue.”
Creditors have claimed more than $2.3 million in unpaid bills in the United States, and Amundsen said the company owes another $200,000 to creditors in Nova Scotia.
Amundsen said his company has not taken legal action against the province but has consulted attorneys regarding the $2 million.
Nova Star Cruises had a seven-year lease on the ship, which is owned by the Singapore-based ST Marine Ltd. Since the arrest of the ship, Amundsen said ST Marine has put the ship in default on that charter agreement.
ST Marine has sought permission to defend the ship from creditors who have claimed liens against the ship and its gear in a case before the U.S. District Court in Portland, led by creditor Portland Pilots.