Now that the Port of Cleveland and its Canadian partner, Central Elgin, have a couple of ferry proposals in hand and are “developing an evaluation process and reviewing the proposals and the business cases they make”, maybe it’s time to inform that evaluation process with some public discussion of what this project is supposed to accomplish. On this side of the lake, I mean.
The 13,000 constituents of Central Elgin, the Ontario municipality that includes Port Stanley and now owns the harbor there, have had many opportunities — including a municipal election last year — to define the principles now being followed by its municipal officials: Port Stanley harbor under municipal ownership is for tourism and small fishing, not shipping. Paying for regular dredging costs too much. So passengers, especially tourists, are good. Shallow-draft vessels are good. Trucks are unacceptable. These are the non-negotiable conditions that Central Elgin baked into its agreement with Cleveland and their joint Request for Expressions of Interest from prospective ferry operators.
