{"id":712202,"date":"2026-06-03T12:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/712202\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:29:15","slug":"premier-stresses-importance-of-marine-atlantic-to-minister-liberals-urging-province-to-take-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/712202\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier Stresses Importance of Marine Atlantic to Minister; Liberals Urging Province to Take Action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/premier-tony-wakeham-house-of-assembly-march-2-2026.jpg\" class=\"header-image\" alt=\"Premier Stresses Importance of Marine Atlantic to Minister; Liberals Urging Province to Take Action\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Premier Tony Wakeham (VOCM News)<\/p>\n<p>Premier Tony Wakeham says Marine Atlantic\u2019s critical importance to Newfoundland and Labrador is unquestionable and he\u2019s discussed potential strike action affecting the service with federal finance minister Fran\u00e7ois-Phillippe Champagne.<\/p>\n<p>Unifor is disputing Marine Atlantic\u2019s contention that the ferry service is an essential service and there is a possibility that service could be reduced dramatically should the two bargaining units involved take strike action, or are locked out.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s led to serious questions about not only the impact on the province as a whole, but on the tourism industry which relies heavily on road traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition tourism critic Bettina Ford raised the matter during Question Period yesterday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/marine-atlantic-alasuinu-2025-port-aux-basques.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-275552\" class=\"size-full wp-image-275552\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/marine-atlantic-alasuinu-2025-port-aux-basques.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-275552\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Marine Atlantic)<\/p>\n<p>Ford wanted to know if there was a \u201cback up plan\u201d for operators if visitors cancelled their vacation plans.<\/p>\n<p>Premier Tony Wakeham says Marine Atlantic is a \u201chuge issue\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s important that that highway be maintained.\u201d He\u2019s hopeful that the union and employer are able to get the dispute resolved.<\/p>\n<p>Liberal Leader John Hogan says government needs to do whatever it can to make sure that service disruptions on the Gulf ferry run are avoided.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s urging Premier Tony Wakeham and Tourism Minister Andrea Barbour to make sure the two sides are at the table.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want the parties to get together as soon as they can and work through and make sure they get a good deal. Any risk of a strike or any potential strike will be devastating for the tourism operators.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ndp-leader-jim-dinn-may-5-2026.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-298342\" class=\"size-full wp-image-298342\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ndp-leader-jim-dinn-may-5-2026.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-298342\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NDP Leader Jim Dinn (VOCM News)<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the NDP says unionized workers have the right to strike if they so choose.<\/p>\n<p>Party Leader Jim Dinn says government should not worry about having having the service designated as \u201cessential,\u201d and instead make sure the two sides are working to reach a fair collective agreement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNegotiate fairly with the people, with the workers. Don\u2019t rely on your ability that they may not have the right to strike or that you can deem it an essential service. But come up with a compensation package that\u2019s going to meet the needs of the workers,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it\u2019s an essential service and an important service, then obviously the workers who perform that service are important and deserve to be treated that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Premier Tony Wakeham (VOCM News) Premier Tony Wakeham says Marine Atlantic\u2019s critical importance to Newfoundland and Labrador&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-712202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}