A GOOD START. A LONG, LONG WAY TO GO – Ferry Advisory Committee Chairs (FACC)
20 MARCH 2015 – Chairs of BC’s Ferry Advisory Committees are encouraged by the newly announced 1.9% cap for annual average fare hikes starting in 2016. But they say the low increase fails to address the fundamental problem: the crippling level of existing fares.
The unavoidable comparison is to the hypothetical camel with the breaking back. The camel has been loaded with 50-pound bales of straw. When the breaking point is reached, there’s little joy in reducing the weight of the next bale to only 10 pounds. The 1.9% increase is that 10-pound bale of straw.
As with the camel, the ferry users’ problem is the burden that preceded the 1.9% increases. It needs to be addressed.
The extraordinary fare increases of the past decade have resulted in traffic collapsing to its lowest level since 1990. The decline in traffic, particularly since 2008, has resulted in a parallel withering of the economic and social vitality of coastal ferry dependent communities. Ferries are the lifeline service for people and for businesses. There is no alternative.
“We have watched traffic fall away as fares escalated for the past decade. Our experience tells us that ferry traffic and coastal communities will not and cannot recover until the excessive fare burden is removed,” says Brian Hollingshead, chair of the Southern Gulf Islands FAC. “This means a fare roll-back, not a modest increase.”
If the Province is serious about the economic sustainability of dozens of coastal communities, it’s time it assesses the past and future impact on these communities of the current ferry fare regime.
We recognize that fares and funding need to strike a reasonable balance between the interests of the Provincial treasury, BC Ferries and ferry users. “Yet ferry users, who contribute more than half a billion dollars a year in fares, have paid far too high a price,” says Keith Rush of Thetis-Penelakut FAC. “It’s time the load was redistributed to provide some relief for those users who have seen their fares rise as much as 120% in an 18%-inflation period.”
The Commission report shows ferry users are presently paying 100% of BC Ferries operating costs. That’s higher – much higher – than in comparable ferry systems, including Washington State Ferries and Marine Atlantic Ferries, cited in the Commissioner’s Efficiency Review.
We are at a critical juncture. We ask the Government to consider rebalancing the equation by means of a sufficient funding increase to provide a significant fare roll-back. It’s fair, it’s vital.
Now I’m really upset… Riding on the MV Osprey across Kootenay Lake. This ferry is very similar size to the Gabriola ferry but much better facilites and speaker system. It even has a coffee shop. The crossing time is 35 minutes AND it’s FREE. What is wrong with this system. I took photos if you want see them.
Sarah – to be honest, the logic escapes me. The argument has always been that the inland ferries were provided [free] because governments had taken away the road crossings as part of the damming of rivers for hydroelectric production. Yet there are still road alternatives in most cases, and a high proportion of traffic on the inland ferries is recreational traffic from out of area, or out of province.