Ferry workers, island officials, and opposition politicians have been warning the Ontario government for years that the Wolfe Island ferry service was becoming increasingly vulnerable. On Saturday, Jun. 27, 2026, a single sick call appeared to prove just how fragile the system had become.
The province’s only transportation link to or from Wolfe Island was shut down for nearly six hours during one of the busiest weekends of the summer. The interruption stranded hundreds of residents, commuters, cottagers, and tourists, but it also raises a larger question: how could one person’s absence bring an essential public service to such a devastating halt?
Over the past week, Kingstonist spoke with union representatives, Frontenac Islands Mayor Judy Greenwood-Speers, Kingston and the Islands Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Ted Hsu, and the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to answer that question.
While each offered different perspectives, it became clear that last Saturday’s Wolfe Island ferry service shutdown was the predictable result of longstanding staffing concerns repeatedly raised by ferry workers, local officials, and opposition politicians — with many key questions from the Ministry of Transportation remaining unanswered.
Warnings have gone on for years
Within hours of last Saturday’s shutdown, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/SEFPO) Local 428, which represents workers on the Wolfe Island, Amherst Island, and Glenora ferry services, described the disruption as anything but unexpected.
“One of our workers is sick today. Normally, an employer would call in a replacement for an overtime shift; today, no replacement is available,” the union said in a statement released on the afternoon of Saturday, Jun, 27, 2026.
“It is unavoidable that people sometimes get sick. What was completely avoidable was an operational shutdown after one worker gets sick.”
In a subsequent interview with Kingstonist, the union said the problem extends well beyond a single day’s staffing shortage.
According to Local 428, the ministry has failed for years to train enough entry-level employees to move into licensed positions such as captain, mate, engineer, and oiler, while also failing to offer compensation competitive enough to attract experienced mariners from elsewhere.
Those two issues, the union argues, have left the operation increasingly dependent on contract workers, whom the MTO pays at rates twice those of a stable, permanent workforce.
“This understaffing is the result of two distinct MTO failures: Failure to pursue training at the tempo needed to move entry-level workers up to these keystone skilled positions… and failure to pay a wage that can attract hires from the outside,” Local 428 Vice President Oren Nimelman said in a written response to Kingstonist inquiries.
The union said it has been raising those concerns long before this recent shutdown: “These shortages hit the news in 2022, but our information campaign that year was the culmination of years where our union told the MTO that these issues are both predictable and preventable.”
“This is the only road off the island”
For Mayor Greenwood-Speers, Saturday’s shutdown was another reminder that the ferry is far more than a transportation service.
“This is the only road off the island,” she said.
When the ferry stops, she said, nearly every aspect of Wolfe Island life is affected. Medical appointments are interrupted. Businesses lose customers. Tourists cancel plans. Emergency planning becomes nearly impossible.
She also recalled previous service interruptions that left parents struggling to reach children attending school in Kingston. And the latest shutdown, coming just days before Canada Day celebrations and the annual Wolfe Island Round Up, fell on one of the island’s busiest weekends.
The mayor shared that she took her concerns directly to Premier Doug Ford on Saturday as the shutdown unfolded, by texting him.
“I actually sent pictures of our empty waterfront patios to the premier on Saturday to show him the financial impact of having no ferry,” she said.
And this wasn’t the first time she’s notified Ford directly about the issue. During the prolonged Christmas 2025 ferry disruptions, Greenwood-Spears texted the premier, who later called her back.
“I explained to him that it had taken, at that point, over two hours to get a patient off the island,” said the mayor. “I said, ‘This is not acceptable. This is ongoing… There’s no backup plan for this, and it’s Christmas time…'”
Greenwood-Speers said Ford tried to redirect her toward Steve Clark, Conservative MPP for Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, but in her words, “I said, ‘No, this is on your desk. If any of my residents die, I will be on every newscast in Toronto and Ottawa, making sure everybody knows that this has been an ongoing risk, and this is what has happened.'”
She recalled even considering the necessity of driving across the ice to Kingston.
“I’m of the age that we used to drive the ice, right? [But] some of my friends drowned, so we collectively stopped,” Greenwood-Speers said.
It’s something that came up in the mayor’s conservation with Ford, she said.
“Honest to God, if you’re going to isolate us,” Greenwood-Speers reportedly told the premier, “this is not acceptable… We will take risks into our own hands.”
The anecdote illustrates the desperation of such isolation in times of need.
Greenwood-Speers believes the province has failed to recognize the ferry as the island’s essential transportation lifeline and, as a result, has not invested sufficiently in the staffing, training, and planning needed to keep it operating reliably.
“They have declined any offer of doing a job fair down here. They declined setting up training courses with St. Lawrence College,” she said.
As a certified human resources professional, the mayor views the issue through a management lens: “Staffing goes back to the owner of a business.”
She also expressed frustration that provincial officials have not engaged more directly: “The ministry has never come down, despite being invited repeatedly to come and work with us.”
With Round Up celebrations happening from Thursday, Jul. 2 to Sunday, Jul. 5, 2026, she said businesses are bracing for another major hit if the service remains unreliable.
Great Lakes-wide labour shortage
Kingston and the Islands MPP Ted Hsu agreed that staffing has become increasingly unreliable and said the issue extends beyond Wolfe Island.
