A Nanaimo company has agreed to purchase Lady Rose Marine Services and continue the ferry service from Port Alberni to remote communities along the Alberni Inlet and the west coast.
Devon Transport Ltd. said the acquisition will allow the service to go on uninterrupted. It had been scheduled to end at month’s end after owner Mike Surrell said the effects of the pandemic hit the company hard.
Devin Transport operates 28 Budget Rent A Car & Truck locations and self-storage operations with more than 175 employees throughout B.C., including Port Alberni.
After a meeting late last week, Devon Transport reached an agreement in principle with current Lady Rose Marine Services owners Mike and Pauline Surrell to purchase their business holdings, retain Surrell and his entire team and continue uninterrupted service.
In a statement, Devon Transport owners Greg Willmon and Barrie Rogers said the ferry service was “far too valuable to the region and one that was deeply relied upon by the remote communities and businesses of the inlet and sound.”
Willmon and Rogers are originally from Nanaimo and Victoria, respectively, and both currently reside in Nanaimo.
Surrell was happy to see a deal. “We fully understand the ramifications of this ship stopping service and the impact it would make in Port Alberni and the Barkley Sound,” he said Tuesday in a statement. “We are proud to be able to continue helping the new owners in making this company the success it was pre-COVID.”
Earlier story
A tentative deal has been brokered to buy Lady Rose Marine Services, considered a lifeline to remote communities and isolated lodges for its deliveries of essential goods and tourists to the Bamfield area. The service had planned to shut down Aug. 31, citing financial and staffing problems due to the pandemic.
Bob Beckett, director for the electoral area of Bamfield for the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District, said the eleventh hour deal is a great relief.
“I was not optimistic yesterday, that we were going to be able to make a lot of headway,” Beckett said Monday evening. “So, this was exceptionally good news that there’s this potential buyer in the wings.”
A meeting was held Monday to find interim solutions to save the service, a mainstay on the Alberni Inlet and west coast of the Island for 75 years, delivering freight, medical supplies and passengers to tourism spots and isolated lodges and communities.
People at the meeting included Mid Island-Pacific Rim MLA Josie Osborne, who is also minister of municipal affairs, Huu-ay-aht Chief Councillor Robert Dennis Sr., company owner Mike Surrell, the prospective buyer who has not been named, representatives from Island Health, Canada Post, the Transportation Ministry, Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre and the Bamfield community.
Beckett said the regional district and the Huu-ay-aht First Nations and all who attended the meeting are extremely optimistic there will be no disruption to the “essential community service.”
A formal announcement is expected as early as Wednesday.
It is “wonderful news for our communities,” said Beckett, who is a seasonal resident of the area.
“I know just how important this vital marine transportation service has been to people in Barkley Sound, and the province has provided financial support to it for decades,” Osborne said in a statement. “Today’s meeting was extremely encouraging, and I’ll continue to do everything I can to work with the local communities and stakeholders to help keep people connected to the goods and services they rely on.”
The passenger and freight service, using the MV Frances Barkley, makes regular stops at the coastal villages of Bamfield and Anacla, delivering building supplies, groceries, mail and medical supplies such as lab tests and bloodwork, and ferrying students to the marine sciences centre.
Dennis Sr. said many seniors in Anacla — the Huu-ay-aht village with a population of about 150 — and others don’t have vehicles and rely on the service to deliver many things, including groceries, which they order from Port Alberni stores. Deliveries also help supply the grocery store in Bamfield. And the mail service is “instrumental and badly needed in our community,” he said.
The Bamfield logging road that connects Bamfield to Port Alberni and the rest of Vancouver Island is being upgraded after decades of requests from the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. Chip sealing is expected to start in coming weeks, said Dennis Sr., but even when all the upgrades are finished in the fall of 2023, the marine service will still be essential, he said.
