The economic impact of the ferry system stretches well beyond impacts to coastal communities and, in an era of rising fares and increasingly limited services, those impacts come at a high price. So says “The Botswains to the Bollards,” an 89 page research paper commissioned by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) and the Association of Vancouver Island & Coastal Communities in response to concerns about the changes announced to BC Ferries in November 2013, and the fact that they were implemented without any kind of socio-economic impact analysis.
The report establishes not only that there is a strong correlation between rising fares and dropping ridership (11 percent over all, between 2003 and 2013). It also states that for every $1 of taxation revenues spent on BC Ferries, $8.4 in economic activity is generated. Given the declines in ridership in the decade following 2003, this means that $2.3 billion has been lost in BC over the same period. The report also states that BC Ferries generates $210 million in annual tax revenues for the federal government, $150 million to the provincial government, and $34.2 million to municipal governments.
Based on these and other findings, the report recommends that the province approach the ferry system in a holistic manner, instead of taking “one-off” approaches to deal with a shortfall in revenue – and reverse the changes implemented in April 2014. Also, given the significant taxation and economic benefits created through BC Ferries, the report says that the province should be able to justify asking for more funding from the federal government.
Islands Trust chair Sheila Malcolmson was a part of the select committee with the UBCM that commissioned this report.
“I am pleased with the results of this study,” she says. “The proof of correlation between fare-hikes and decline in ridership, well, that’s a big problem for those of us living in fare-dependent communities, but I think that it strengthens our lobbying position with the province.”
Malcolmson says that to her, the report also confirms her belief that island communities are resilient.
“I look back at when I started this job, in 2003, and the islands were booming. The development pressures were huge. Then, things really cut-off with the crash in the markets in 2008 and we’ve been in a period since then that can look pretty bleak. There are places, like Saturna for example with a population of 300, that suffers immensely if a single family decides to leave. We can see how these communities have been hit particularly hard by the downturn. On the other hand you have some islands where the commercial zone has expanded, giving people a reason to shop locally instead of heading to Vancouver Island to go to Costco. The consultant who wrote this report made it clear, that we can’t blame low housing prices, and the number of houses on the market entirely on the ferry system.”
What will make this report an effective lobbying tool, says Malcolmson, is the fact that it makes the way BC Ferries is run a provincial issue.
“Over the past six months, coastal communities have received a lot of support from communities in the interior,” she says. “I think there is a realization that British Columbia as a whole faces a lot of transportation challenges due to geography, and that investing in transportation is important. For a community in the mountains, maintaining road access by road creation and avalanche clearing is as important as ferries are for us.”
Bowen councillor Andrew Stone says that, for him, the report confirms the suspicions of most people who’ve lived on Bowen for any length of time.
“For those of us who were here in 2000, we remember a time when you could buy ten tickets to drive onto the ferry for $10. Now, with the Experience Card, you only get three trips. As the fares have risen over the past decade, we’ve seen a definite shift in the way people use the ferries. We’ve crossed a threshold, and everyone knew this was happening and there was a lot of screaming about it, but BC Ferries just wasn’t listening to us.”
Stone does not agree with Malcolmson on the impact of the ferry system of island communities, or on her interpretation of the section on real estate prices.
“Here on Bowen, we’re still doing a lot better, economically, than most of the islands. We have a proximity to Vancouver to thank for that,” he says. “On the other hand, that proximity should mean our housing prices would have a much tighter connection to what’s happening in Vancouver, but that hasn’t happened. In Vancouver, we’ve seen white hot prices in the past few years. Here on Bowen our real estate is trending downward much like the other coastal communities. In that same period, there has been a lot of media attention on the ferry system, and all of it has been negative.”
Stone says he believes that if the members of UBCM get behind this report, it could be a game-changer on the ferries issue.
“But we shouldn’t bank on it, we have to take charge of our own destiny. Here on Bowen we have that option, and our transportation committee is working on things, like a water taxi service, working with TransLink, and much more. An economic reality of life on Bowen is that you’re looking at a base-price of $45 just to get affordable groceries. On Gabriola, they’ve addressed that problem, and people are shopping on-island more, we need to look at those kind of solutions, too.”
The membership of the UBCM will be meeting in Whistler next week to discuss this and other issues of importance to local governments. Members of Bowen’s council will be there as well.
