More than two years have passed since the MV Miner ran aground off Cape Breton’s Scatarie Island and Nova Scotia’s new Liberal government is promising to get rid of the shipwreck.
“Basically, they said the funding is in place, it was just a matter of getting the logistics down,” says fisherman Kevin Spencer, who attended a meeting with the transportation minister last week.
The MV Miner became stranded in September 2011 off the coast of Scatarie Island after a line snapped in rough seas while it was being towed to a scrapyard in Turkey.
A request for proposals to remove the MV Miner is scheduled to go out within two weeks but community members are cautiously optimistic, saying they have heard such promises before.
The previous NDP government hired a company to salvage the ship but the plan fell through. The community group lobbying for the ship’s removal say they feel the Liberals’ plan is more secure.
“The request for proposals is in the works. It’s going to be put out soon, so there is a bit more of a stable hope, I guess you could say,” says Amanda McDougall of the Main-a-Dieu Community Development Association.
Government says, if all goes as planned, they hope the Miner will be removed by the end of May. However, some in the fishing community say the government’s timeline is too ambitious.
It’s expected to take a least a month for a successful bidder to be chosen and it could take a while for the thick ice clogging Main-a-Dieu Harbour to melt.
“When you get temperatures like it is now, you get about an inch a day,” says fisherman Ken Wadden. “You take anywhere that’s in the harbour, you’re gaining an inch.”
People in the community say they don’t mind waiting a bit longer, if it means getting the job done right.
“It’s been almost three years now we’ve been waiting on this, so I guess we’re just used to being patient,” says McDougall.
The Liberals are still hoping to secure federal funding to pay for the ship’s removal, but say the salvage will go ahead no matter what.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald
