While downtown at the Farmers' Market at Pioneer Plaza on Friday I snapped this picture of our much loved inner harbour.
What was obvious was the lack of boats currently in the harbour, either local pleasure, working boats or visitors from away. I realize we are not at the height of the boating season, but the amount of empty spaces does raise a few questions.
For one, is the blocked off dock really all that expensive to re-open or was it closed to demonstrate how badly we needed a private investor to keep our docks ship-shape.
Another question is the fact the crane used to load and unload commercial boats is currently out of service, which I presume renders much of the inner harbour useless for commercial operators. Call me a skeptic but do you suppose the NPA is being a little petty by not making this facility available to those that opposed the plan to lease the harbour to a private company?
Is it possible that the whole inner harbour debacle with the uncertainty as to what moorage rates would be etc. resulted in many boat owners, both commercial and pleasure, to simply find moorage someplace else?
Parts of it are just plain dangerous. Wooden planks on some of the walkway are soft and feel like they could give way at any moment.
ReplyDeleteGive me a break, Mike.
ReplyDeleteMr Dumas spent all his money building the cruise ship terminal instead of keeping in good repair what assets the Nanaimo Harbour Commission is responsible for.
ReplyDeleteWhat a waste of money. Were the thinking, if you build it, they will come? There is nothing in Nanaimo to draw cruise ship passengers. There are no quaint shops, tourist traps, etc. When the cruise ships get the comment cards from their passengers and their negative comments about their stop over in Nanaimo, they quite coming.
Dumas as well as our Mayor should know this. Now, there is no money to repair the docks in the small boat harbour, no cruise ship visits and no one being held accountable.