Save Our Ferries

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BC Ferries Off Course and Facing “A Perfect Storm”
Will the Provincial Government make the proper course correction?

As many of you reading this site will probably have realised by now, the Save Our Ferries Team - three ferry workers and a raging granny - have often enjoyed poking fun at the Provincial Government and the Coastal Ferry Act. However, due to several events in the past couple of weeks, we feel it is time for us to get serious. (Don’t worry - we will get back to having fun shortly).

 

There is something wrong with BC Ferries.

To be sure, BC Ferries has not been on a proper course for a very long time and provincial governments of all stripes have, over the years, propagated this. The Social Credit and the NDP consistently failed Ferries with improper controls and business practices and the lack of a long-term vessel replacement plan. A change was overdue and the misstep culminated in the Fast Ferry Fiasco. At the very end of the 90’s, the NDP had finally started to put it back on course when the Liberals came into power. At that time, the Liberals clearly decided it was easier to off-load what they likely viewed as an albatross than to “fix” the problem. To give the Liberals credit, they continued (and continue) to subsidize BC Ferries - but that’s about it. Taxpayers’ money is still being distributed without proper oversight or accountability.

So now, BC Ferries is off course heading towards a “Perfect Storm”: rising fuel costs and surcharges, increasing fares, shortage of labour (over 800 workers leaving in a two-year period), vessels breaking down, aging workforce, safety incidents, and declining traffic. These problems could be dealt with if BC Ferries had clear direction and a mandate but, instead, the Coastal Ferry Act and the business model that it operates under have exacerbated them.

BC Ferries is broken from the very top of the organization… the BC Ferry Authority, to the bottom… the front line workers. The Company and the Union are operating in crisis management mode and the impact is being felt throughout Coastal British Columbia. It is time for the Provincial Government to take the helm and sail BC Ferries to calmer waters in order to protect this vital economic engine.

This is beyond partisan politics, NDP or Liberal, left or right, Union or non-Union. This is about what is in the best interests of the people of British Columbia.

The Save Our Ferries Group is calling upon Premier Gordon Campbell to form a stakeholder working group with representatives from all of the interested parties to review the Coastal Ferry Act and BC Ferries itself. The Province and a steering committee with a clear mandate will guide the stakeholder working group to make the necessary changes to protect British Columbia’s Marine Highway.

It is not too late to alter the course to calmer waters.

Thank you for your time,

    Save Our Ferries

 

Proposed Committee:     Provincial Government, official opposition, business, tourism, First Nations, users, labour, trucking, BC Ferries

 

 

 

 

Will Rising Fares Impact Property Values

Even though the report is 10 years old, the principles are sound, so read the report and make your own conclusions.

  1. Executive Sumary Part 1
  2. Executive Sumary Part 2
  3. Executive Sumary Part 3
  4. Executive Sumary Part 4
  5. Executive Sumary Part 5

 

On Monday, February 04, 2008 in the Province newspaper the Hon. Kevin Falcon, Minister of Transportation is quoted as follows:


"What you had in the '90s was a corporation that was basically bankrupt."

"The NDP had to write off $1 billion and they, frankly, pissed away half a billion dollars on three boats that are still sitting in the harbour in North Vancouver."

In 2003 the Provincial Government promised the people of British Columbia that the New BC Ferries would achieve the following…

…they didn't tell us the whole story....

Save Our Ferries was created to ensure that BC Ferries becomes part of the Provincial Highway System, and to protect the Social and Economic well being of BC Coastal Communities.

Click here for a link to see what the Ferries critic, NDP MLA Gary Coons and others have to say

New BC Ferry

Sea to Sky Highway Upgrade Cost:
$600 million
Toll:
Free
3 Super C-Class Vessel Cost:
$542 million
Toll:
45.3% More from 2003 to 2011