Regional district chairs from coastal communities were left high and dry when the province announced service cuts to BC Ferries four days before a critical meeting scheduled with MLA Jordan Sturdy, Sunshine Coast Regional District chair Garry Nohr said Tuesday.
"What really bothered us most is we felt strongly we were making headway with Jordan Sturdy, and then the meeting was cancelled. That was the first form of trust that we had noticed. To remove that caused a lot of dismay," Nohr said.
The chairs were expecting to meet with Sturdy on Nov. 22 to offer ideas to avert service reductions. Instead the meeting was cancelled and the cuts were announced on Nov. 18, without the final input from the chairs.
Meeting with Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) officials in Nanaimo on Nov. 19, Nohr said the chairs from hard-hit communities did not pull any punches.
"There was anger coming out of people, especially the islands and northern coast. Ours is just a slight change on Sunday -40 trips during the winter. The other areas, some of them got really whacked," Nohr said.
"Some are very desperate, and there will be protests at the consultation process. Some say it will just decimate their economy."
During Monday's announcement, Transportation Minister Todd Stone said the province was moving forward with the cuts, but the current round of public consultation would give communities an opportunity to "tweak" the plan.
At the Nanaimo meeting, Nohr said, MOTI officials "weren't very clear" about what the minister's statement meant.
"They wouldn't explain what tweaking was," he said.
Nohr said the regional district chairs also questioned the government's projected savings. One example was cutting the seniors' passenger discount from 100 per cent to 50 per cent, which could result in less vehicle traffic and lower utilization rates.
"They were asked, 'In the long run, do you really think you're going to achieve $6 million?' There's a lot of ifs here," he said.
Barry Cavens, chair of the southern Sunshine Coast ferry advisory committee, said he was disappointed there had been no research on the impacts of the service cuts before they were announced.
In the case of Route 3 (Langdale to Horseshoe Bay), he said, a survey of passengers should have been carried out before a decision was made to cut the first Sunday morning sailing during the off-peak season.
"I don't think anyone understands what the impacts are. There could be nurses working at the hospital, sports teams, shift workers. I think we need some research," said Cavens, who also met Tuesday with his counterparts and MOTI officials in Nanaimo for a briefing on the planned cuts.
Attending Monday's media briefing, BC Ferries CEO Mike Corrigan said the cuts would mean reduced hours for workers on the affected routes.
"Obviously with $19 million in service cuts, the majority is going to come out in fuel and labour," Corrigan said.
Other measures announced Monday include introducing slot machines on the Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay run as a pilot project to assess gaming as a permanent revenue generating program.
New customer service technology, expected to be in place between 2015 and 2017, could open the door for pricing initiatives, "which means that fares in sailings at less busy times could cost less and fares on sailings at busier times could cost more," according to the province's discussion guide.
While Stone said some measures being implemented had public support during last year's consultation process, he flatly rejected the most common argument expressed on the Sunshine Coast and in many other coastal communities.
"The B.C. government does not view ferries as part of the highway system. They're two very different systems," Stone said, adding that the province spends $400 million a year on highways, "while it costs almost $525 million to operate BC Ferries."
Powell River - Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons said the minister was "mixing apples and oranges" by quoting only the maintenance cost of highways while including capital costs for the ferry system.
"They're setting up false arguments and they're ignoring the real ones," Simons said.
