Riverhurst businesses hurting with ferry still not running

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Highways announced on Wednesday the Riverhurst ferry is still not operational and it’s not clear when it will reopen on Lake Diefenbaker.

The ferry is an essential route for people in that community trying to get from one side of Highway 42 to the other.

In Feb. 2024, the Ministry of Highways put out a tender to find a new main and backup engine for the ferry. The ministry says the new engines won’t be delivered until at least the fall, which is their initial delivery date.

“Both the ferry’s primary engine and its backup engine have had unforeseen issues after the vessel was recently tested on the water,” the statement read. “Ministry officials are working diligently to have an engine repaired so the ferry can be put back into service for the 2024 season.”

The statement said there is no firm timeline on when the vessel will be up and running.

The current engines used on the vessel were manufactured in the early 1980s and have become more difficult to service and maintain according to the province.

Business owners in Riverhurst

The announcement by the government on Wednesday means bad news for business owners in Riverhurst.

In the summer, the community serves as a tourist town with many people from across Saskatchewan flocking there to golf and camp.

“I would say right now we’re down probably 25 per cent on the typical golfers that come around,” said the Superintendent of Sage View Golf Course, Kyle Penner. The course is located right next to the community. “We have probably 20 members that live 20 minutes away, but (now) they have to drive an hour and a half just to golf.”

Penner and his golf course aren’t the only ones suffering, he says so too are the hotels and bars in the area.

“I haven’t seen the regional park this dead in years. I hardly see any campers coming in and out – and usually, by this time we’re pretty consistently seeing RVs coming down the hills and it being full down there,” he explained. “You move up to the Mainstay (Inn) and there’s hardly anyone staying there it seems like. Even up in Riverhurst there’s a bar that’s trying to make a living and there it seems like everything is just slow.”

Penner said in the winter the community typically has a population that hovers around 500 people, but mentioned in the summer it can grow to 5,000 people with so many camping and visiting the area.

“We’re nowhere close to that right now,” he added.

Lars Bjorgan is the Reeve for the RM of Canaan which is located east of Lake Diefenbaker. He said the possibility of going a year without the ferry running is not good.

“If it’s going to be a year it’s going to be very concerning,” he said. “That’s certainly going to impact a lot of people. There’s the recreational and tourism side of things and many people have cabins and take their trailers over there. On the business side of things – it affects agriculture because there are individuals who have farmland on both sides of the lake and they rely on the ferry for that kind of access.”

Because of the lack of a ferry, Bjorgan said it takes some people from his community two hours to get around the lake as opposed to something that could take some under 30 minutes.

Editor’s note: This story has been changed to clarify that it’s unclear when the ferry will reopen.