With the number of complaints about interruptions in BC Ferries service over the past week, it’s no surprise the corporation decided to give everyone travelling between Saltery Bay and Earls Cove a free ride this past Sunday and Monday.
Free ferries? What a concept!
The recent shuffling of vessels due to mechanical problems, and then the further mechanical problems on those very vessels being shuffled, has caused a public relations nightmare for BC Ferries.
As if 2013’s service review, which resulted in $18.9 million of reductions, including less sailings to this area, wasn’t enough. The sale of one of the ferry fleet’s only replacement vessels, Queen of Chilliwack, has again raised the ire of area residents; not only because it was sold for a paltry sum compared to the money sunk into it, but to a former BC Ferries manager now operating a ferry business in Fiji.
While these concerns, complaints and questions are all warranted, this community has developed a serious dependency on BC Ferries. Ferries are the only viable transportation option for most, so they are to blame for cancelled travel plans, missed appointments, long waits and high fares. If anything, BC Ferries is the one thing people in this community can all agree to rally against.
While the corporation is currently doing its best to appease residents, including bringing a brand new vessel on to the Westview-Little River run sometime this year (and when that inevitably gets delayed, watch out), most people living in the Powell River area made up their minds about BC Ferries long ago. Some claim the wounds of an abusive relationship never fully heal.
Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, those with travel plans or out-of-town appointments are either driving to a ferry terminal or jumping on a plane. As government and interest groups plan and consult about alternate options, such as a road to Squamish, a bridge to eliminate at least one ferry and even a self-run ferry service proposed by our own mayor, the best course of action is to keep pressuring BC Ferries.
Powell River needs and deserves a much better ferry service and the concerns of Sunshine Coast residents will not be ignored or shuffled to bottom of a corporate pile.
Upper Sunshine Coast may be at the end of Highway 101, but that is more reason to raise concerns, and it appears residents won’t stop fighting until the ferries are a functional part of the highway system.
-Jason Schreurs, publisher/editor
