ECW, an environmental non-profit organization, located in Blacks Harbour, launched its Project: Village carshare service on Grand Manan on Monday.

The electric car share service already has three car share zones on Charlotte County's mainland with stations in St. Stephen, Saint Andrews, and Black Harbour. The Grand Manan location near the ferry terminal is the service's first island location.

ECW hopes the convenience of being located near the ferry terminal will allow more non-residents to come to the island for work and travel and also allow island residents to have a service that are not currently available on the island. ECW's aim with the car share service is making rural and remote living in Southwest New Brunswick more accessible and possible for all.

At the regular February village council meeting for Grand Manan, Mayor Bonnie Morse expressed her enthusiasm for the expansion of Project: Village Car Share service coming to Grand Manan Island. "We now have an electric vehicle at the Coastal Transport Ticket Office. It's available to rent, and there's a link on our village Facebook for anyone who is interested," said Mayor Morse.

"I'd like to thank Coastal Transport for giving us a prime location for this project." Grand Manan is located 22km from Blacks Harbour, but it takes an hour and a half ferry ride to get there. It costs $13 roundtrip per person to walk on the ferry as a pedestrian passenger, but it's an approximately $55 to take a vehicle roundtrip on the ferry. Having the electric car at the ferry terminal will allow more people to cross over to Grand Manan on foot and rent a car on arrival.