Solving BC Ferries’ issues, including the affordability of fares, will take cooperation among communities, the company and the provincial government, according to Mike Corrigan, president and CEO.
Corrigan was in Powell River Tuesday morning, January 31. He met with City of Powell River Mayor Dave Formosa, Councillor Chris McNaughton, Powell River Regional District Chair Colin Palmer and, separately, with Northern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee Chair Bill Cripps.
BC Ferry Commissioner Gordon Macatee’s review of the Coastal Ferry Act had been released exactly one week before Corrigan’s visit. Macatee’s 24 recommendations to change the ferry system are now with the provincial government.
Corrigan has been a senior executive with BC Ferries since joining the company in 2003, serving as executive vice-president of business development from 2003 to 2006 and chief operating officer from 2006 to 2011. He told the Peak that to solve the fare affordability issue which Macatee highlighted, everybody has to work together. “That means BC Ferries, the provincial government, local governments, the FACs [ferry advisory committees] and the customers. There’s no silver bullet here. It’s going to take a lot of hard work to get to where we need to get to. So we have to get the dialogue going.”
Macatee pointed out in his report that BC Ferries is efficient and well run, Corrigan said, and the company has to continue to keep costs down. “We have to manage as best as we can, then we have to ask for some help from the government where it makes sense. We also have to ask the communities for reasonable expectations around service. Everybody has a role to play in this one.”
In the next 12 years, BC Ferries has to replace $2.5 billion of assets. Three of the first four vessels that need to be replaced serve Powell River’s routes: the Queen of Burnaby, the North Island Princess and the Queen of Chilliwack.
In 2005, BC Ferries presented a strategy to the provincial government for replacing those vessels. “We’ve never received an answer on that and now there are ships right out here that need to be replaced in the next five years,” Corrigan said. “It takes us a good four years of planning to build a ship, by the time we design it, go to tender, work with the shipyard, get it built. We’re within a year of a very critical decision here and I can’t wait, as the president and CEO of BC Ferries. When it’s time, it’s time. We have to push the envelope, so that’s where we need the community’s help, the mayor’s help and everyone else’s and just get it on the table.”
Cripps said he was particularly pleased to hear Corrigan say the replacement vessels for Powell River were the top priority for BC Ferries. “I think that is probably the most important issue for Powell River,” he said. “The Northern Sunshine Coast Ferry Advisory Committee has been pushing this item for over three years. It was very gratifying to hear him say we have the top priority.”
Formosa said the meeting with Corrigan went “very well. We articulated Powell River’s issues very clearly. The president heard our issues very clearly. I felt there was really a want and a yearning to work together on the issues at hand.”
Another issue they discussed was the Queen of Chilliwack. BC Ferries is planning on refurbishing the Westview terminal in the future. After the work is completed, other vessels will be able to dock there. Right now, the Chilliwack is the only replacement vessel on the route that can dock at the terminal.
While the vessel is safe, Formosa said, there have been issues with it. “We let him know this community doesn’t want it, we don’t like it,” he said. “We’ll be very happy to see an alternative.”
The Little River terminal is also going to be refurbished at the same time, said McNaughton. “There will be a lot of discussion with community around that when the time comes, because the work will literally shut the terminal down, it’s anticipated, so there will have to be alternatives,” he said.
Other issues they talked about included the cost for youth to travel to sports events and home porting the vessel on the Powell River-Comox route in Powell River.
