Is the provincial government serious about examining the feasibility of a road to Vancouver or was the announcement just a diversion to placate ferry-dependent communities who have become increasingly vocal in opposition to BC Ferries?
It’s a question that has crossed many minds since the province’s announcement last week to undertake studies on a coastal road link.
And there’s ample reason to think the announcement may just be a diversion. Whether or not it is to be taken seriously, raising the issue of a coastal link is useful to encourage discussion and debate on what Sunshine Coast residents want their communities to look like in the coming decades.
Powell River and the Lower Sunshine Coast have long been hotbeds of fair-ferries activism and this announcement does help address longstanding concerns residents have held about the province not recognizing BC Ferries as part of the provincial highway system.
It also, coincidentally, happened to be announced just prior to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) conference, an annual convention that brings local governments together to discuss issues and promote resolutions to provincial and federal governments.
At last year’s conference, a UBCM report concluded that the Coastal Ferry Act, the province’s legislation that lays out the relationship between the government and BC Ferries, had been a dismal failure and should be scrapped.
So the announcement that the government is going to weigh the costs and benefits of a coastal road against ferry service could have just been a saving-face moment. Who knows how long such a study could take or what it would cost to complete?
Many people on the coast would prefer the government find a way to go back to old days when ferries were treated as a part of the highways department, sailings ample and fairs low.
And the issue of a road connection is not something on which all residents agree. They worry that a connection would change the nature of coastal towns, making them more like suburbs than integral communities, raising housing costs, putting stress on local infrastructure and encouraging urban sprawl.
Whether or not the fixed coastal road study announcement amounts to more fact than fiction, it does raise the question: what kind of city do residents want Powell River to be?
