Coastal community residents vented years of frustration about B.C. Ferries at a demonstration on Tuesday, but rally-goers and the government seem to be talking past each other.
Transportation Minister Todd Stone insisted the upcoming service cuts are easily justifiable, given the paltry ridership on some routes.
But most of the agitation at the rally was more about the never-ending fare increases. It’s the high fares that most people are upset about.
Whatever economic analysis goes into establishing the price point where increases start hurting revenue rather than increasing it, B.C. Ferries seems to have passed it.
Ridership is never going to grow as it used to under the current fare structure. And even after little-used routes are curtailed, the ferry system is never going to post robust numbers without increased ridership.
So even while B.C. Liberals were lambasted on the legislature lawn for “toasting the coast,” they’ve been forced to pour more subsidies into the system than ever before.
The prevailing view at the rally was that the subsidy should be a simple fact of life, the ferries should be part of the highway system and they should sail on, with taxpayers making up the shortfalls every year.
A number of speakers pointed out that drivers bound for Whistler aren’t dinged directly for the cost of the Sea to Sky highway. Residents of Kamloops (where Stone is from) have been driving the Coquihalla toll-free for the past several years. And Premier Christy Clark’s Westside-Kelowna constituents don’t pay to cross the bridge over Okanagan Lake.
But ferry fares go up relentlessly, fuel surcharges creep up and services get curtailed. Stone insisted on Tuesday that the cuts are justified. “There are too many ferries with utilization rates in the low teens and single digits,” he told reporters.
He also defended the downscaling of the Discovery Coast circle tour. The full-sized ferry covering the Port Hardy-Bella Coola portion will be replaced by the smallest ship in the fleet, the 16-car MV Nimpkish.
With a number of costs loaded into the accounting for that route, he said the 500 vehicles carried on the run during the summer season are heavily subsidized.
“We welcome tourism but I’m not sure British Columbians think it’s affordable to subsidize tourists to the tune of $2,500 a vehicle.”
He said there is support for stopping unsustainable sailings.
That might be so. But the point made by nearly everyone with a sign outside was that the fares are too high. The service cuts are designed to mitigate the size of the fare increases.
No one has plans to lower fares.
The other widespread view at the demonstration was that B.C. Ferries should be brought back under direct government control.
But it already is. The corporation’s independence started eroding four years ago, when the Liberals began asserting themselves over issues such as executive pay. The downsizing plan is entirely a government creation. Stone is effectively the minister of ferries. The only part of the corporation outside of government now is the billion-dollar-plus debt, which is just the way they want it.
Tuesday’s rally prompted no immediate course changes.
The route reductions will begin next month on the smaller routes. Further curtailments are in store later on the major runs.
But the gathering brought all the disparate islanders together, some meeting each other for the first time. So it could be the starting point for subsequent moves yet to come.
Just So You Know: The highlight of the rally was the airing of a radio clip in which a media personality made a forceful, indignant case that ferries shouldn’t be separate from the highway system, and that fares had passed the price point.
“At this rate, how long will it be before they abandon the routes where they don’t make any money? How long before the provincial government abandons its responsibility to provide a public service?”
That would be, of course, Christy Clark, as a radio host in 2008.
It was the only applause she got all day.
