Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) chairs say hikes in ferry fares are resulting in declining ridership and revenue for B.C. Ferries and may mean more fare hikes will be needed in the future.
But, they say, with better funding from the province, like the 33 per cent fare reduction in December and January, ridership will go up.
The FAC is reacting to numbers in an annual report by B.C. Ferries that shows a five per cent drop in ridership over the last fiscal year.
"They've got all the excuses - the downturn in the economy, the Americans are not coming up here, and so on, but there is nothing mentioned that high fares actually cause disincentives to travel by ferry," said Jakob Knaus, FAC chair for the Sunshine Coast.
"We feel very strongly that lower fares would increase ridership. What we really agitate for is that the fares should not increase more than the cost of living index."
The cost of living index goes up about two to 2.5 per cent per year.
Knaus said if that were the case, fares would have gone up by about 12 per cent since B.C. Ferries was established as a private corporation.
"But the fares on our route have gone up about 70 per cent, and on some of the smaller routes, they have gone up by over 100 per cent. As a consequence, people are reducing their discretionary travel," he said.
Knaus said the 33 per cent reduction did bring an increase in ridership for the company in January, though poor weather in December prevented many people from getting out of their driveways, let alone using the ferries.
Knaus said the fare hikes are mostly due to increased capital costs for B.C. Ferries that have been adding new ships to the fleet.
He added it was unfair that taxpayers across the province are paying for the $1-billion improvements on the Sea-to-Sky highway, but the new ferry costs are being placed on ferry riders only. He said he would prefer to see ferry riders pay for operating costs and the province pay for capital costs.
"We argue the ferry run from Langdale to Horseshoe Bay is our highway and it should be treated as any other highway," Knaus said in an interview Monday.
