Elected officials representing local governments across Vancouver Island, Sunshine Coast and Gulf Islands united in a vow to continue the fight to bring down ferry fares and improve services.
The Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC) annual convention, held in Courtenay April 10 to 12, was the venue for a 50-member rally with its main objective to thank AVICC and Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) for commissioning research that examined the socioeconomic impact of BC Ferries’ fare hikes from 2003 to 2013.
The research resulted in the creation of Boatswains to the Bollards, A Socioeconomic Impact Analysis of BC Ferries, presented to the Premier at the UBCM 2014 conference.
Inside the Florence Filberg Centre, Colin Palmer, chair of the Regional District Coastal Ferry Group, AVICC director and Powell River Regional District Electoral Area C director, talked about the future of BC Ferries. He said the series of fare increases has resulted in a $2.3 billion reduction in BC’s GDP. Palmer went on to criticize Todd Stone, minister of transportation and infrastructure, for failing to find ways to encourage people to ride the ferry.
“He’s not doing anything to improve the economies of the Coast,” said Palmer. “All he is doing really is saying to people, you and I, ‘we are going to put LNG in the engines on the ferries.’ That doesn’t make more people travel on the ferries. He is talking about improving the reservation systems. That’s not going to improve the ferries.”
Palmer cited that the number of people travelling on the ferries now is equal to what it was in 1992.
“It’s a fact and it’s not an imagined number,” said Palmer. “The ferry traffic now for cars and passengers is down to the level it was in 1992. That is a phenomenal drop. We’re just going to challenge them. How are you going to get that traffic to increase? We’ve got ideas on how to do it but it doesn’t alter the fact that it is very significant.”
Palmer said the root of the problem is the Coastal Ferry Act, which he suggested should be scrapped.
“The Coastal Ferry Act is a flawed set of legislation,” said Palmer. “It has to be changed and all the delegates have to go to their communities, like these people out here today and say, hey, look at what’s going on. We’re in trouble on the Coast. The Coast is becoming an economic solitude.
“If you go up to the North Island, people are suffering. Businesses are failing. Even Victoria is having problems. It’s not like this is some kind of minor event. The whole Coast is in trouble. We’ve got to get rid of the Coastal Ferry Act and get a better system. We’re determined to make it happen.”
AVICC president Barbara Price said it is time to turn things around.
“We need to bring our ferries back,” said Price. “We need reasonably priced ferries, we need a good service, and we need it to be recognized as part of our highway system.”
Former AVICC president Joe Stanhope said the socioeconomic impact of the ferry hikes concluded in the study released last year, should be acknowledged by the provincial government.
The report estimates that if fare increases from 2003-2013 had been limited to the rate of inflation, passenger volumes would have grown by 19 per cent, adding $2.3 billion to provincial GDP over that 10-year period. Instead, overall ridership over the same period declined by 11 per cent. This foregone economic activity resulted in an estimated total loss of $609 million in tax revenues from 2003-2013 at the federal, provincial and local levels of government.
Stanhope said if the government doesn’t believe the report, then he suggested they do their own study so they can realize the impact it has on the province is “significant.”
