In three weeks time, Bowen Islanders will experience yet another increase in the cost of their ferry trips – this time, by 4.1 percent. Many coastal communities are organizing protests and strategies to show their dissatisfaction with the situation.
Councillor Melanie Mason wants the Transportation Advisory Committee (BIMTAC) to be offered some direction in terms of engaging the community on this issue, and measuring the impact of this next round of fare increases. However, Councillor Alison Morse delayed the discussion of this matter until March 23 by being the only council member to vote against putting the item on Monday’s council meeting agenda.
Asked why she voted against tabling Councillor Mason’s resolution at Monday’s meeting, Morse said it was simply a matter of procedure.
“Council should be given 24 hours notice if something is going to be on the agenda, and that is a procedure I always follow,” says Morse. “There was nothing urgent about that resolution, it did not need to be addressed immediately.”
However, councillor Maureen Nicholson, who helped draft the resolution, believed there was some urgency in the matter.
“Ferry fare increases are coming April 1. It is important that Bowen stand with other coastal communities on service cuts and ferry hikes,” says Nicholson. “I think that BIMTAC needs a higher profile in the community and to be more active in fulfilling terms of reference. The motion was aimed at those two things.”
For Mason, this delay exemplifies the need to change both BIMTAC’s structure and terms of reference.
“Right now, BIMTAC is short one member but council has been consistently delayed on voting finding someone to fill that space. Because of that, we have not been able to hold a vote on who should be the chair and co-chair of BIMTAC,” says Mason. “The Committee Chair has been away for the past month, and the co-chair, seems to drag her heels on every issue making it nearly impossible for us to address issues in a timely manner.”
Councillor Mason points to repeated incidents where she feels her efforts to address Bowen’s transportation issues have faced some unnecessary hurdles..
In the council meeting on February 10, with Councillor Morse as acting Mayor, Mason says she used a Notice of Motion to ensure that transit issues made it onto the agenda. Mason says this was the right way to go because it resulted in a Council discussion and two important resolutions were unanimously passed. The first asked council to meet with TransLink to discuss the possibility of extending the service of the downtown Express Bus beyond the period of the Queen of Capilano’s midlife refit. The second requested that CAO Kathy Lalonde set up a meeting to discuss the Express Bus with operator Peter King. This meeting will occur on March 17th and will hopefully be followed by a meeting with MLA Jordan Sturdy.
“At our January meeting BIMTAC did not seem to be taking much leadership in exploring the possibility of extending the Express Bus service. They showed little interest in sending a request to council on the matter. I felt it was important enough to do whatever I could to get council to address this in a timely manner and before the window of opportunity closes.”
Also in the January 10 meeting, council unanimously passed a resolution asking staff to work with BIMTAC on a survey to collect information from Bowen Island transit users.
“But even moving this forward has been slow. Ken Simpson and I wrote a draft of that survey. When the draft survey was included on the Jan 10th agenda to council members, councillor Morse voiced her desire to make some amendments, and they have been slow to come through.”
Mason also points to comments made by Morse on CBC Radio’s call-in show BC Almanac several weeks ago, where the BIMTAC co-chair commented on a petition with more than 20,000 signatures asking for BC Ferries to come back under the control of the Ministry of Transportation. Morse told host Gloria Macarenko that while increased funding is essential, a change in the structure of BC Ferries is not the answer. Mason says she has no problem with Morse’s personal opinion on the matter, but questions her decision to air that opinion publicly as the co-chair of BIMTAC.
“This matter was never discussed at BIMTAC, nor has BIMTAC engaged with the Bowen public on their thoughts on the matter,” says Mason. “Personally I think it was disappointing not to be standing in solidarity with other coastal communities on this matter especially when others are working so hard to advocate for fair and affordable ferry fares on behalf of all coastal communities. I know anecdotally a lot of Bowen residents signed that petition and Councillor Morse was not acknowledging that fact.“
In a meeting with CAO Kathy Lalonde and Municipal Planner Cari St. Pierre on February 25, councillors Mason, Morse and Sue Ellen Fast came up with a draft plan of what a re-structured BIMTAC might look like. The committee would be made up of a minimum of three councilors, one member of staff and four members of the public. These members of the public would come from two working groups: one dealing with local transportation and the other dealing with commuting issues.
Mason says that such a structure would allow for greater public input on transportation matters, and would allow members of the public to focus specifically on their area of interest.
Ultimately, however, Mason says council needs to move forward on amending BIMTAC’s terms of reference to include, among other changes, an increase of Committee members and set a firm and strong course for BIMTAC.
“Since June, BIMTAC, has been focusing on mitigation strategies for the Mid Life Upgrade of the Queen of Capilano and to be fair to the committee it came up with what has proven to be a some really workable ideas,” says Mason. “Yet there are many transportation issues not being addressed and BIMTAC is drifting without any clear direction. We are going to have to be very pro-active in the future if we are to be addressing and advocating for transportation services that meet the community needs. Important issues are being pushed to the wayside, and I believe the community expects that someone at the municipality is actually advocating strongly to find solutions. So, I will continue to push, in whatever way I can, to make sure that things actually get addressed and action taken in an open and transparent manner.”
BIMTAC will be meeting with BC Ferries this Friday via telephone conference call to get an update on how the Mid Life Upgrade is proceeding.
