Over the summer, Bowen Islanders for Ferry Fairness (BIFF) continued advocating for and facilitating change in transportation services on Bowen Island.
The focus this season shifted from protest to conversation.
In July, Melanie Surtees Mason of BIFF was appointed by mayor and council to the Bowen Island Municipality Transportation Advisory Committee (BIMTAC).
We were also invited to meet with BC Ferries (BCF) to discuss home-porting, we are helping to promote two-lane loading of the ferry during the midlife upgrade (MLU) of the Queen of Capilano, and we attended the BCF annual general meeting.
What is home-porting? Simply put, it’s when a vessel is docked overnight in the community it serves, a practice that could offer significant cost savings and therefore fewer service cuts.
Earlier this year, Gordon Ganong (also chair of the BIM Economic Development Committee) prepared an analysis of home-porting options, sent it to MLA Jordan Sturdy, and copied it to our mayor and members of BIMTAC. Given no response, BIFF planning group members Melissa Harrison, Melanie Surtees Mason, and Maureen Nicholson reworked the report to focus more specifically on the BCF mandate.
BIFF then forwarded the report directly to BC Ferries and, along with invited guest Alison Morse (chair of the Bowen Island Ferry Advisory Committee), met on July 23 with David Hendry (director of strategic planning), Colin Harris (executive director of employee relations), and Peter Simpson (director of fleet operational strategy).
BC Ferries’ response was thoughtful, respectful, and detailed. Although home-porting is the practice in a number of other communities, there are barriers to its introduction on Bowen, including disrupting the workforce elsewhere in the organization. In the short run, it does not appear to be an option for our community, but in the longer term, it may be feasible.
Others share BIFF’s interest in home-porting. Ferries Commissioner Gord Macatee recently identified home-porting as one of four areas to be examined in this fall’s series of BC Ferries performance reviews.
BIFF’s time with BCF senior management also allowed for conversation about communication, passenger ferries, and electric ferries. We offered to help get news out to the community and to our membership (now nearing 300). BCF confirmed it is looking into potential passenger-ferry service providers for the MLU. And we told BCF about Norway’s innovative electric ferry, a ferry that can carry 360 passengers and 120 vehicles on runs of up to 30 minutes.
Both parties came away from the meeting with a number of follow-up items.
BIFF is also helping to promote a marshalling proposal intended to deal with overloads during the MLU of the Queen of Capilano. The proposal was written by two Bowen parents who are concerned about their children’s safety.
While the proposal was warmly received by many in the community, by Cove businesses open during morning peak sailings, and by some members of council, BIMTAC chair Adam Holbrook did not permit one of the parents to attend a meeting to present the proposal more fully and to answer questions. A delegation to council is now being pursued to allow the parent to make his presentation.
Both the home-porting report and the two-lane loading proposal are posted in our Facebook group (“BIFF: Bowen Islanders for Ferry Fairness”) and on our website (https://sites.google.com/site/biffonbowen/).
As well, BIFF attended the BCF annual general meeting on Friday, August 22, at SFU at Harbour Centre. For BCF, the financial news is good: net earnings are $18 million, up $2.5 million over the prior year. “Customer satisfaction” is reported at 87%. And while BCF president Mike Corrigan mentioned “affordability” on a few occasions, he distinguished what he saw as the mandates of BC Ferries, the provincial government, and the ferry commissioner. His message was essentially to take concerns about rate hikes and community impact to the provincial government and the ferry commissioner. There was no mention of Bowen Island in the formal presentation, though one Islander asked about poor TransLink connections. Adam Holbrook followed up on that question, along with complimenting BCF on providing an opportunity to meet with local FACs before the AGM each year.
So, the business is thriving, even if the coastal communities are not, with ridership at its lowest level in 23 years. Also on Friday BCF released its first quarter report (April to June 2014) showing that net earnings have tripled, increasing from $4.3 million to $13.9 million. The Vancouver Sun characterized this accomplishment as “sailing through smooth seas.”
NDP ferries critic Claire Trevena had another take on the AGM and the increased earnings. In response to an online question from BIFF, she wrote in the Facebook group “Our Marine Highway” that there was “little scrutiny [at the AGM]. Interesting first quarter earnings with profit for BC Ferries thanks to the fares...exploiting users of the marine highway!” Gabriola Ferry Advisory Committee Chair John Hodgkins added, “It’s the highlights that feature, with little being said about the underlying concerns that we hear from ferry users all year. More scrutiny to come, according to the ferry commissioner.” (For Hodgkins’s excellent summary of the year ahead, see http://gabriolafac.com/2014/08/23/year-of-scrutiny-ahead-for-bc-ferries/.)
With the launch of the BCF performance reviews this fall, BIFF and other coastal community groups are anticipating moving back to protest mode.
