BC Ferries heading towards a Perfect Storm

Will the Provincial Government make the proper course correction?

As many of you reading this site will probably have realized by now, the Save Our Ferries Team - four ferry workers and our favorite grandmother - 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, and BC Ferries