Lunenburg mayor says cutting Bluenose II funding is the wrong move

Concerns are being raised about how budget cuts will impact the future of Canada's sailing ambassador, the Bluenose II.

Known as Nova Scotia’s ‘sailing ambassador,’ Bluenose II represents history and culture.

But it too has fallen victim to funding cuts from the provincial government as part of its latest budget – something that’s not sitting well with people in Lunenburg, N.S.

“There isn’t anything more important than the Bluenose is to us,” says Lunenburg resident Martha Keddy.

As captain of another Lunenburg icon, the Picton Castle, Daniel Moreland says the 20 per cent reduction from the lone source of government funding for the Bluenose is “massive.”

“She’s the single most famous schooner in the entire world,” he says. “I don’t know where you’d cut. They’ll just have to earn more money.

“It’s like cutting your ambassadors all over the world,” Moreland says.

As part of the recent provincial budget, a $1.189 million grant for vessel operations and crew salaries was slashed by 20 per cent, almost $240,000.

A statement from the provincial government says it had to make “difficult decisions to focus spending on strategic priorities like healthcare, housing and economic growth.”

But Keddy wonders about the government’s spending priorities.

“Cutting the HST by one per cent means absolutely nothing to us,” she says. “It means a lot to the coffers of the province. Taking the tolls off the bridges was kind of stupid.”

That’s something that Jamie Myra, the town’s mayor, agrees with.

“A $1.2 billion deficit is scary,” he acknowledges. “I think that health care should be our number one priority, followed by education and roads.

“Those are your three top priorities in the province, so I get it.”

But that’s where he says prior savings decisions might be causing more pain now.

“The Bluenose, for example, had 60,000 people on its decks this past summer,” he says. “The majority of visitors that the crew talked to and the staff talked to say they arranged their entire trip to Nova Scotia around their cruise on the Bluenose II.

“It’s vitally important to the growth of tourism and to the success of tourism, not only in the Town of Lunenburg but in the whole province,” Myra says.

Myra points out that he’d never suggest funding for the Bluenose is more important than the other top government priorities, but he argues removing funding from Halifax Harbour Bridge tolls – and the HST reduction – might have been able to help change the fiscal landscape.

“It’s one of our Canadian icons,” he says. “It drives people to this province.”

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