Bell Island mayor calls for accountability amid ferry fiasco
The Beaumont Hamel ferry — used for the Bell Island to Portugal Cove run — has been out of service for five days due to mechanical issues, leaving the island with only the Flanders.
The MV Flanders was operating on a load and go basis as of Friday.
Wabana Mayor Philip Tobin has been calling for a third ferry, the relatively new Astron W, for some time.
That vessel is now in limbo as Fogo Island protestors remain on board, demanding the Astron W stays with them.
Fogo Island's regular ferry, the Veteran, went out of service shortly after.
The situation leaves both small islands in a precarious state that the Wabana mayor says is both troubling and concerning.
"The MV Flanders is 35 years old and with that comes constant mechanical issues and constant downtime issues, which affect the everyday livelihoods of the people on Bell Island," Tobin told CBC on Friday.
Summertime is also Bell Island's peak season for tourism and business, according to Tobin. The ferry plays an essential part in the region's economy.
"We have hundreds of people on a daily basis traveling to [St. John's] just for work, for medical appointments, etcetera, right? And they're not able to get to work," said Tobin.
"It's just not acceptable what's going on."
Tobin said it's time for the province to take accountability for the faltering ferry system and the tension it's creating between two rural communities.
In an interview on Friday, before Fogo Island's Veteran went out of service, Transportation Minister Elvis Loveless said the department decided to temporarily move the Astron W to Bell Island for that reason.
"We try to do what we can to accommodate them because we know … it's in peak time that people are traveling," said Loveless.
However, he added, there are a number of "unknowns," including when the Beaumont Hamel will be back on the water.
Meanwhile, PC transportation critic Jim McKenna says it's a matter of government neglect.
"Scheduled maintenance and regulatory inspections are poorly planned. The Liberals have not made sure that there is an appropriately sized swing vessel," he wrote in a statement on Friday.
CBC News has asked the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure for additional comment.
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
News Analysis: Trump's 'force of personality' hasn't delivered on key foreign policy goals
When President Trump returned to the White House in January, he promised to deliver big foreign policy wins in record time. He said he would halt Russia's war against Ukraine in 24 hours or less, end Israel's war in Gaza nearly as quickly and force Iran to end to its nuclear program. He said he'd persuade Canada to become the 51st state, take Greenland from Denmark and negotiate 90 trade deals in 90 days. 'The president believes that his force of personality … can bend people to do things," his special envoy-for-everything, Steve Witkoff, explained in May in a Breitbart interview. Six months later, none of those ambitious goals have been reached. Ukraine and Gaza are still at war. Israel and the United States bombed Iran's nuclear facilities, but it's not clear whether they ended the country's atomic program once and for all. Canada and Denmark haven't surrendered any territory. And instead of trade deals, Trump is mostly slapping tariffs on other countries, to the distress of U.S. stock markets. It turned out that force of personality couldn't solve every problem. 'He overestimated his power and underestimated the ability of others to push back,' said Kori Schake, director of foreign policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. 'He often acts as if we're the only people with leverage, strength or the ability to take action. We're not.' Read more: Inside Trump's ICE expansion: Can he really hire 10,000 new agents? The president has notched important achievements. He won a commitment from other members of NATO to increase their defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product. The attack on Iran appears to have set Tehran's nuclear project back for years, even if it didn't end it. And Trump — or more precisely, his aides — helped broker ceasefires between India and Pakistan and between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But none of those measured up to the goals Trump initially set for himself — much less qualified for the Nobel Peace Prize he has publicly yearned for. 'I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize for this,' he grumbled when the Rwanda-Congo agreement was signed. The most striking example of unfulfilled expectations has come in Ukraine, the grinding conflict Trump claimed he could end even before his inauguration. For months, Trump sounded certain that his warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin would produce a deal that would stop the fighting, award Russia most of the territory its troops have seized and end U.S. economic sanctions on Moscow. 