He described a Great Lakes-wide shortage of licensed mariners, with commercial shipping companies often offering substantially higher wages than ferry operators.
Those jobs require employees to spend weeks away from home, he noted, but the much higher salaries make recruitment increasingly competitive.
Hsu’s first major legislative action on the Wolfe Island ferry came in the fall of 2022, after repeated staffing-related disruptions and growing public concern. On October 25, 2022, Hsu tabled two written questions to the Minister of Transportation seeking detailed information about the Ministry’s use of agency workers on the Wolfe Island ferry.
The government responded on February 22, 2023. The figures showed that between June 26 and September 30, 2022, agency workers logged 2,786 hours at a total cost of $241,337.03, including $163,809.45 in wages; $76,741.97 for per diem, transportation, and accommodation; and $785.61 in administration fees.
Based on those figures, contract workers cost the province about $86.62 per hour — more than double the hourly wage of many permanent ferry employees. Hsu maintained that the province would be better served by investing in recruiting and retaining permanent licensed marine workers rather than repeatedly turning to temporary contractors at that price.
Following another staffing-related ferry disruption in October 2025, Hsu challenged Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria in the Legislature, arguing that licensed crew shortages had been allowed to persist for years.
The ministry has consistently failed to invest adequately in recruiting and training qualified marine personnel, while continuing to rely on costly agency workers to fill gaps, Hsu said, and a licensed crew with built-in redundancy is essential to restoring reliable ferry service for Wolfe Island residents.
The MPP continued to press the government on Wolfe Island issues. In May, he asked the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to request a special audit by the auditor general into years-long delays in completing the Kingston dock for the Wolfe Islander IV, arguing that unreliable ferry service has had significant economic and social consequences for island residents. The motion was defeated by government members.
Hsu said he has also repeatedly written to the auditor general seeking an investigation into the dock project and has continued to raise concerns about ferry reliability, staffing, and service disruptions, including questioning the government’s reliance on agency workers and advocating for improved recruitment and training.
Questions the ministry did not answer
On Monday, Jun. 29, 2026, Kingstonist asked the Ministry of Transportation a series of detailed questions to understand the circumstances that led to Saturday’s shutdown.
These questions were as follows:
- how many licensed marine positions are budgeted for the Wolfe Island ferry service,
- how many are currently filled,
- whether any positions are vacant,
- how many licensed crew members are required to operate the ferry,
- what staffing changes have been implemented since a similar staffing-related disruption in 2022,
- whether current staffing levels provide sufficient operational redundancy,
- whether the MTO’s reliance on contract personnel has changed since 2022,
- whether additional staffing-related disruptions are anticipated this summer.
The ministry did not answer those questions.
Instead, Julia Caslin, a Senior Media Relations Ddvisor for MTO, apologized for the inconvenience caused by the disruption, reconfirmed that service had resumed at approximately 2:30 p.m. Saturday, and said MTO “recognizes the vital connection the ferry provides to the community and continues to actively recruit and train staff, while taking steps to strengthen long-term service reliability and minimize disruptions for ferry users.”
Kingstonist submitted a followup request seeking answers to the outstanding questions, but the ministry did not provide additional information before publication.
Kingstonist also sought comment on Monday from neighbouring Hastings–Lennox and Addington MPP Ric Bresee, who also serves as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation, asking whether the MTO believes current staffing levels are sufficient, how it responds to the union’s allegations of chronic under-resourcing, and what steps are being taken to improve recruitment and retention of licensed ferry personnel.
Bresee also did not respond before publication.
Questions continue at Queen’s Park
Kingstonist and Hsu aren’t the only ones seeking answers to the staffing questions.
On April 1, Ontario’s Transportation Critic, NDP MPP Jennifer French, tabled two written questions asking the ministry to disclose five years of agency staffing costs associated with the Wolfe Island ferry and information about the use of repair and maintenance workers from outside Canada.
As of Thursday, the Legislative Assembly’s Written Questions List did not show final responses had been filed for either question, though other questions filed April 1 were answered by June 2.
On the morning of Friday, Jul. 3, 2026, MPP French’s Legislative Assistant, Chiemela Iheanacho, confirmed by email, “Unfortunately, our office has not yet received a response from the Ministry. Under Ontario Standing Order 101(c), the government is required to provide a formal response to a written question within 24 sessional days of it being tabled. In this case, the Ministry’s response was due on June 2, 2026, the same day the Legislature adjourned for the summer recess.”
He also noted, “I have contacted the Legislative Procedural Services Branch to confirm that the deadline was not met. Should we receive any updates or additional information, I will be sure to let you know.”
It is clear that the debate surrounding Saturday’s shutdown extends far beyond a single employee calling in sick.
For years, ferry workers have warned about staffing. Municipal leaders have warned about the impact on residents and businesses. Opposition politicians have been critical of the government’s approach in the Legislature.
But for the people who live on Wolfe Island, the issues are ultimately much simpler.
They want to know that when they call 911, help can reach them; that they can get to work, school and medical appointments; that tourists can reach them during the busiest months of the year; and that families won’t be stranded when they need to get home.
As Greenwood-Speers put it, the ferry is “the only road off the island.” Until the province treats it with the same reliability expected of any other road, those concerns are unlikely to disappear.
By Michelle Dorey Forestell, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Jul 03, 2026 at 15:27
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