BC’s government has invested a considerable amount of money and time to prepare for a broad public consultation process about coastal ferry service. However, the framework for the discussion is skewed in favour of the outcome the government wants.
The information, discussion points and questions are all based on the premise that BC Ferries is losing money. The fact that the ferry system is a service to provide reliable and affordable public transportation for isolated, coastal communities seems to be a point lost on the government. People who take part in the consultation are being guided to the idea that reducing service is the best response to rising costs and decreasing ridership.
In explaining the process, Mary Polak, minister of transportation and infrastructure, said the government had elevated the discussion to the issue of principles, but the basic principle—that the ferry system is an extension of the highway system for all those communities who are ferry-dependent —seems left out of the discussion.
The mandate of the ferry service is to move people and goods as safely, frequently, and affordably as possible. There is no explanation in the material provided by the province of why it treats coastal ferries differently from other basic transportation infrastructure. While the government asks residents if they support cable ferries, passenger-only service, bridges, property-tax increases or fuel-tax hikes, it doesn’t ask what the province’s role in coastal ferries should be.
The province has provided pages and pages of charts and graphs about fare increases, utilization percentages for each sailing on all routes and revenues and costs for each route, but failed to put the numbers into context with other forms of transportation it supports, including the still-free inland ferries, roads and bridges. The very word it uses, “shortfall,” presupposes the routes are expected to make money, yet the ferry system is infrastructure for public transportation, just like roads and bridges.
Ferry fares are now beyond the tipping point of being affordable, yet the government’s consultation process is designed to cut service, which will land another blow to ferry-dependent communities. Ferries are the lifeblood of coastal communities, which are, after all, part of the province and contributors to government coffers.
Coastal communities can take some solace in the fact that decisions on which sailings to cut are likely to be made later, rather than sooner. Polak said the decisions on service reductions are likely to be made after the May 14, 2013 provincial election, which is not a surprise given the predictable outcry that will ensue.