'I believe he wants peace,' Trump said of Putin in February. 'I trust him on this subject.' But to Trump's surprise, Putin wasn't satisfied with his proposal. The Russian leader continued bombing Ukrainian cities even after Trump publicly implored him to halt via social media ('Vladimir, STOP!'). Critics charged that Putin was playing Trump for a fool. The president bristled: "Nobody's playing me." But as early as April, he admitted to doubts about Putin's good faith. 'It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along," he said. 'I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done, and I always hang up and say, 'Well, that was a nice phone call,' and then missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city,' Trump complained last week. 'After that happens three or four times, you say the talk doesn't mean anything." The president also came under pressure from Republican hawks in Congress who warned privately that if Ukraine collapsed, Trump would be blamed the way his predecessor, President Biden, was blamed for the fall of Afghanistan in 2022. So last week, Trump changed course and announced that he will resume supplying U.S.-made missiles to Ukraine — but by selling them to European countries instead of giving them to Kyiv as Biden had. Trump also gave Putin 50 days to accept a ceasefire and threatened to impose 'secondary tariffs' on countries that buy oil from Russia if he does not comply. He said he still hopes Putin will come around. 'I'm not done with him, but I'm disappointed in him,' he said in a BBC interview. It still isn't clear how many missiles Ukraine will get and whether they will include long-range weapons that can strike targets deep inside Russia. A White House official said those details are still being worked out. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sounded unimpressed by the U.S. actions. 'I have no doubt that we will cope,' he said. Foreign policy experts warned that the secondary tariffs Trump proposed could prove impractical. Russia's two biggest oil customers are China and India; Trump is trying to negotiate major trade agreements with both. Meanwhile, Trump has dispatched Witkoff back to the Middle East to try to arrange a ceasefire in Gaza and reopen nuclear talks with Iran — the goals he began with six months ago. Despite his mercurial style, Trump's approach to all these foreign crises reflects basic premises that have remained constant for a decade, foreign policy experts said. 'There is a Trump Doctrine, and it has three basic principles,' Schake said. 'Alliances are a burden. Trade exports American jobs. Immigrants steal American jobs.' Robert Kagan, a former Republican aide now at the Brookings Institution, added one more guiding principle: 'He favors autocrats over democrats.' Trump has a soft spot for foreign strongmen like Putin and China's Xi Jinping, and has abandoned the long-standing U.S. policy of fostering democracy abroad, Kagan noted. Read more: Trump threatens Russia with tariffs and boosts U.S. weapons for Ukraine The problem, Schake said, is that those principles 'impede Trump's ability to get things done around the world, and he doesn't seem to realize it. 'The international order we built after World War II made American power stronger and more effective,' she said. 'Trump and his administration seem bent on presiding over the destruction of that international order.' Moreover, Kagan argued, Trump's frenetic imposition of punitive tariffs on other countries comes with serious costs. 'Tariffs are a form of economic warfare,' he said. 'Trump is creating enemies for the United States all over the world. ... I don't think you can have a successful foreign policy if everyone in the world mistrusts you.' Not surprisingly, Trump and his aides don't agree. 'It cannot be overstated how successful the first six months of this administration have been,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week. 'With President Trump as commander in chief, the world is a much safer place.' That claim will take years to test. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trade top of mind as Canada's premiers are set to hold three-day meeting in Ontario
TORONTO — Tariffs and trade are top of the agenda as the country's premiers arrive in Ontario's cottage country for a three-day meeting that comes at a pivotal time for both Canada-U.S. and domestic relations. The premiers' summer gathering in Muskoka will also feature a Tuesday meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, as trade talks with the United States are expected to intensify. Most of what the premiers are likely to discuss stems from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs: trade negotiations, the direct impact on industries such as steel and aluminum, the increased pushes to remove interprovincial trade barriers and speed up major infrastructure and natural resource projects to counteract the effects of tariffs, as well as Indigenous communities' concerns about them. Day 1 of the premiers' meeting involves discussions with Indigenous leaders including the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council and the Native Women's Association of Canada. Carney himself is fresh off a meeting with hundreds of First Nations chiefs, many of whom have expressed concerns about their rights being sidelined as the prime minister looks to accelerate projects in the "national interest." Some of the top priorities premiers are pushing include pipelines and mining in Ontario's Ring of Fire region, and chiefs have said that must not happen by governments skirting their duty to consult. