Letter to the Editor

Editor,

Several years ago, one of the Mohawk district chiefs expressed interest in a ferry service operating between Snye and the southeastern side of Cornwall Island. I advised the then district chief that a First Nations band in British Columbia had a kinetic ferry, a ferry powered by river current, operating across narrow section of the Fraser River and suggested that the same concept might be possible in the Mohawk Akwesasne region.

The then district chief expressed concern about schedule conflicts with ships that sail along the St Lawrence Seaway. There was no further discussion about a ferry service.

Several years later, some revelations occur. There is a ferry service that operates across the Seaway shipping channel at Cape Vincent NY, where Lake Ontario flows into the St Lawrence River. East of Montreal where the frequency of ship sailings is many times the frequency along the Seaway, there are ferry services that cross over the shipping lanes.

Modern telecommunications can alert the ferry operator with regard to ship sailing schedules. At Akwesasne, a ferry operator could be alerted when a westbound ship is passing through the navigation locks at Valleyfield QUE and when an eastbound ship is in the navigation locks at Massena NY. The ferry operator can readjust the ferry sailing schedule accordingly.

If the ferry is powered by river current, it could use a trailing guide cable that is suspended by floating buoys and secured on the south side of the river at an upstream location. When ships sail by, the ferry would lay-over and wait on the south side of the river. Interested Mohawk entrepreneurs may wish to evaluate business prospects involved in operating a ferry between the Ontario and Quebec areas of the reservation.

Harry Valentine

Cornwall ON