BC Ferries Breaks Another Promise

In November 2024 BC Ferries (BCF) announced plans to deep-six the Ferry Advisory Committees (FACs) and look for new ways to engage with communities. They promised a fair and open process to design a new way of engaging. The Gabriola FAC wrote to BCF in December to ask for assurances that the process would be transparent and that everything would be on the table, including the possibility of some type of community advisory groups (like FACs). BCF’s Morningstar Pinto replied “If the feedback is that advisory groups are the way to go for our coastal communities in some form, we will listen. We will be doing this transparently, and in the open.”

Alas, it’s already obvious that some things are not on the table. Earlier this month BCF launched a public survey at: bcferriesprojects.ca/letsconnect. There is not a single mention of the FACs in the survey, and there is no question there that provides an option to show preference for engagement through any kind of community organization or advisory group. It seems that BCF’s emphasis is on individual communications, via the internet, which of course is never going to provide transparency, and effectively takes the ferry communities out of the loop.

There are places for comments in the survey, so we encourage all Gabriolans to complete it (bcferriesprojects.ca/letsconnect) and, if you think that the FAC process – or something like it – is a good way for Gabriola to communicate with BCF, please say so in the places where comments are allowed.

Thank you from the Gabriola FAC