Skip to content

Ferries top up with another surcharge

Service rings in new year with fare hike

BC Ferries has started the new year by announcing another fuel surcharge. Fares will rise by more than seven per cent over the next three months, said New Democratic Party ferries critic MLA Claire Trevena. “The fare hike will be another significant blow to coastal communities and the provincial economy still reeling from cutbacks and price increases throughout 2013.If a four per cent ferry fare hike coming in April wasn’t enough, BC Ferries’ users will now be hit with a 3.5 per cent fuel surcharge starting this month,” she said. “Fares on some routes have risen by more than 100 per cent.”

Trevena said that the latest increases come alongside more troubling news in terms of general affordability across the province. On January 1, MSP (medical services plan) premiums rose for the fifth year in a row, while tolls on the Port Mann Bridge doubled. In April, BC Hydro rates will jump.

“Families in BC are struggling to make ends meet,” said Trevena. “Ferry ridership has fallen, fares have climbed, debt at the [BC Ferries] corporation has ballooned, the government has failed to curb exorbitant executive bonuses, and now people up and down the coast are facing devastating service cuts.”

Trevena said that the BC Ferries Corporation needs to come up with a long-term plan to turn the system around.

Deborah Marshall, spokesperson for BC Ferries, said it was uncertain just how long the surcharge would remain in place, but that fuel surcharges have been a fairly common occurrence in the past. “It’s important to remember that they are not a permanent fixture,” said Marshall.

The surcharge is in response to world fuel market conditions that influence the prices BC Ferries must pay its diesel fuel suppliers, according to a BC Ferries media release.

“We have waited as long as we can to implement a surcharge, however, we must act now as it is clear that fuel prices are unlikely to decline in the foreseeable future,” said Mike Corrigan, BC Ferries president and CEO in the release.