Jeremy Morse
Quyon April 1, 2022
On April 1, the Quyon Ferry made its first departure of the season. Although the 10-minute trip across the Ottawa River may not have been history’s grandest voyage, its passengers were enthralled nonetheless.
“It’s paradise,” said Yves Lafond, a truck driver from Bristol. Lafond transports sand from Quyon to Carp four times a day, so the ferry is a drastic time-saver for him.
It takes 81 km to drive to Carp from Quyon through Aylmer. The Quyon Ferry saves . . .
commuters 53 km with a total travel distance of 28 km. “I’ve been going around all winter, and now finally I get to go just across here,” said Lafond.
On the deck, passengers pay for their ticket and are free to stretch or have a smoke outside of their vehicle.
At the helm, Capt. Eddie McColgan controls the ferry’s speed across the river and ensures a soft landing on the other side.
A camera installed on the shore allows McColgan to see any approaching vehicles on the Ontario dock, where trees tend to hide most of the traffic.
McColgan has worked for the ferry since the late-80s. After balancing a job in the tech industry and weekend shifts at the ferry, McColgan decided to return to his family’s business full-time in 2002.
In 1955, his grandfather retired from the bush and purchased the ferry, an old paddle-wheeler at the time.
In the next decade, they would upgrade to an all-steel diesel vessel, capable of transporting several cars across the Ottawa River.
In 2013, McColgan’s uncle decided that the ferry was due for another upgrade. The ambitious 21-car ferry was inspired by a similar boat in New Brunswick. The Quyon Ferry is battery-powered and uses an underwater cable to pull itself across the river.
Unlike the New Brunswick’s ferry, the Quyon Ferry’s fate continues to rest in the cold, unapologetic hand of winter. This year, the ferry had a late start due to unpredictable ice.
“In the last five, six years, it’s always been the third week of March, give or take,” said McColgan. “We’re not that far off, but it was an extremely cold winter and it built a lot of ice.”
“We’d love to stay open year-round, but we’re not there with traffic,” said McColgan. In order to run the ferry past December, he would need to invest in an air bubbler system, an expensive series of pipes and compressors that prevent ice from forming on the ferry’s path.
For now, McColgan and his team removed the remaining ice themselves. “Before we move, we cut a channel with chainsaws and we move the ice out, and then the ferry’s able to go.”
