Jordan Sturdy, Liberal MLA for West Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky, has strong family ties to the Lower Sunshine Coast. In a column that recently appeared in The Squamish Chief, Sturdy wrote that it was in Roberts Creek, at the family cottage and on the beach with friends, “that I first remember the lamenting of BC Ferries’ service to the Sunshine Coast.” The refrain, he said, was, “Why, oh why, don’t they just build a road?”
The column is a folksy political pitch for the province’s fixed-link study and the much-talked-about informed discussion with the public that the province has been holding out like a carrot since last September.
What I find disturbing about a BC government representative just talking about talking is that it seems like an illogical and therefore highly questionable approach.
The feasibility of a highway extension from Squamish, or bridges across Howe Sound or a tunnel beneath it, is dependent on cost; period. How much would it cost to build? How much would a toll cost users? And, most importantly, is the BC government willing to commit the dollars necessary if the affected communities show strong support for such a measure?
If the answer to the dollar question is no, as it was with the Gabriola Island fixed-link study earlier this year, then the exercise is finished before it started and there is nothing that needs to be said.
Then we can go back to that other, more common Sunshine Coast refrain that Sturdy neglects to mention in his column: fix the broken ferry system.
If the answer is yes, if the government is willing to commit the dollars, then there is indeed plenty to talk about.
But until the basic questions about cost and political will are answered, the promise of an informed discussion seems like a cynical ploy, a divide-and-conquer strategy and a way of taking the heat off the dreadful BC Ferries service (which Sturdy’s government is 100 per cent responsible for) in the months leading up to next spring’s provincial election.
Victoria is spending $250,000 on this production. Had no consultant been hired and Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure staff been instead tasked with answering the key questions, we could have had the information months ago.
Our time and money have already been wasted. Let’s get on with it.
John Gleeson is the editor of the Coast Reporter, based in Sechelt.
