Saving Bennett’s Navy

When I was a young boy, out one day at the local corner store, a kindly gentleman asked my mother if he could buy my brother and I an ice cream. Recognizing the man, my mother gladly accepted his offer. Turns out that man was W.A.C. Bennett — and as thanks for buying me that ice cream cone all those years ago, I’m going to save his Navy, BC Ferries.

Actually, Save Our Ferries goes well beyond a simple ice cream cone. It is about the well-being of the economy of British Columbia.

You see, W.A.C. Bennett could see the advantages that arose with the province running certain things—like Hydro and Ferries—because Ferries, like any other transportation infrastructure, opens up economic opportunity. And with that development, it supports the social well-being of communities and of the province as a whole.

As most of you are aware, BC Ferries is in the news a lot, and there is a reason for that. The service impacts the lives of a great many British Columbians — more, in fact, than any other form of transportation in the province. According to Angus Reid, about half of all British Columbians used BC Ferries last year. All have friends, business associates and family that they share their experience with, good, bad or indifferent. So when the government messes with BC Ferries, the public makes sure the government understands their personal frustration — sometimes in the form of a strongly worded letter, or a protest. And sometimes at the ballot box.

Save Our Ferries has been around for eight years. When we launched our campaign, we were initially accused of being fear mongers because we were trying to warn people about the impact that the new Coastal Ferry Act would have on BC Ferries and on British Columbia. Not many people believed us at first; they suspected we were just disgruntled ferry workers trying to protect our jobs. And maybe they were right. We were worried about jobs. But not just our own.

During the past eight years, we’ve toured the coast, talked to everyone who would listen and listened to anyone who would talk. We produced opinion pieces and analyses like the “Perfect Storm” and “Course Correction” to report on our conclusions.

During that time, Save Our Ferries evolved, and along with it, the people following us did too. They realized the argument was no longer about our jobs, but about them too. It was about retaining the ability for families in BC to continue to see their relatives. About the price of frozen peas in Oak Bay, about a small restaurant on Salt Spring trying to make a go of it, and about a local shipping company fighting to juggle the cost of moving our goods while hit with an unexpected fuel surcharge that it hadn’t budgeted.

We could go on and on about the impact of ferries on people’s lives, but this is all you really need to remember: Twenty per cent of the British Columbians have invested their hopes and dreams, both socially and economically, in ferry-dependent communities, and right now they feel abandoned as fares continue to skyrocket.

I hope the government can swallow its pride, admit that its experiment has not worked out, and put the fleet back on course. Getting that to happen continues to be our goal.

Thanks for visiting our site. We look forward to your continued support.

Gregg Dow
Save Our Ferries

P.S. Thanks for the ice cream, and for BC Ferries, Premier Bennett.