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has served for the past year as head of the Council of the Federation, is host of the meeting and said in a statement that protecting national interests will be top of mind. 'This meeting will be an opportunity to work together on how to respond to President Trump's latest threat and how we can unleash the full potential of Canada's economy," Ford wrote. Trump and Carney agreed in June at the G7 summit to try and reach a trade deal by July 21 but Trump recently moved that deadline to Aug. 1, while telling Carney he intends to impose 35 per cent across-the-board tariffs on Canada that same day. Carney has said Canada is trying to get an agreement on softwood lumber exports included in the negotiations with the United States. British Columbia Premier David Eby said he intends to raise the issue and others of particular importance to B.C. at the meeting. "(We want to) get access to the same level of attention, for example, on the softwood lumber as Ontario gets on the auto parts sector, (and) that we get the same amount of attention on capital projects as Alberta is currently getting in relation to their proposals," Eby said last week in Victoria. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been making a big push for new pipelines, but said during a press conference Friday that her focus would also be on premiers working together to address the tariff threat, including interprovincial trade. "I was really pleased to sign (a memorandum of understanding) with Doug Ford during the time he was here in during Stampede, and other provinces are working on those same kind of collaborative agreements," she said. "We need to do more to trade with each other, and I hope that that's the spirit of the discussion." Smith and Ford signed an MOU earlier this month to study new pipelines and rail lines between provinces, and both premiers also talked about wanting Carney to repeal a number of energy regulations like net-zero targets, the West Coast tanker ban and a proposed emissions cap. Ford has also taken a lead role on increasing interprovincial trade, signing MOUs with several provinces and enacting a law to remove all of Ontario's exceptions to free trade between the provinces and territories. Nova Scotia's Tim Houston is another premier banging the drum of interprovincial trade, saying the trade war is forcing action on it. "We're seeing the benefit of working together to respond to economic threats from the U.S. by breaking down internal trade barriers and opportunities to expand in other international markets," he wrote in a statement. Ford has said the premiers will also talk about emergency management, energy security, sovereignty and national security, health, and public safety. The premiers have also been pushing the federal government to reform bail laws and Carney said last week that legislation will be introduced in the fall and he expects to discuss the issue with the premiers on Tuesday. The premiers' summer meeting also signals a changing of the guard, with the role of chair of Council of the Federation moving between provinces annually. But after Ford is no longer chair, he's not expected to take too much of a back seat on all of the aforementioned issues. He is still premier of the most populous province, has built a strong relationship with Carney, often singing the prime minister's praises, and has done frequent American TV interviews making the case for increased trade over tariffs. Those network appearances, in part, earned him a nickname of "Captain Canada" — a persona he used to massive political benefit. Ford made the fight against tariffs and Trump the central part of his re-election campaign and voters returned him to government with a third consecutive majority. — With files from Wolfgang Depner in Victoria, Keith Doucette in Halifax and Lisa Johnson in Edmonton This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2025. Allison Jones, The Canadian Press 擷取數據時發生錯誤 登入存取你的投資組合 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
OPEC Is Playing The Long Game
