BC Ferries is going ahead with its plan for replacing the Queen of Burnaby, the vessel which runs between Powell River and Comox. Officials from the corporation outlined their plan for the Northern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) at a meeting on Texada Island, Wednesday, April 10.
Rob Clarke, BC Ferries vice-president and chief financial officer, explained to the FAC and 20 members of the public who observed the meeting that in order to have the Queen of Burnaby’s replacement ready for service in time, they needed to start the process immediately.
“You don’t go down to Ships ‘R Us and just buy a boat off the shelf there,” said Clarke. “It takes up to three years to acquire a vessel.”
Clarke informed the committee that the ferry corporation would be taking the next step in the process by filing its plans for constructing a new vessel with BC Ferry Commissioner Gordon Macatee.
Under the Coastal Ferry Act, the agreement between the province and BC Ferries, Macatee has to approve the plans before the corporation can go forward. The public will have 60 days to make comments to the commissioner once the papers have been filed.
“The province is aware of our intentions and has not said anything to make us stop,” said Clarke. “What would have been nice is to have come to these communities to visit before we had to file that application. We made the decision to not do that.”
Clarke explained that BC Ferries would have been trying to conduct a public consultation on vessel replacement at the same time that Victoria was holding its BC Coastal Ferries Consultation and Engagement sessions to determine how to find $26 million in operational savings.
“We felt, rightly or wrongly, that if we were here while they were here it would have been totally confusing and unhelpful,” he said.
The vessel replacement issue goes back to before 2005 when the Burnaby was reaching the end its 40-year lifespan.
After a public consultation process that year, the ferry corporation sought to have both the Burnaby and the North Island Princess replaced by 2008. It wrote up a report for the provincial government, however, the report wasn’t acted upon. Since then, the corporation has been looking for “a vision” from Victoria.
In 2010 representatives from ministry of transport and infrastructure met with community stakeholders about the replacement strategy. The strategy included options for different ship sizes and changes to the service schedules that would include stops at Texada’s Blubber Bay between Little River and Westview.
“The province has been dragging their feet and BC Ferries can’t wait anymore,” said Bill Cripps, FAC chair. “BC Ferries has to get on with replacing the Burnaby.”
The Burnaby’s Transport Canada licence will expire on April 1, 2016 and to have it renewed would require BC Ferries spend a significant amount of money in retrofits on the ship.
Key in the decision about the replacement for the Burnaby is that the new boat be able to take the same capacity and be “right-sized to provide the service level outlined in the [act],” said Clarke.
Clarke said the ferry corporation is going to follow recommendations from the commissioner and move toward the standardization of its fleet with three classes of vessels.
“Instead of building ferries specific for routes, we should be building a strategic fleet that can be moved around on different routes,” said Clarke.
The Queen of Nanaimo, a sister ship of the Burnaby with roughly the same capacity at 140 cars, services the southern Gulf Islands and is also in need of replacement.
Clarke said that scalability is an important consideration in the designs of the medium-sized boat.
The plans for the Burnaby’s replacement call for building an 85- to 90-car ferry that could increase its total capacity to 145 by adding gallery and platform decks inside the ship. The ship would be an open deck ferry like the Island Sky that runs between Earls Cove and Saltery Bay.
“The idea is to build these ferries fitted for, but not necessarily with, these decks,” said Clarke. “If you need gallery decks in the future, you could add them relatively inexpensively.”
This design could be used to replace seven or eight aging ferries with a common class of vessels.
BC Ferries is handling the replacement of the North Island Princess separately from the Burnaby’s replacement.
Jeff West, BC Ferries’ regional director, said the ferry corporation has not made any plans for the replacement of the North Island Princess yet. He assured FAC that despite rumours that the North Island Princess has been “promised” to Port Hardy once it has been replaced, no firm plans are in place and the community would be given the opportunity to voice their suggestions on the ferry’s replacement at public consultations before any plans are made.
BC Ferries is planning an information session at the end of April for the Burnaby’s replacement. David Hendry, BC Ferries director of strategic planning, will lead the session which will take the public through the ferry corporation’s options on how they chose the design for the replacement vessel and will be looking for ideas about on-board amenities. “It’s not a consultation in the standard term,” said Clarke, “but it will allow the public to understand the process and give enough information that people can make recommendations to the commissioner.”
Patrick Brabazon, Powell River Regional District Area A director and representative on the FAC, expressed concerns over having decks open to the weather especially for elderly passengers or families with very young children. Clarke said his concerns and anyone else’s would be forwarded to the ferry commission. The public can contact the commission directly through its website.
