A call to reinstate Ferry Advisory Committees (FAC) has been issued to the BC Ferry Authority chair.
The request was delivered March 19 in a letter penned by Ferry Advisory Committee Chairs group lead Diana Mumford, who also serves as the chair of the Southern Sunshine Coast chapter of that umbrella organization.
The letter states Ferry Advisory Chairs have “little faith” in the value of BC Ferries' current engagement process. The group asserts that engagement with communities should be more than an opportunity for the corporation to inform its programs, policy and processes when it is seeking input. They support a process where the public can also raise suggestions, questions and concerns as they arise to BC Ferries (BCF).
What happened to public FAC meetings and events?
As of March 19, the ferry corporation’s website lists 13 FACs, all with names of sitting members. In the letter, Mumford notes that “at the end of November 2024, BC Ferries ‘fired’ the 118 volunteers within the Ferry Advisory Committees. Those members were given an opportunity to extend their term until the end of April 2025 when BC Ferries promised to roll out a new engagement framework.
“There has been very little communication [from the ferry corporation] since the end of November.”
To support that statement and its assessment about the lack of effectiveness in BCF's current public engagement strategy, Mumford listed six examples in the correspondence, of situations where recent BCF community engagement “pop-up” events missed the mark of sparking conversations with residents of the communities it serves. An example cited was the pop-up gathering planned for the Southern Sunshine Coast, on Feb. 6 at Langdale terminal. Mumford noted that was the date when “residents were dealing with hazardous roads due to a very heavy snowfall," yet there has been no rescheduling of a date to connect with ferry users in our area.
Another less than successful in-person engagement pop-up, according to the letter, was hosted in Campbell River last month with the local FAC chair as the only community member who participated.
In the opinion of the FAC Chairs group, recent online engagement has been equally problematic with poor public response. The letter describes that finding the location of the engagement webpage on bcferries.com as “very challenging” and reports that the discussion forum at that location showed “responses of just eleven people over a five week period."
BCF statements a concern for FAC chairs
Mumford’s correspondence also called out language used in a Feb. 4 BCF media release that read, “The future of engagements needs to be inclusive, nimble and accessible. This process is focused on ensuring as many ferry users as possible – whether face-to-face or online – have an opportunity to inform our programs, policy and processes when we are seeking input.”
Her assessment was that statement was that it indicated there will be no opportunity for two-way constructive dialogue about ferry services and issues encountered such “as was available through the FAC meetings."
“Accountability, oversight and transparency will be replaced by a model that values residents to be seen and not heard,” she wrote.
Mumford provided Coast Reporter with a copy of the letter, which was also copied to Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth, BC Ferry Commission, B.C. coastal riding MLAs, including Powell River-Sunshine Coast’s Randene Neill and BC Ferries.
