N.B., N.S. waiting for ferry funding details

The Nova Scotia and New Brunswick governments are cautiously welcoming the federal funding to help the aging Digby Ferry service but areseeking additional details from Ottawa.

The federal government announced the increasing funding to maintain three ferry services in the Maritimes on Monday.

The deal will help keep the Digby Ferry, which connects southwestern Nova Scotia and to southern New Brunswick, running.

That pledge for new cash has been met with some criticism that three years of funding isn't enough and it doesn't allow for long-term planning.

Paul Robichaud, New Brunswick's economic development minister, said the three-year funding extension is helpful.

But Robichaud said he's hopeful the New Brunswick government will not have to pay more for the service than in previous years.

"We will need to know exactly what is the intention of the province of Nova Scotia. What is the real contribution that we are [being] asking for?" Robichaud told reporters.

"If it is something similar to what we have been participating before we will be there as a partner. But if it is over $1 million then we will have to have some serious discussion."

The New Brunswick government is undergoing a fiscal austerity push and has asked government departments to cut their budgets by one per cent this year and to prepare for a two-per-cent cut next year.

'Better than having no deal'

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter also told reporters the Nova Scotia government is eager to see the fine print from the federal offer.

"Having some deal is better than having no deal. We worry very much about those services," Dexter said.

"There are commercial interests which depend on them. So I'll look forward to seeing the details of the announcement whenever that's forthcoming."

Atlantic Canada's mayors passed a motion in November that called for the federal, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick governments to bring in long-term funding to support the Digby Ferry.

Bay Ferries Ltd. has required short-term injections of government money to keep the Digby Ferry service alive in recent years.

The various governments have poured $23 million to keep the ferry running in the last four years.

The federal government said its $50-million subsidy for the ferries will bring a return of at least $166 million in economic, social, business and employment benefits in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Quebec.

The federal money will also help the ferry services from Wood Islands, P.E.I., to Caribou, N.S. and Souris, P.E.I., to les-de-la-Madeleine, Que.

Those ferry funds are in addition to the $32 million already in the current federal budget. The funding runs to March 31, 2014.