Mayor Dave Formosa said he thinks a plan for City of Powell River to take over its area’s ferry runs will catch the provincial government’s attention.
Formosa said the plan allows the province a way to stop losing money on the three northern Sunshine Coast runs, losses he estimated at a total of more than $20 million per year.
The mayor said he has had plans for the city-run ferry service for about a year and is just waiting to meeting with provincial transportation minister Todd Stone.
“It’s not overly complicated, but it is totally dependent on the interest of the minister,” said Formosa. “I realized we’re getting nowhere here [with BC Ferries] and it’s getting worse.”
After the mayor’s recent CBC interview on the topic, he said he was contacted by a former BC Ferries human resource executive who told him Powell River has a compelling case for a self-run ferry service.
Formosa said his plan is based on what it is currently costing the provincial government to maintain service on the routes with a guarantee those costs will not increase.
“We’re not letting [the provincial government] off the hook,” said Formosa. “We’re just telling them they won’t have to put in any more for five years and then we’ll renegotiate in five-year terms.”
Formosa said he is not prepared to talk about or discuss particular details of the ferry service until the provincial government shows interest, but that there’s a case to be made for treating Powell River’s runs similarly to the province’s freshwater inland ferries. Those runs are funded through the ministry of transportation and infrastructure, but operated and maintained by private contractors.
If the government is interested, Formosa explained he would bring the plan back to his council to examine it fully, then set up a committee that could look at the process of bringing the plan forward.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve built a business plan,” said Formosa.
He explained if the plan moved forward then the idea would be to create a limited liability corporation to operate the service in order to protect the city.
Formosa said of the 16 items on the plan, he is not expecting to include the MV Salish Orca, BC Ferries’ replacement vessel for the Queen of Burnaby.
“We wouldn’t want that brand new, beautiful ferry,” he explained. “That’s one of the ways we’d save money, but we would want one with brand new running gear and electronics, and an engineer-designed hull good for the next 30 years.”
