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Ferry vessel

Annual Inspection

In April 2023, Lloyd’s conducted their scheduled annual inspection on our current vessel, Frontenac II. Lloyd’s is a recognized organization (RO) with an authorization agreement with Transport Canada to inspect and certify vessels. There were some items to correct identified by Lloyd’s in their Final Attendance Report (FAR). Since then, Loyalist Township has been working with the Ministry of Transportation, Ontario (MTO) to correct those items and to date, most of them have been resolved.

The remaining items to correct are required to be completed by November 30, 2023, pending an extension from Transport Canada. One of the remaining items is to address the replacement of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) bottles (part of the fire suppression system) which will require 12 to 18 hours of shutdown. MTO is planning two separate shutdowns on Monday, November 27, 2023, to complete this work. The first shutdown is planned to begin at 9:30 a.m. and is expected to last until 11:30 a.m. The second shutdown will start at 7:30 p.m. on Monday evening and the ferry will remain out of service until Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. If additional work is required after these two shutdowns, another shutdown will be scheduled by MTO to start on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. Service disruption notifications and reminders will be sent via the Ferry Services Notifications system. If you haven’t registered to receive notifications, please register at www.loyalist.ca/FerryNotifications. 

Dry Dock Survey Extension

Frontenac II was originally scheduled to leave for a dry dock survey in Q2 2023 however MTO applied for an extension and received conditional approval from Transport Canada in September 2023. Transport Canada required MTO to perform an underwater hull inspection and issued a deadline of November 10 to complete the inspection. The shutdown on November 2, 2023, which took place on short notice to residents and visitors, was required to complete this specific inspection as it was the only date available before the November 10, 2023, deadline for the underwater inspection company to perform their inspection. After the inspection, we were informed that a minor issue was discovered and corrected on the spot by the divers. Once Transport Canada is satisfied with the inspection report, they will officially approve the extension.

Scheduled Thruster Maintenance

In late September, MTO informed Loyalist Township about their decision to replace one of the thrusters on Frontenac II. This maintenance activity was first scheduled on October 27, 2023, but was cancelled due to weather conditions. It was rescheduled for November 7, 2023, and had to be cancelled again due to weather conditions. We fully understand that these frequent cancellations are frustrating and significantly impact your personal and professional appointments however it was critical to complete this safety-related activity to ensure that we maintain the highest level of safety standards for our passengers and crew. This work successfully took place on November 15, 2023.

Additionally, we want to assure you that all notifications by MTO to perform work on the vessel which could result in a disruption of our ferry service are carefully reviewed by staff to ensure:

  •  notice is provided to the residents and travelling public; staff, including operations staff, work with MTO and, where possible, a minimum of 48 hours notice is provided for any non-emergency shutdowns
  • where possible, the maintenance activity is scheduled during non-peak hours to minimize the impact of disruption; and
  • where possible multiple maintenance activities are coordinated at the same time to reduce the total number of required shutdowns.

We thank you for your continued cooperation and patience.