Rivière-du-Loup will lose the crossing to Cacouna

The rumors that had been persistent for some time came true on Thursday noon. The Lower Laurentian home port of the ferry service which has linked Rivière-du-Loup and Saint-Siméon for more than a century will move to Cacouna starting in 2028, a much more economical option, according to the government.

It was the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, along with the Member of Parliament for Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata, Amélie Dionne, and the CEO of the Société des traversiers du Québec, Greta Bédard, who communicated this news in front of elected officials and business people in the region.

Ms. Guilbault cited the enormous constraints at the Rivière-du-Loup wharf to justify its decision, such as the siltation and the dredging operations necessary to contain it. But it was above all the bill to maintain service at the current home port – $665 million – which dissuaded the government.

It was a difficult, heartbreaking case.

Temporary arrangements from 2028

The STQ plans to invest $170.5 million to build new facilities at the port of Gros-Cacouna. Temporary infrastructure will allow it to be put into service in June 2028, after the end of the contract linking the state-owned company to the Clarke company, which provides the ferry service from Rivière-du-Loup.

The new quay will include, from 2031, a loading and unloading ramp, a waiting area and a river station, all of which will see the light of day to the east of the port of Gros-Cacouna. This location was chosen to avoid disturbing the already existing industrial port activity and to be able to shelter the ferry from bad weather.

Furthermore, the state company does not commit to putting a link into service 12 months a year, contrary to what Minister Guilbault puts forward in the announcement press release, which for its part promises a operational service all year round. The STQ limits itself to saying that a move to Cacouna would improve the service. However, the crossing will take 20 minutes longer.

This announcement marks the conclusion of more than four years of study. The Ferry Corporation looked at three potential sites for ferry service; one at the port of Rivière-du-Loup – which would have required an extension of the quay – and two others at the port of Gros-Cacouna.

After briefly ruling it out as part of its studies, the state company also revealed that it is the Saaremaa I which will provide the connection between Cacouna and Saint-Siméon, a ferry which has a higher capacity to that of the Trans Saint-Laurent, currently at end of life.

Consequently, the crossing between Matane and the North Shore will be deprived of its relief vessel, but the STQ predicts that the Félix-Antoine Savard, currently in the Sorel-Tracy region, will assume this role from 2028.

Maintaining service in Rivière-du-Loup would have cost the Quebec state $665 million, as - revealed last year. Extended over 25 years, the total investment would amount to $950 million to keep the current home port, compared to $474.5 million for Cacouna, calculates the Société des ferries.

For several years, the STQ does not hide that a move of the service to the neighboring municipality would be more advantageous to it, among other things because of the less intensive dredging work which is necessary there to maintain a safe water depth for navigation. These one-off operations are increasingly costly, according to the state-owned company.

The appeal of interest inconclusive

On the other hand, the submissions submitted to the call for interest by shipowners to provide service to Rivière-du-Loup did not prove conclusive in the eyes of the independent experts who analyzed the offers.

The ferries offered are either too long or simply inadequate for the site, and the solutions proposed to dredge the port of Rivière-du-Loup have raised doubts as to their feasibility from an operational and financial point of viewaccording to the conclusions of the report of independent experts, provided by the STQ.

The document also judges that the proposals could not, in the long term, reduce operating costs.

A committee to promote Pointe-de-Rivière-du-Loup

In return, the government undertakes to set up a valorization committee to revitalize the Pointe-de-Rivière-du-Loup sector, which will no longer see a ferry docking from 2028. The mandate of this committee will be to modernize existing infrastructure and promote regional economic development.

MP Amélie Dionne swore that funding would be allocated to this working group, without providing figures. I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, I want it to be the community that offers us solutions or projectsexplains the elected official.