SYDNEY: A Halifax limousine driver was hoping to earn a few extra bucks on a trip to Sydney, but the Port of Sydney Development Corp. wouldn’t allow him to park because he’s from Halifax.
“I thought this was grossly unfair on all different levels,” said Stewart Morrison, owner of BLT Limo.
Morrison said in past years when he made the trip to Sydney to visit family, he used his spare time to offer his limousine service to anyone coming off a cruise ship.
“When you’re in business for yourself, you don’t get paid vacations, so anything I could do to subsidize a little bit of my expenses when I’m moving around would have been helpful,” he said.
Morrison said authorities at the port at first said they wouldn’t have time to check him for security, then said there wasn’t room for him, then finally told him it was because he is from Halifax, not Sydney.
“Here I am in my own province, and I can’t even have access down there,” he said.
Morrison made the family trip with two cars, one for leisure and the other for work. “Had I known, I certainly wouldn’t have brought two cars,” he said.
Bernadette MacNeil, marketing and development manager with the port corporation, said drivers have to apply to park on the port. They have to take a knowledge course so the port can make sure the driver knows the area well enough for a tour and the cars are safety-checked daily.
“I’m a bona fide tour guide and I certainly know my stuff and I should have the right to offer my services down here,” said Morrison.
