There’s nothing like an “informed debate” over something that will never happen to split a community in two and draw attention away from a legitimate issue affecting the common good.
That’s what happened to Gabriola Island, after Transportation Minister Todd Stone’s promise of an “informed debate” on a fixed link was announced in 2014.
Two tempestuous years later, the Gabriola Island fixed link feasibility study commissioned by Stone’s ministry has been released – and the upshot was entirely predictable.
While technically possible, a bridge replacing the ferry to Gabriola would cost between $258 million and $520 million and is therefore not economically feasible. As well, the study said, a bridge would likely fundamentally alter island identity, would emit almost three times as much greenhouse gases as a ferry over 25 years, and would face significant archeological and environmental challenges.
“There is simply not enough compelling evidence to proceed with further work on a fixed link to Gabriola Island,” Stone concluded this week. “Our goal is [to] ensure coastal communities are connected in an affordable, efficient and sustainable manner. This study shows that continuation of a coastal ferry service for Gabriola Island residents is the best way to achieve that goal.”
One NDP MLA from Vancouver Island said the Clark government owes Gabriola residents an apology for squandering $200,000 on the feasibility study, but the government probably feels the money was very well spent.
Along with the Sunshine Coast, Gabriola Island in 2014 was among the most committed coastal communities in the fight to reform BC Ferries and make it part of the provincial highway system. Not only was that energy and drive sidelined by the fixed link distraction – now the community is deeply divided on transportation issues owing to the useless bridge debate.
The Sunshine Coast is more than a year behind Gabriola in its “fixed link” timetable. Indeed, a consultant has yet to be named to undertake the study. Once launched, we can expect plenty of community engagement about the merits of island-hopping bridges and highways that zig and zag through Howe Sound’s north shore wilderness. We can expect all kinds of insights about what they do in Norway, the equity of tolls and the efficacy of tunnels under the sea. We can expect an aggressive fixed link lobby that will decry the “naysayers” and their stunted vision of the future.
In the end, however, we can expect to be told (likely after the next provincial election) that, while technically possible, a fixed link replacing the ferry to Langdale is simply not economically feasible.
Then it will be back to square one with BC Ferries and business as usual.
In the meantime, let’s not take the fixed link exercise so seriously that it exhausts and divides us as a community. Why let the B.C. government off the hook that easily?
