You may have already heard that yesterday the NDP government announced that they are increasing service on 10 ferry routes that were cut in 2014, restoring 2,700 round-trip sailings for people living in coastal communities. Route 19 (the Gabriola-Nanaimo route) is among those routes slated to have our service levels restored.
In addition to the news about the service cuts, the Ministry released Blair Redlin’s report on the ferry service. The Redlin report (available here) is a fairly comprehensive document that goes well beyond consideration of service levels. For example, there is a great deal of focus on climate change adaptation vis a vis propulsion systems, and the issue of ships not being built domestically also comes in for a lot of scrutiny. It’s well worth a read.
We look forward to bringing you more information in the coming weeks of what implementation could actually look like.