are sustainable without government subsidy. We are no exception to this." In March 2012 the fees still remained in place. The Village of Grand Manan then held a plebiscite, asking: "Should the Council of the Village of Grand Manan ask the Government of New Brunswick to remove the fare to travel on the ferry to and from the mainland?" The plebiscite subsequently passed by a narrow margin, 556 for and 511 against, with a voter turnout of 67 per cent. Alward responded by saying: "I certainly respect the people of Grand Manan and have full intention to respect our commitments. I do appreciate the decision that the people have made where they are recommending to government to see the ferry fees removed. That is great for the economy of Grand Manan in the long term, and I have full intention to respect their wishes." By September 2012, the fees were still in place and although many politicians expected the Alward government to live up to its promise, they assumed it would be done towards the end of his four-year mandate. In April 2013, Alward's government announced their intention to reduce the amount of ferry crossings by one run daily, and that this would result in savings of $1 million per year. This move was met with a wave of opposition and a petition against it. However, these cuts did not materialize. In perhaps his final public remarks on the matter, made during the reopening ceremony of The Algonquin Resort in June 2014, Alward said: "I guess we haven't come to a final decision on it. There hadn't been a clean mandate or majority from the community in terms of the support on that. If we look at the ferry when it was built, it was built with a lot more capacity than was really needed and so we looked at changing some of the runs so what the community said at the time is, 'why don't you look at keeping the runs going the way it is because we believe it's important to the economy of the island and also to the movement of people?' So that's where we've been at. We thought that was the most important priority at the time so that's where we have focused. We haven't made a final decision where we're going to land on the other part." That same month, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister