Save Our Ferries

…BC Ferries sails 1,385,531 nautical miles per year which works out to 2,566,003 km…

…this equals to three round trips to the moon and back, or…

…64 trips around the Earth, or…

…164 round trips on the Trans Canada Highway, Victoria BC to St. John’s Newfoundland or…

…364 trips on British Columbia's National Highway System, and…

…thanks to the ferry workers, who…

…don't get snow days…

…who sail in all kinds of weather, as long as it is safe…

…who are trained to fight fires…

….perform marine rescues, and handle medical emergencies…

…who are trained to protect the lives of the passengers, even at risk to their own…

…who make sure people can get to work, and kids get to school…

…and if you live in a ferry dependent community they make sure that the commercial goods get to you…

… including the food you eat, the clothes you wear, to the car you buy…

…they transport billions of dollars of consumer goods, which represents 1/5th of the consumer spending within the Province per year…

…BC Ferries is the Marine Highway for approximately 20% of the citizens of British Columbia, and…

….approximately half of BC residents have used BC Ferries in the past year, (March 2011 poll Angus Reid).

So what do you think?

Is BC Ferries part of the Provincial Highway System and if so why doesn’t the Provincial Government treat is as such?

“So why isn’t BC Ferries recognized as a Highway?”

The annual distance BC Ferries covers in a year shows that BC Ferries is actually relatively inexpensive highway to operate.

When you consider the importance BC Ferries is to the Province of British Columbia, you start to wonder…

“Why is the Provincial Government so determined in offloading BC Ferries?”

It’s not like they’re not trying to sell off any of our Provincial Highways, oh wait they tried that and it did not work.

In 2003, the Provincial Government announced that they were going to turn over operation, maintenance and the toll revenues of the Coquihalla to a private operator, but the plan was shelved when met with opposition from interior communities.  If the government had succeeded with the semi privatization of the Coquihalla, you can be assured that the tolls would still be in place.

“Why is BC Ferries allowed to be a quasi private company, with the option to be totally private, acceptable for the taxpayers of British Columbia?”

The BC Government has no problem spending billions of tax dollars on other highway and transportation infrastructure, but they’re not interested in building ferries. Instead BC Ferries receives a fee for service. The ferry users or 20% of taxpayers not only have to pay for the ferries upgrades and new construction, but also contribute to the rest of the Provinces transportation infrastructure projects as well, including the tariff-free Inland Ferries. 

“Why is it acceptable to expect all British Columbians to help pay for transportation infrastructure projects, but when it comes to BC Ferries the users have to pay?”  

Finally the most important question, that the Save Our Ferries team has been repeatedly asked over the years.

“WHO OWNS BC FERRIES?”