'There is no peak in oil demand on the horizon,' the head of OPEC, Haitham al Ghais, said last month in Canada. Demand will continue to increase as global population grows, he added. And OPEC will be there to respond with what supply is necessary. OPEC is now playing the long game. Fast-forward a month and Reuters is reporting on 'signs of strong demand more than offset the impact of a higher-than-expected OPEC+ output hike for August', not to mention now chronic worry about Trump's tariffs. In fact, after OPEC+ announced the bigger than expected supply boost, prices rose, not least because not everyone boosting supply was boosting it fast enough. When OPEC+ first said they were going to start unwinding their production cuts, agreed back in 2022, reactions were varied. Some argued it was all about trying to kill U.S. shale again. Others said the Saudis, the biggest cutter, simply had no other choice any longer after the cuts failed to produce significantly higher prices. Yet others claimed OPEC in general and Saudi Arabia specifically are trying to please Trump—by hurting some of his biggest donors. OPEC itself has not endorsed any of these versions of events. The fact remains that OPEC is reversing the cuts, boosting oil supply—but prices are not tanking as so many prominent energy analysts said they would, and are still saying they would, later this year. Of course, this is because of factors unrelated to OPEC, namely geopolitical developments such as U.S.-Chinese trade talks and Canadian wildfires, as well as yet more EU sanctions against Russia. But OPEC certainly wouldn't mind these factors supporting prices, if not more U.S. rig additions. OPEC is playing for market share. This is one of the most popular explanations for the group's latest moves among analysts. After curbing production for a couple of years and surrendering market share in the process, now some of the world's biggest producers want this market share back. This is going to take a while. Bank of America's head of commodities research, Francisco Blanch called it a 'long and shallow' price war. 'It's not a price war that is going to be short and steep; rather it's going to be a price war that is long and shallow,' Blanch told Bloomberg a month ago. He went on to say the target, especially for the Saudis, is U.S. shale, which has become more resilient in recent years but is still vulnerable to lower oil prices because of its higher costs. There is also another aspect to the change in OPEC approach, as detailed by Kpler's Amena Bakr. It's about group cohesion, Bakr wrote in an analysis for The National. With so much non-compliance with the cuts, those that were compliant needed to have their concerns addressed, too. 'To restore a sense of fairness, an orderly plan to return the barrels gradually was needed to avoid a free-for-all situation that would drown the market in supply,' Bakr explained. OPEC doesn't even need to try very hard this time, because geopolitics is working in its favor. Last month, prices climbed immediately on the suggestion that the U.S.-Iran talks could escalate into missile action, after the Iranian defense minister threatened strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East should the two fail to reach a deal on Iran's nuclear program. U.S. Congress work on fresh sanctions against Russia, targeting specifically its energy industry also served as a driver for higher prices, undeterred by EU plans to try and stop importing even petroleum products made with Russian crude, possibly in light of the EU's track record of success with the anti-Russian sanctions. Yet there is another factor helping OPEC stay on top: non-OPEC supply. The Financial Times reported in mid-June that the international supermajors have not made many new discoveries lately. Since 2020, new non-shale discoveries have averaged 2.5 billion barrels a year, the FT noted, citing a Goldman Sachs report. This is just 25% of the average annual in new discoveries for the three years prior to 2020. In other words, all the talk about non-OPEC swamping OPEC and taking the upper hand on international oil markets may have been a little premature—as may be the case of IEA demand projections. The IEA has been notoriously bearish on oil demand, repeatedly citing rising EV sales, even though these sales in the U.S. are set for a serious decline. In Europe, EV sales are on the rise thanks to the return of subsidies but how long these are going to last is anyone's guess. China is always the country everyone points to when it comes to EVs, and yet China's oil demand is still growing—although peak talk is intensifying there as well, including from its own state oil majors. In this situation, OPEC essentially does not need to do anything but sit and wait. Price-sensitive U.S. shale will slow down, lack of new discoveries will crimp the growth potential of the supermajors, and prices will rise, because peak demand does not mean a sharp drop afterwards. In fact, even if we have reached peak oil demand, the most likely next stage in demand evolution is a plateau at a level that would need to be maintained. OPEC would no doubt be happy to help do that. By Irina Slav for More Top Reads From this article on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
