{"id":714512,"date":"2026-06-04T12:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714512\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T12:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:43:12","slug":"former-minister-believes-marine-atlantics-essential-designation-will-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714512\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Minister Believes Marine Atlantic\u2019s Essential Designation Will Remain"},"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\/gerry-byrne.jpg\" class=\"header-image\" alt=\"Former Minister Believes Marine Atlantic's Essential Designation Will Remain\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Minister Gerry Byrne (VOCM News\/file)<\/p>\n<p>Virtually every aspect of Newfoundland and Labrador stands to be affected if the transportation lifeline between it and the mainland is frayed or cut in the form of a strike by workers on the gulf ferries. However, a former politician who is probably more familiar with the inner workings of Marine Atlantic than most does not think an application to strip it of \u201cessential service\u201d status will float.<\/p>\n<p>The ferry system was deemed essential by the Canada Industrial Relations Board in 2004, and confirmed four years later after a challenge of that designation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/marine-atlantic-blue-puttees-1.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-116220 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/marine-atlantic-blue-puttees-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Unifor is disputing Marine Atlantic\u2019s contention that the ferry service is essential 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>Gerry Byrne, a former Liberal cabinet minister at both the federal and provincial levels, says the workers have a right to do what they\u2019re doing but he\u2019s confident that the \u201cessential\u201d designation will stick.<\/p>\n<p>He notes that the designation was made long before the world knew about COVID or there were concerns about food security and supply chains.<\/p>\n<p>Wakeham Pens Letter to Federal Government<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779968348_224_nl-newfoundland-and-labrador-premier-tony-wakeham-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-297417\" class=\"size-full wp-image-297417\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779968348_224_nl-newfoundland-and-labrador-premier-tony-wakeham-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-297417\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Premier Tony Wakeham (VOCM News)<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, premier Tony Wakeham has written the federal transportation minister asking them to \u201ctake all necessary steps\u201d to ensure Marine Atlantic continues to be recognized as an essential service.<\/p>\n<p>Wakeham wrote the letter to express \u201curgent and significant concern\u201d regarding the application before the Industrial Relations Board.<\/p>\n<p>Government describes Marine Atlantic as a \u201ccritical supply chain and transportation link\u201d for the province, and maintaining its reliability is a \u201cmatter of public necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The provincial government\u2019s position is that Marine Atlantic\u2019s designation as an essential service must be maintained.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Minister Gerry Byrne (VOCM News\/file) Virtually every aspect of Newfoundland and Labrador stands to be affected if&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-714512","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\/714512","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=714512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}