BC’s “nautical” highway system – BC Ferries

By now everyone has heard the news we could be seeing possible increases of ten to fifty percent in rates for passengers and vehicles using the BC Ferry system.

Several years ago the government took steps to try and divorce themselves from direct hands-on control; however they now find themselves back in the thick of things courtesy of BC Ferries President and Chief Executive Officer, David Hahn.

In a story this week in the Victoria Times Colonist, columnist Les Layne stated:

After divorcing B.C. Ferries from government to avoid the horror of "political interference," Liberals must be a bit choked to find the interference is still going on.  Only now it's running in the opposite direction.

The strange hybrid "publicly owned private corporation" was set up in 2003 to keep politicians away from the ferry system. One of the reviews that led to the big makeover found B.C. Ferries "entangled in a web of formal and informal accountability to ministries and politicians."  "Political interference ... pervades every important decision," the report found.

But now ferry boss David Hahn is mischievously getting involved in politics. He's pitched the idea of a subsidy increase into the middle of Liberal and NDP leadership races.

Now I have never really had a lot of need to make many trips to Vancouver Island as I have lived all my adult life in the BC Interior.  Other than a decade or so of perverse / direct government interference in the roads I drive on (Coquihalla Toll) I have never paid a direct fee to drive the highways and back roads of the province.

People use the ferries to get back and forth for work – for medical appointments … to visit family and friends … to go on vacation.  So tell me … are the ‘decks’ of BC Ferries an extension of the highway system or not? 

People drive from one end of Kamloops to the other, on several different highways that criss-cross the community, and there is no fee or charge to do so.  We, and others from around the province, from other areas of the country, and from the United States also use those same highways to get to and from areas we want to vacation in.

The ‘paved” part of BC’s Highway system is paid for by fuel taxes, personal taxes, and general government revenue.  Should the ferry system not be the same?

If not, should it work the same as BC Transit perhaps, with a percentage picked up through funding by government, and the balance through user pay?  Is there another system or option we can look at?

One thing is certain, year after year BC Ferries continues to be a minefield for the government.  Perhaps it’s time to make a decision that funding for ferries needs to be calculated on a regular basis, so that whatever it costs to operate the system is what it gets through user pay and government tax revenues.

In the past governments have tried to blind us to actual costs by not adequately increasing -- on a regualr basis -- the revenues and fees (post secondary education, ICBC, Hydro, property taxes, drivers licenses, etc) needed.  I don’t know about you, but nothing makes me madder than to suddenly have a 15 or 20% increase in what I am paying for a service, rather than adjusting to a smaller amount each year.

Which is exactly why I find it frustrating that BC Ferries boss Hahn has indicated that ferry advisory committees and the Liberal government have know for three years that a large problem was looming.  

In his Times Colonist story Les Layne, stated the ferry advisory committees were saying:

"Only the provincial government can substantially reduce projected fares,” … and … “Ferry subsidies are modest compared with government support for other forms of transportation."

So what is the government’s basic subsidy towards the operations of the BC Ferry system --- it’s been frozen for nearly a decade now (2003) at $92million.  Meantime, how much have employee and management salaries increased by??? --- what about fuel costs --- along with all the other costs both large and small costs to operate the fleet.

For eight years now the Liberal government, and the management of BC Ferries, have do nothing to ensure proper funding of the “nautical portion” of our BC Highways system.  Doing it this way is insane.

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops, and those are the thoughts of one conservative.

PS … it is impossible to make a direct comparison between BC Transit and BC Ferries, however here is some information on the number of people carried by each, operating costs, and subsidies provided by the government.

The 2009 / 2010 Annual Report for BC Ferries stated that:

·         BC Ferries is one of the largest ferry operators in the world, providing year-round vehicle and passenger service on 25 routes, to 47 terminals, with a fleet of 36 vessels.

·         In fiscal 2010, BC Ferries carried 21.0 million passengers and 8.3 million vehicles throughout coastal British Columbia.

BC Transit website indicates that:

·         the government provides over $79.1 million annually to BC Transit which has annual expenditures of $252 million

·         Over 49 million passengers were carried in 2009 / 10 on a fleet of buses, minibuses, and vans